2017 11 01 starburst by Comics1

YEAR

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THE WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING MAGAZINE OF CULT ENTERTAINMENT

ISSUE

442

MOVIES TV GAMING AUDIO COMICS

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY

DOCTOR WHO

THE PUNISHER

BOOKS

NOVEMBER 2017 Printed In The UK

£4.99

PREDATOR

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ISSUE

442

CONTENTS 12

F E A T U R E S CHIEF JUSTICE 12 Heroes unite in the DCEU’s long-awaited Justice League. Find out what to expect in our preview. INFINITE CRISIS: EXPLORING THE PROBLEMS 18 OF THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE Even with some of the most famous and popular properties at their disposal, the cinematic DC world hasn’t got off to the greatest of starts. Let’s find out why. JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED Get up to speed with the various small screen cartoon adventures of DC’s flagship team over the years.

THE COMIC HISTORY OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE 28 Before you meet them on screen, delve into the origins, and ups and downs of the long-running comic book. MERCH IN A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN 32 Discover the weird and wonderful paraphernalia that has carried the JLA’s name and iconography in another of our patented merchandise spotlights. THERE’S A NEW DEVIL IN HELL’S KITCHEN 34 Following his appearance in Daredevil, we see what’s in store for Frank Castle as Marvel’s The Punisher hits Netflix.

IF IT BLEEDS: 30 YEARS OF PREDATOR 44 STARBURST takes a look back at the popular genre-mashup that’s an incredible three decades old! Get to the choppa! HACKED-OFF Get the low-down on the CBS TV series </SCORPION>.

NOON AT MIDNIGHT 50 The foremost British cyberpunk author Jeff Noon opens up about his latest novel A Man of Shadows. HORROR OBSCURA 55 The horror anthology Southbound comes under scrutiny in this month’s column. INDEPENDENTS DAY 59 Our regular profile of a rising talent focuses on Scott Lyus, director of the short film Echoes of the Passed. RAISING HIS PROFILE 70 We chat to writer/director Frank Merle about tackling the world of social media fame in his film #FromJennifer. WELCOME BACK TO ROYSTON VASEY 72 As The League of Gentlemen prepare to return to our TV screens, we look back at their history and some of the bizarre and wonderful characters they created.

HAIL, COHEN! 38 With the release of Suburbicon, the latest movie penned by the brothers, we take a look at the work of Joel and Ethan.

THE BEST OF THE WORST 76 To celebrate the release of The Disaster Artist, we take a look at ten films that are so bad they are terrible.

MASTER OF THRONES 42 The legendary George R. R. Martin chats all things Westeros and Wild Cards in our exclusive interview.

LAUREN JAMES 102 The author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe tells all about her work.

REgUlARS THINGS TO COME SAUCER SECTION

Subspace Relay Trekologist

BLUE BOX SECTION

Outside The Box Watching Doctor Who Just Not Cricket

CINEMA

Reviews

DVD & BLU-RAY

Reviews

AUDIO

Audiostatic OST Reviews

BOOKS

Brave New Words Coming Soon Book Wormhole Reviews Interview

COMICS

44 108

View From The Watchtower Reviews

ANIME

112

Anime-Nation

GAMES

116

Pixel Juice Retro Bytes Roll for Damage Reviews

MERCHANDISE

126

Wattoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Emporium

TV ZONE

128

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EDITORIAL

ISSUE

442

Welcome to STARBURST Issue 442!

NOVEMBER 2017

EDITORIAL

ART

Editor

Collectors’ Edition Cover Artist

Well, here we are - Issue 442 and no one’s dead! Not only have we managed to avoid the grim genre reaper, but we also have an issue covering the release of the Justice League on the big screen for the very first time. I started reading the Justice League of America comics back in the day. That old line-up would change many times, and every time it would rejuvenate the book. Everyone has a different era that they strongly associate with. Mine would probably be the Justice League International era by Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire, the first ‘self-aware’ incarnation, when comics began to grow up in the mid to late ‘80s. This was the strength of the JLA - it could always be reinvented, and the roster changed to represent characters that currently enjoy the zeitgeist.

MARK REIHILL

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

markreihill.com

jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com

Assistant Editor

Art Director

martin.unsworth@starburstmagazine.com

jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com

MARTIN UNSWORTH

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

Honorary Editor-in-Chief

Assistant Art Director

DEZ SKINN

SHAUNA ASKEW

Online Editor

shauna.askew@starburstmagazine.com

andrew.pollard@starburstmagazine.com

Assistant Designers

ANDREW POLLARD

JON ROBERTS DAVID CHESTERS

Reviews Editor JACK BOTTOMLEY Literary Editor ED FORTUNE

Now, I must be candid and admit to being overly critical (with damn good reason!), of the DC Extended Universe. Is Justice League going to redress some of the damage so far? Will this heavily re-edited and ‘Whedonised’ flick be the movie we have waited decades to see? We all genuinely hope so, and to celebrate we take a look at what we can expect from this important movie. We also look at what has gone wrong so far with these DC movies and take a look back at the original comics that spawned this saga.

PRESS

ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com

Press Liaison

Comics Editor GARETH EVANS

PHIL PERRY

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Audio Drama Editor TONY JONES

PLEASE SEND ALL PRESS RELEASES TO: press@starburstmagazine.com

Editorial Assistants

Please send all review materials to: STARBURST MAGAZINE, PO BOX 4508, MANCHESTER, M61 0GY

antony.jones@starburstmagazine.com KIERON MOORE TOM ACTON JOE ROYCE

As always, we have also managed to pack STARBURST with even more good stuff for your delectation. The League of Gentlemen are returning so why not have a look back at their work? We also preview The Punisher TV series and manage to have a chat with the magisterial George R. R. Martin. We even take a journey back in time to celebrate Predator’s thirtieth birthday. All this, your regular favourites, and much, much, more as we head towards Issue 443 next month -the Forty Year Anniversary Issue! Excited? We are. We just need you to join us.

THE GREATEST WRITING TEAM IN THE UNIVERSE Head Writer

PAUL MOUNT

paul.mount@starburstmagazine.com

Lead Writers JACK BOTTOMLEY, MICHAEL COLDWELL, DOMINIC CUTHBERT, GARETH EVANS, KATE FATHERS, ED FORTUNE, JOEL HARLEY, CHRIS JACKSON, CHRISTIAN JONES, TONY JONES, JOHN KNOTT, ANDREW MARSHALL, IAIN MCNALLY, KIERON MOORE, ROBIN PIERCE, ANDREW POLLARD, RYAN POLLARD, LEE PRICE, IAIN ROBERTSON, CALLUM SHEPHARD, JR SOUTHALL, NICK SPACEK, JOHN TOWNSEND, PETE TURNER, MARTIN UNSWORTH

Until next time, keep watching the weird and wonderful,

Contributors

Jordan Royce

TOM ACTON, JONATHAN ANDERSON, SOPHIE ATHERTON, JENNIE BAILEY, VANESSA BERBEN, PHIL BERESFORD, SIMON BESSON, NICK BLACKSHAW, CHRISTIAN BONE, JAMES BRIDCUT, FORD MADDOX BROWN, LARA BROWN, COURTNEY BUTTON, LUKE CHANNELL, SCOTT CLARK, TONY COWIN, DAVID CRAIG, ANNE DAVIES, ALISTER DAVISON, SPLEENY DOTSON, JENNIFER DREWETT, JONATHAN EDWARDS, JAMES EVANS, KIERAN FISHER, JD GILLAM, JOHN HIGGINS, TOMMY JAMES, ANIMAL JOHNS, ROBERT KEELING, CLAIRE LIM, JAYNE LUTWYCHE, ROBERT MARTIN, ROD MCCANCE, NEIL MCNALLY, FRED MCNAMARA, HAYDEN MEARS, CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, STUART MULRAIN, ANDREW MUSK, MARK NEWBOLD, DOC CHARLIE OUGHTON, JAMES HANTON, SOL HARRIS, PETE HIGGINSON, WARRICK HORSLEY, LAURA ROBINSON, GRANT KEMPSTER, WHITNEY SCOTT-BAIN, DANIEL SEDDON, CHLOE SMITH, MIKE SMITH, ADAM STARKEY, JON TOWLSON, LEONA TURFORD, RICHARD THOMAS, SCOTT VARNHAM, NIGEL WATSON, SAMANTHA WARD, MATT WELLS, IAN WHITE, THOMAS WINWARD, ZACK THE ZOMBABY

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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY

COLLECTORS’ EDITION

DOCTOR WHO

THE PUNISHER

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FEEDBACK You can write to STARBURST via snail mail: STARBURST MAGAZINE, PO Box 4508, Manchester, M61 0GY or email: letters@starburstmagazine.com WE’ll alWaYs BE toGEtHEr... Just read Kieron Moore’s review of Electric Dreams, and boy did it make me feel old. Firstly, the only review of that film ever to not mention the excellent Phil Oakey theme tune, probably a bigger hit than the movie, and possibly the reason I went to see it. Oh how poor great cultural moments fade... Secondly, the idea that the whole AI thing must have seemed weird back in the ‘80s because computers were so new and pathetic, made out of stone, with one of the Flintstones inside powering them... We’d grown up with HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the droids from Star Wars and Deep Thought from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Not only did the idea these new fangled personal computers might grow up one day to develop their own personalities and minds not seem weird, but most of us are surprised it still hasn’t actually happened yet. Regards, James McConnon, VIA EMAIL Ahhh... but are you sure it hasn’t already happened? When these AI take on a humanoid form, I wonder what kind of hair they will select...

to BolDlY WatCH I really enjoyed Star Trek Discovery, I watched the first two episodes The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars, the writing was very well done, the action got going in Episode Two, brings back memories of DS9’s Dominion War or Enterprise’s Xindi battle. I’m glad there was two episodes to watch, but still left me hanging wanting more because not all the characters are seen until Episode Three, as well as the ship itself Discovery. Plus, if you want light hearted comedy/ episodic stories The Orville is a perfect companion to Discovery. Martin Revitt, VIA EMAIL

We also saw parallells between things from these first 2 episodes of Star Trek Discovery and elements from the brilliant (but underated) Xindi centric season 3 of Enterprise. Let’s hope it carries on in a strong way as Enterprise did throughout that arc. It seems quite a lot of the early doubters had their minds changed from STD Episode 3, the show certainly seems to be getting on the right track... or course! We’re still not sure about those Klingons, though. Also, with Star Trek being flavour of the month again and all the different series’ on Netflix, perhaps more people will check out Enterprise if they didn’t give it much of a chance the first time round. sHH... it film I was quite looking forward to my Cineworld visit to see the new interpretation of IT. I’d enjoyed the book years previously and rented the TV miniseries on home video back in the day and with great reviews all over the shop, I anticipated a fun afternoon. Indeed 10 out of 10 from STARBURST. But no… Sorry guys, I just can’t get on board with this. There were horror film clichés one after another. I mean - traipsing into an abandoned dodgy house not once but twice was not the only unlikely occurrence. At least on the second occasion they took some weapons but they still had no real plan for defeating the big bad. Indeed, only its need to go into hibernation saved their bacon. The film decided to concentrate on the children leading the story, saving their grown up experiences for the follow up film. Although the kids were played realistically (and indeed well) the older characters were mere ciphers perhaps to emphasise the feeling of the leads being on their own with no support. Eddie’s mum never felt that real. Even her prosthetic make up was right out of Back to the Future Part 2. I couldn’t sympathise with Mrs. Denbrough either. Her parenting skills include playing the piano rather than keeping an eye on her youngest who goes out playing in the pouring rain apparently on a regular basis. I think she might also put her mind to sorting out the basement lighting issues, which clearly caused her son great trauma. At the conclusion of the

7 film, Beverley is still wandering around with her friends. She mentions going to stay with an aunt but shouldn’t Derry’s children’s services have been more proactive in dealing with her considering her father is brutally killed, perhaps even by her? Everyone’s parents or guardians were nasty and brutal in a simplistic way. The adults of Derry aren’t glowing roll models here and their portrayal makes me wonder how the follow up film (assuming it concentrates on the grown up leads) can represent a more realistic adult world and still be ‘canon’. Of course, once one feels at odds with the film every little detail starts to jar. No ladders to clean up the ceiling of the blooded bathroom. Mike apparently scuttling down an ally to escape some bullies - but that’s where he was going all along, etc. Hey-ho, I haven’t disagreed with one of your reviews so much since Society back in 1989 - sorry couldn’t get my head around that film either (Not on your watch I know). Seems I’m in the minority here with my reaction but felt it necessary to share my views as I really don’t buy a 10 out of 10 rating. Andrew Naish, VIA LUTON Martin says: We totally get what you’re saying. Not everyone has the same opinion here, either (our writers are allowed their own voice, though with no editorial interference). Personally, I’d like to know why the kids were allowed to just dump their bikes around willy-nilly. If I was one of those dysfunctional parents, they’d get a bloody good clip around the ear! Having said that, I do like Society. Each to their own, eh?

BlaDE stuNNErs I’ve just come out from seeing Blade Runner 2049 and just had to comment on the depiction of women in it. Not only are we faced with gigantic naked holograms but it appears most of the female roles are there to serve the men, either sexually or domestically. Even the replicants! The only strong genuine female characters were K’s boss (who appears to want to seduce him most of the time) and the villainess Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), who is just doing the bidding of her male gaffer. I would have thought that no matter how dystopian our future gets, we’ll have a better balance by then! Or maybe I’m just going crazy? Now I’m not one who subscribes to the ‘Bechdel test’ rules, but seeing everything so one-sided did leave a rather nasty taste in my mouth. Or maybe that was the over-priced salted popcorn and out-of-date nachos? Was it only me that thought this or am I just over-reacting? It did look amazing, though. Julian, VIA EMAIL We must admit, some of those thoughts did cross our mind too. The aesthetic was great, but the huge nude holograms were a little off-putting. We didn’t know where to look! Seriously, though, we do think there’s an issue to be discussed regarding Blade Runner 2049, and we’d be certainly interesting in hearing everyone else’s opinion, too.

CAPTI ON CO NTE

“The league of extraordinary flatulance.“ Winner: Ste Lewis. Head over to www.starburstmagazine.com to enter this month’s caption contest.

NExt issuE: 443 oN salE from NoVEmBEr 17tH

THINGS TO COME

Marvel

One particular Marvel project that seems to have been spinning its wheels for years now is 20th Century Fox’s Gambit. Well, after having been without a director after both Edge of Tomorrow’s Doug Liman and Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Rupert Wyatt departed the movie, it looks as if the Channing Tatum-starrer has finally filled its director’s chair once more. As we go to print, Pirates of the Caribbean’s Gore Verbinski is in advanced talks to helm Gambit, with him the clear frontrunner after negotiations with The Walking Dead’s Frank Darabont ultimately came to nothing. Previously, Gambit was actually booked in for an October 2017 release, although Fox quietly pulled the film from their release schedule. Given that the studio has release dates booked in for a whole host of mystery Marvel movies over the next three or four years, it seems logical to expect Gambit to nab one of those dates. Whether Verbinski is on board or not, we’ll hopefully have something concrete to bring you on this by next month’s TTC. Or, of course, you can head to starburstmagazine.com for the latest news as it happens. Elsewhere in 20th Century Fox’s Marvel realm, the longgestating X-Force film has finally found its director in Drew Goddard. Goddard is likely best known to genre fans for directing The Cabin in the Woods, while his writing credits include the likes of Cloverfield, World War Z, and The Martian, not to mention that he was one of the early driving forces behind Netflix’s fantastic Charlie Cox-starring Marvel’s Daredevil. Where X-Force is concerned, the film will be based on the badass comic book team of the same name, whose roster of tough-as-nails sorts has included names such as Deadpool, Wolverine, Domino, Cable, Bishop, Colossus, Psylocke, Sunspot, and Warpath over the years. For this movie, it’s expected that Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a

A ROUND-UP OF THE BEST (AND WORST) OF THIS MONTH’S MOVIE / TV NEWS

Mouth will lead the charge, with Deadpool 2 cohorts Zazie Beetz’s Domino and Josh Brolin’s Cable amongst those joining Wade. Much like Gambit, X-Force has yet to be given a solid release date at this stage, although Goddard will be getting to work on the picture as soon he’s finished on his current film Bad Times at the El Royale. Over in the land of Sony Pictures’ Marvel output, Venom has brought in two significant additions. Firstly, Oscarnommed Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn and, err, Halloween: H20 actor Michelle Williams has joined the film as a District Attorney who will seemingly double as a love interest for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock. In addition to this, Gifted and Obvious Child’s Jenny Slate has joined the movie as a scientist. There’s no word at this stage what the names of either of these characters will be or whether they could possibly be tweaked takes on existing Marvel characters. Previously, we’d heard that the picture was to feature Ann Weying, the ex-wife of Brock and someone who herself briefly became She-Venom, aka Bride of Venom. Could it be that Williams or Slate will end up as a new spin on Weying? Or could it maybe be that one of them could be playing a modified take on the comic book Dr Ashley Kafka or A.N. Other female who has ties to Eddie Brock/Venom? To be directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, Venom is currently set for an October 2018 release. In one solitary piece of Marvel TV news, it’s been confirmed that Finn Jones’ Iron Fist will have a part to play when Marvel’s Luke Cage sees its second season arrive on Netflix next year. While Mike Colter’s Power Man is getting his second year, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil a third season, and a second season for Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, all has been quiet on any news of a further season for Iron Fist. Danny Rand, of course, was last seen earlier this year in the impressive The Defenders, but the so-so reaction to his own show has had many wondering if we’ll see more from Finn Jones’ Rand. So while we wait to hear more on his own series, Iron Fist will at least turn up to help out his longtime Heroes for Hire pal when Luke Cage returns in 2018. | AP

After plenty of speculation - including Mel Gibson at one point being in the frame - Warner Brothers’ Suicide Squad 2 has finally found itself a director in the form of Gavin O’Connor. As well as directing, Warrior and The Accountant’s O’Connor will also be penning the screenplay for the next cinematic outing for Task Force X. And with Gibson now firmly out of the equation, any fears of Harley Quinn being referred to as ‘sugar tits’ in Suicide Squad 2 have been calmed. Elsewhere in the shared DCEU world, it looks as if Shazam! is getting closer to casting its titular hero. This past month saw two names emerge as frontrunners to play Shazam, although it now seems as if one of said names is out of the running. The two being talked about were John Cena and Joshua Sasse, although sixteen-time WWE Champion Cena - who has recently signed on for the Transformers spin-off picture Bumblebee - is seemingly out of consideration now, so you can’t see him in the part. That said, Frankenstein’s Army’s Sasse is expected to be having plenty of competition for the role from names who have yet to be revealed. For those not familiar with the superhero Shazam - formerly known as Captain Marvel - the basic story around him is that young Billy Batson has the ability to turn himself into the all-powerful hero by simply uttering “Shazam!” At this stage, Warner Brothers is said to be looking for someone in the 12 - 15 age bracket for Billy. To be developed as one of the lighter entries in the DC Extended Universe, Shazam! has Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation’s David F. Sandberg on board to direct. In some brief news, the impending Justice League movie will not feature Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. Eisenberg, of course, played Superman’s greatest nemesis in Batman v Superman;

9 his portrayal got a largely negative response from both fans and critics alike as audiences were given a Luthor who was like an overenthusiastic child who’d dosed up on one too many Skittles rather than the calculating, sinister presence that many often associate with Lex. Given how Steppenwolf is the ‘big bad’ of Justice League - the same Steppenwolf who a Batman v Superman deleted scene saw Lex engaging with - it seemed as if Luthor would be there to tie things together and watch the action unravel. Now, though, the final cut of Justice League has seemingly seen Lex Luthor left on the cutting room floor as Joss Whedon continues to put his stamp on the film. Following on from last month’s TTC, in which it was confirmed that Warners was developing a Joker origin movie set in the ‘80s and outside of the confines of the DC Extended Universe and its continuity, now comes word that WB do indeed have plans to develop further DC movies that aren’t hamstrung by the DCEU. To go into full details here could well end up taking over the whole of TTC, so for complete details on this you can head to page 18 to check out our look at the (many!) issues that fans have got with the DCEU right now. While there’s been a whole bunch of news surrounding The CW’s DC shows this past month, those stories will be redundant by the time you’re reading this as the shows in question will have already returned to screens. So, it’s time to turn our attention to an upcoming new series, Titans. The live-action Teen Titans show has continued to flesh out its cast, bringing in Lindsey Gort, Alan Ritchson, and Minka Kelly. Lucifer’s Gort will be playing Detective Amy Rohrbach, the new partner of Dick Grayson, while Ritchson and Kelly are the Hawk and Dove duo. Ritchson is no stranger to genre fans, having played the young Aquaman in Smallville, Raphael in the current cinematic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and headlined the recently cancelled Blood Drive. As for Kelly, she’s likely best known for her role in Friday Night Lights. Hawk and Dove are a crime-fighting double act who are also lovers, and the pair will have recurring roles here with the potential to become series regulars should a second season happen - and there’s even already been early rumblings of giving the couple their own spin-off show. These new additions join Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Starfire, and Teagan Croft as Raven. The current plan is for Titans to début on Warners’ new on-demand streaming service at some point in 2018. Switching our focus to another upcoming 2018 show, and The CW’s Black Lightning has added Grammy-nominated singer Jill Scott to its ranks as the villainous Lady Eve, a DC comic book character who first appeared back in 1985’s Batman and the Outsiders #24. Scott joins a cast that features Cress Williams as the titular electrifying hero, rapper Krondon as the nefarious Tobias Whale, and roles for Nafessa Williams, China Anne McClain, Christine Adams, Damon Gupton, and James Remar. | AP

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN Jilted?

BUMBLEBEE

With Bumblebee’s solo film currently shooting, there’s now some news on another famous Autobot who’ll be joining the titular hero in his own spinoff picture. Optimus Prime, the most

OCTOBER 21ST - SEE NO EVIL 2 (2014) We return to follow mass murderer Jacob Goodnight (WWE legend ‘Kane’, Glenn Jacobs to his friends) on his bloody killing spree. As sequels go, it’s elevated to ‘must-see’ status thanks to being the work of the fabulous Jen and Sylvia Soska, who shared the director’s chair, and slasher veteran Danielle Harris adds to the fear factor. OCTOBER 22ND - MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) Now considered a minor classic, this came out at the height of the slasher craze and bore the brunt of the MPAA in the US, who cut a whopping nine minutes of gore from the original release. Later uncut versions only restored three of those minutes. We got the pre-cut US version in the UK when it did the rounds on a double bill with Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse. OCTOBER 26TH - THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973) As Halloween approaches, what better to curl up to in front of the TV than one of Amicus’ wonderful portmanteau films? This is the one with a pre-Doctor Who Tom Baker as an embittered artist getting his revenge, sinister Curd Jürgens playing a magician who kills an Indian street conjuror for her trick and gap-toothed toff Terry-Thomas getting peeved with his scatter-brained wife. British TV comedy fans should keep an eye open for Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies as a pair of trainee doctors (not unlike their Doctor in the House counterparts). Like most of the Amicus films, it’s a lot of fun and essential. OCTOBER 28TH - CHILDREN OF THE CORN (2009) Based on the Stephen King novel (already filmed in 1984), this version of the creepy kids shocker may not have the love (or the sequels) that the original adaptation has, but is still a fair run-through of the story and certainly worthy of your time. It stars genre royalty (well, at least at Prince level) David Anders (iZombie, Heroes, Once Upon A Time) and is written and directed by Donald P. Borchers, the producer of eighties ‘classics’ such as Vamp and Two Moon Junction. NOVEMBER 6TH - INVADERS FROM MARS (1986) The late Tobe Hooper’s updating of the sci-fi classic goes back to the cold war fear of ‘the enemy within’ and keeps the light and campy style of the fifties original. Some fun special effects and a host of in-jokes make it more than worthwhile. Horror Channel is still the home of Star Trek, with episodes from The Original Series and Voyager screening all month. Also hitting screens on November 5th is the rather good two-part mini-series adaptation of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain from 2008. Horror Channel is available on SKY 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138 and TalkTalk 487. beloved Transformer of all time, will be a part of Bumblebee. The long-time voice of Prime, Peter Cullen, confirmed the news in a recent interview, giving a simple “Yes” when asked if we’ll hear his famed vocals in Bumblebee. At this stage, of course, we don’t yet know whether Prime will appear simply in a cameo role or whether he’ll have a larger role to play in the film. So far, the spin-off from the main Transformers franchise has brought in Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Pamela Aldon, Stephen Schneider, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Drucker, Kenneth Choi, Ricardo Hoyos, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow and Grace Dzienny to fill out its cast. To be directed by Travis Knight, Bumblebee is set for a December 2018 release. | AP

WATCHMEN TV Pilot Ordered

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is seen as one of the greatest comic books of all time, and it’s a tricky, complex tome that no one – not least Moore himself – ever thought could be adapted. But Zack Snyder’s mostly faithful 2009 movie actually did the job, and now a TV adaptation will be giving it a go too.

THINGS TO COME

Following the damp box office squib that was The Mummy, Universal has decided to ‘postpone’ production on Bride of Frankenstein, which had been announced with a February 14th, 2019 release date. Director Bill Condon had already attempted to distance the project from the Tom Cruise flop, stating that it would actually not be part of Universal’s Dark Universe, and more akin to what original director James Whale would have made had he followed up the 1935 classic. Condon, of course, made the fabulous biopic of Whale’s final days Gods and Monsters (1998) with Ian McKellen as the British artist who was behind the first two Boris Karloff-starring monster movies. Pre-production had already started in London, but that has been halted while the script gets a major overhaul. Javier Bardem and Angelina Jolie were in talks to appear as the monster and his bride, but their involvement now could be dependent on the script changes. A Universal spokesperson said: “None of us want to move too quickly to meet a release date when we know this special movie needs more time to come together,” while attempting to reassure audiences the delay is nothing to do with the director, “… whose enormous talent has been proven time and again, and we all look forward to continuing to work on this film together”. Here’s hoping they ditch the action route and deliver something dark and horrific that will both honour the past and rekindle the imagination.

A round-up of what not to miss this month on...

POSTER MORTEM

A pilot episode for a Watchmen series has been ordered by HBO, to be written by Damon Lindelof (of Lost, The Leftovers, and Star Trek reboot fame) and with additional scripts as part of the order. The US cable network must be looking for their next big hit, with Game of Thrones about to wind down, and this alternate history superhero tale could well be that hit. If they’re planning to stretch the story over multiple seasons, they may end up expanding on the events in the comic. Alan Moore will not be happy. But hey, maybe they’ll keep the giant squid in this time. | KM

RAISING DION

If you’ve had enough of superhero news after all the Marvel and DC info we just dumped on you, then sorry, because there’s one more bit of powered person-themed news to come, though at least this is a series which has a different type of superhero story to tell. Netflix have announced the production of Raising Dion, which will follow single mom Nicole Reese, who struggles to raise her son Dion after the death of her husband (played by Creed’s Michael B. Jordan, also on board as producer). The problem is, Dion is developing extrahuman abilities, and certain antagonists are out to exploit him. Raising Dion will begin with a ten-episode first season, and is based on a comic book and short film by director Dennis Liu. Now on board as executive producer, Liu said of the series: “More than ever, we need more stories told from different points of view and my hope with Raising Dion is to create a cinematic experience for all families that will lift your spirits and make you laugh and cry.” Also attached are show runner Carol Barbee (UnReal, Judging Amy) and writer/ producer Michael Green (Blade Runner 2049, American Gods). | KM

TRUE LIES Heading To TV

Yep, here’s another film which is set to become a TV series. Not the most famous collaboration between James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 1994 movie True Lies saw Arnie play Harry Tasker, who’s a globe-trotting super spy - but his wife and daughter think he’s a computer salesman. When his family find out about his double life, at the same time as he has to deal with a plot to smuggle nuclear warheads into the States, chaos and hilarity ensue. There’s definitely potential for the idea of a spy with a family life to balance to be expanded into a TV format. A pilot is currently in the works, with Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow) writing and producing, McG (who has similar experience with the Lethal Weapon TV series) directing, and Cameron himself exec producing. If all goes well, it might make it to series… or we might see more Arnie properties reach the small screen. Kindergarten Cop: The Series, anyone? | KM

THINGS TO COME

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

While the first movie didn’t exactly set box offices alight, it was rather fun and the long-awaited sequel is now on the horizon. It stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as Jake, the son of Idris Elba’s character Stacker Pentecost. The official synopsis is: The globe-spanning conflict between otherworldly monsters of mass destruction and the humanpiloted super-machines built to vanquish them was only a prelude to the all-out assault on humanity in Pacific Rim Uprising. John Boyega stars as the rebellious Jake Pentecost, a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity’s victory against the monstrous Kaiju. Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in a criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear through our cities and bring the world to its knees, he is given one last chance to live up to his father’s legacy by his estranged sister, Mako Mori - who is leading a brave new generation of pilots that have grown up in the shadow of war. As they seek justice for the fallen, their only hope is to unite together in a global uprising against the forces of extinction. Jake is joined by gifted rival pilot Lambert and 15-year-old Jaeger hacker Amara, as the heroes of the PPDC become the only family he has left. Rising up to become the most powerful defence force to ever walk the earth, they will set course for a spectacular all-new adventure on a towering scale. The film marks the feature directorial début of Steven S. DeKnight and the mood of the picture has been described by producer Guillermo del Toro as ‘very different’. Pacific Rim: Uprising will hit US cinemas on March 23rd, 2018 but here in the UK, we will (so far) have to wait until May 18th to get our monster mash on.

AND FINALLY... Kate Winslet has joined the cast of the (count ‘em) four sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar. While the director has been threatening these follow-ups to the 2009 box office smash for what seems like forever, it appears they will finally be taking shape. Don’t hold your breath, though, as Avatar 2 won’t hit cinemas until December 2020, with the third a year later. Four and five are set for December 2024 and 2025 release. The big question, of course, is why? James Cameron certainly likes to keep busy, as he announced he is producing a sixth instalment of The Terminator. Because the last one went down so well, this currently untitled sequel will take place after 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day and ignore all the others. Just like we do. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton will be back in what Cameron hopes will reinvigorate the franchise. Directed by Tim Miller (Deadpool), we can expect it in cinemas on July 26th, 2019. 20th Century Fox is developing a feature film version of the cult animated TV series Bob’s Burgers. The show, which screened on Comedy Central in the UK, follows the lives, loves and misadventures of the Belcher family, with patriarch Bob running a hamburger joint in a US seaside town. No release date has been set as yet. TTC 442 was written by Martin Unsworth, Andrew Pollard, and Kieron Moore. Edited by Martin Unsworth.

By Michael Coldwell

PR EV I EW

It’s the mighty teamup we’ve been waiting for ever since Warners and DC launched their brooding extended universe with 2013’s MAN OF STEEL. STARBURST pitches up ringside, handbag at the ready, for the slightly less desaturated grand slam event that is JUSTICE LEAGUE…

here’s not much point in owning a universe if you can’t make worlds collide in spectacular fashion. Five chapters into what can charitably be described as a divisive franchise, DC and Warner Brothers are finally convening the team that pre-dated the Avengers (1960 vs 1963) and for many consumers of popular culture will always be the preeminent superhero combo.

Although we’ve seen flesh and blood versions of the League in the Smallville TV series and a 1997 TV movie pilot, the closest this beloved team have previously been to the big screen was in 2007. Buoyed by the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and the sort-of success of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (which made a whole pile of cash, don’t forget), Warners/ DC came very close to making a movie called Justice League: Mortal, which would have seen Batman and Superman join forces with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter. George Miller was in the frame to direct but, with their movie Batman and Superman actors not attached to the project, DC got cold feet at the prospect of different versions of their characters appearing in concurrent productions. There’s an irony in there somewhere if you’d care to walk right into it.

Justice League picks up from 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince left to carry on the good work of Superman now the poor bloke is pushing up daisies. But Superman is a hard act to follow, particularly with Earth now squarely in the sights of Darkseid, New God leader of the nightmare planet Apokolips. To do his evil bidding, Darkseid dispatches Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds in a mo-cap suit), a fearsome but rather pissed-off member of his elite, to recover three Mother Boxes previously mislaid on Earth. These are damn fine pieces of kit, living computers created on New Genesis, the origin planet of the New Gods. One has the power of teleportation, one controls Omega Power and one controls all manner of technology. In the movie, these are secreted in Aquaman’s home of Atlantis, Wonder Woman’s paradise island of Themyscira, and within Cyborg himself, the cheeky cove. As McGuffins go, they’re awesome; no wonder Darkseid wants them back. It’s like the Elgin Marbles all over again; finders keepers, losers weepers got that, Darkseid? Given the faltering critical response to both Man of Steel (the film that dared not speak the ‘S’ word) and Batman v Superman: Dawn

of Justice (the film that dared not admit it was supposed to be Man of Steel 2), many were expecting Zack Snyder to exit stage left before Justice League (the film that is no longer called Justice League: Part 1) went before the cameras. But while plenty have carped over Snyder’s dour atmospherics, washed-out visual palate and love affair with soulless CGI mayhem, there are also those who admire the distinctive kinetic ‘Snyderness’ the 300 and Watchmen director has brought to the DCEU. The news that Snyder was departing Justice League due to a close family bereavement adds a sad coda to a troubled triptych of movies he may justifiably look back on with mixed feelings. Snyder is officially pencilled in to direct Justice League: Part 2, scheduled to be released in June 2019 but since delayed to accommodate the release of Matt Reeves’ ‘standalone’ (let’s not get into that) The Batman, but in the world of the DCEU nothing is that certain. Don’t be surprised if this turns out to be Snyder’s last stand. The news that Joss Whedon had been hired - at Snyder’s request, it later turned out - to undertake the already-scheduled re-shoots on Justice League was welcomed by a geek

community in dire need of a sign from the DCEU that it might be navigating into less turbulent creative waters. And who better to do that than the massively respected Whedon? Hot on the heels of this news came the announcement that the Buffy and MCU legend would also be writing, producing, and directing a New 52-inspired Batgirl film. Finally, Warners and DC had a kingpin in the wings to not just complete Justice League, but potentially take a more central role in ensuring the smooth passage of the DCEU from this point forward. What could possibly go wrong with Operation Whedon? His ex-wife and the Internet, that’s what. In August 2017, in an online blog post detailing their alleged marital history, the former Mrs Whedon drove a rather large steamroller straight across the perfumed garden of her ex-husband’s reputation as a self-identified champion of feminist ideology and all-round top bloke. You have to wonder at the timing of all this; with this level of bad karma, we may even consider feeling a tiny bit sorry for all those anonymous cooks in the DCEU kitchen. At the time of writing, Whedon is keeping his shiny bonce down and putting finishing touches to Justice League, tittletattle be damned. With a bit of luck, his

contribution will be palpable, engendering the sort of charm, wit and smart character beats that have been sorely lacking in Snyder’s DCEU movies to date. Evidently, Whedon’s Justice League gig extended far beyond re-shoots into actual rewrites as he now has a screenplay credit on the film along with the film’s original writer, Chris Terrio. A significant amount of rejigging has taken place on Whedon’s watch, including the rumoured last-minute creation of a whole new ending - possibly to put the Internet’s nose out of joint after all the recent plot leaks. Whedon’s influence on the visual tone of the movie is already evident in the final trailer, which looks markedly more colourful than the earlier ones. Zack Snyder might not be too pleased about it, but anything that makes these films look less like Eraserhead must be a good thing. One of the most controversial aspects of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the brace of mini introductions it shoe horned in for three metahumans who subsequently played no part in the story. Who was that bodybuilder with gills swimming up from under that rock? What was going on with that scientist, his son and that groovy box? And, of course, are we

15 supposed to pretend we don’t know who the Flash is when he’s on the CW network every week? As entirely dispensable as these scenes were, they did serve, however mechanically, to pique our interest in Aquaman, Cyborg and, yes OK, the Flash before the mighty unification that is Justice League could take place. It wasn’t exactly elegant, though. Elsewhere in this issue, Andrew Pollard lowers his trusty endoscope into the intestines of the DCEU and has a proper prod at the issues that have afflicted it since Man of Steel failed to take flight in 2013. But as far as Justice League is concerned, a key gripe has been that it’s pretty much The Avengers in reverse. It’s a particular issue for us Brits, because we like to be formally introduced before we get too chummy with anyone. Compared to the Avengers, four of whom we’d seen in solo movies prior to their first on-screen team-up in 2012, the League seem more like a bunch of pushy queue jumpers, and there’s nothing this country hates more than queue jumpers. But the party’s booked so let’s bite our tongues and get our glad rags on, shall we? Just as with the first Avengers movie, Justice League’s greatest calling card is

the sheer fun of seeing the team coming together, getting over their natural suspicions and rubber envy and finding the common ground they need to take down a cosmic mega-threat. There’s an open goal on offer for new boys Cyborg, Aquaman, and the Flash to really score with audiences, particularly if the ‘proper’ introductions they get here are handled well. Or at least better than in Suicide Squad, a film so morbidly overweight with character introductions it had to be carefully winched out of cinemas and, these days, can’t even leave its reinforced bed to go shopping. So, what of these new recruits? As mentioned, the Flash/Barry Allen we meet in Justice League isn’t the same one played by Grant Gustin in the current CW series, but is a different version played by Ezra Miller (excellent as the titular teenage terror in We Need to Talk About Kevin). It’s a testament to DC’s commitment to the acting fraternity that they currently allow so many alternative versions of the same characters. You want multiple Jokers? Coming right up! A TV version of Superman in Supergirl as well as the movie one? No worries, got one on tap. Maybe this is all a bold and innovative precursor to a planned Crisis on Infinite Earths-based DCEU movie where all these

multiverses converge - including the LEGO one. But the LEGO one would probably just humiliate all the others, so maybe not. As a character, it’s fair to say Victor Stone aka Cyborg (played by newcomer Ray Fisher) has the lowest recognition factor of the Justice League team so has the most to do to distract the multiplexing proletariat from their Cheesy Nachos and watered down Coke that costs a fiver. Cyborg’s status as the embodiment of one of the three Mother Boxes puts him squarely on Steppenwolf’s hitlist and at the heart of this movies’ dramatic arc. Snyder was adamant about including the (somewhat confusing) metahuman file recording of Cyborg’s creation in his father’s laboratory in Batman v Superman for this very reason, so perhaps we’ll all end up feeling more benevolent towards that movie after we’ve seen this one. Expect to see Victor face off with a few of his soon-to-be colleagues, especially that pesky Flash, before they make peace, kick Steppenwolf’s ass and go for a shawarma. Aquaman will be the next off the blocks with a solo movie - due in 2018. A not unThor-like presence, as played by Jason Momoa (Conan the Remake You Never Saw), Aquaman looks like he’s going to be

a lot of fun with a plethora of marine-based talents at his disposal, including the ability to manipulate tides, swim at super-speed and talk with the fishes. In the trailer, the scene of him surfing down from the sky and smashing through a building looks like a dodgy CGI cartoon, but perhaps that’s fitting for this most kiddie-friendly of the team. As custodian of the Atlantis Mother Box, he’s in no mood to let Steppenwolf’s forces take it back, as Justice League’s showpiece Battle of Atlantis sequence will underline.

and rumblings over Affleck’s unhappiness with the way things have been panning out. So is Justice League potentially goodbye to yet another Batman? We hope not; Oscar-winner Affleck may not be getting his creative rocks off in this company but he brings real gravitas to the role, looks great in the suit and delivers the patented ‘Bat-growl’ (non-negotiable since Michael Keaton) with consummate ease. After three films of Christian Bale’s severely constipated Orson Welles impression, Affleck has been a pleasure to watch.

The ‘big three’, on the other hand, are relative veterans. Anyone hoping to stay in the dark about Superman returning from the dead would need to be living off-world because he’s on the latest posters and officially listed in the cast. This will be Henry Cavill’s third outing as Superman and, even though he’s yet to headline a solo movie of his own, Ben Affleck’s third as Batman (counting his weird cameo in Suicide Squad). In fact, in terms of screen time, Justice League will put Affleck well ahead of one-shot-willies Val Kilmer and George Clooney with the hope of more to come in the shape of Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman. But don’t bet on Affleck even being in that, given the rumours of a potentially seismic shake-up of the DCEU precipitated by the upcoming Flashpoint solo movie storyline

And a very fast ‘hello again!’ to Wonder Woman, fresh from the 2017 solo movie that gave the DCEU a much-needed shot in the arm. In her third outing with the lasso, Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince stands at the head of the team alongside Bruce Wayne. Behind the scenes, it’s been interesting to see how the remarkable success of Patty Jenkins’ movie has influenced the marketing of Justice League; the recent Comic-Con trailer seemed to position Wonder Woman, not Batman, as the main character in the film. It’s a smart tactic; Gal Gadot’s hugely likeable and completely kick-ass Amazon princess is the DCEU’s lucky charm right now. With the likes of Amy Adams’ Lois Lane and Connie Nielsen’s Hippolyta also popping

up in what is likely to be a frantic melange of converging narratives, it’s good to see Justice League has also found space to squeeze in J. K. Simmons’ début as Commissioner Gordon (a role he will reprise in The Batman). Away from his muchgarlanded TV and theatre work, Simmons has plenty of nerd credits to his favour, having played J. Jonah Jameson in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and in the Marvel animated series Ultimate SpiderMan, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and Avengers Assemble, as well as League experience voicing General Wade Eiling in DC’s Justice League Unlimited. DC still has a hill to climb to match the astonishing consistency of the Marvel machine. But with the momentum and goodwill of the recent Wonder Woman movie at its back, a great Batman, a returning son of Krypton and the proper débuts of Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash, Justice League looks like a party it would be rude not to attend. Just make sure you drop your baggage off at the cloakroom on the way in. JUSTICE LEAGUE will be placing its product into cinemas from November 17th.

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By Andrew Pollard

If you’d have said to our younger selves that we’d live to see the day that cinematic staples such as Batman and Superman would be joined by the likes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash, we’d have squealed with excitement. But the sad truth of the matter is that the DC Extended Universe has quickly become a farce after just four movies. Here, we look at what’s gone so wrong with Warner Brothers’ DCEU, and we take a look forward at what lies ahead and how Warners need to tread exceedingly carefully with this ever-expanding world…

s alluded to, the very concept of a shared cinematic universe littered with a venerable who’s who of DC Comics was an idea that many of us could have only dreamed of. Sure, Batman had been brought to the big screen plentiful times over the decades, Superman likewise, but it seemed as likely as Donald J. Trump one day becoming President of the United States that we’d see characters such as Aquaman, Shazam, the Justice League Dark crew, and the everbland Cyborg getting the big screen treatment. So just how has something that would have once had us all giddy at the mere thought now turned in to an item of such ridicule? Part of what makes the DCEU so frustrating is that there is such undoubted potential there to do some truly special things; so many of the chess pieces are in place to deliver something breathtaking. To go right back to the DCEU’s first outing, can you remember the anticipation for 2013’s Man of Steel? While the casting of Henry Cavill as the Big Blue Boy Scout had so many of us nodding in agreement, the ante was well and truly upped when the first trailer dropped for Zack Snyder’s Superman effort. There was that goosebumps-inducing shot of Cavill’s Supes kneeling amongst the snowy landscape, fist clenched to the floor, ripples starting to emanate around him, and then whoosh! - off he went up, up and away into the sky in a shot that brought a tear to the eye of many long-time fans of the Last Son of Krypton. So, where has it all gone wrong since then? Too Much, Too Soon One of the most glaring issues with the DCEU - and one so many of us could see coming a mile off - was how Warner Brothers completely jumped the gun in how they laid the very fundamentals for the shared cinematic realm of famed DC characters. Following the fantastic job that Marvel Studios had done in sculpting their Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warners saw that success and instantly had their eyes light up with enough dollar signs to make Scrooge McDuck envious. After all, this was at a stage where the movie industry, pop culture and the world as a whole was slap-bang in the middle of a monumental superhero boom. If Marvel could somehow make longstanding C-listers - at least in the popularity stakes - such as Thor and Iron Man into modern cinematic icons, surely Warners could utilise the endless list of DC names at their disposal to bring home similar fanfare, critical appreciation and the ever important bucket-load of cash that the MCU efforts were regularly bringing in. Sadly, the powers-that-be behind the DCEU couldn’t contain their excitement, though, and would prematurely blow their money shot way, way too soon. You see, Marvel Studios delicately crafted their universe, giving individual movies to Iron Man (two pictures, in fact), the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America - not to mention giving attention to Black Widow and War Machine along the way - before bringing things together for Avengers Assemble. Fans were given five movies before Earth’s Mightiest Heroes joined forces, and by that point we’d seen all of these heroes already have their own time in the sun and that, in turn, meant we actually cared when they teamed up. For Warner Bros and their DCEU, sadly, they saw the $1 billion-plus box office returns for Avengers Assemble and Iron Man 3 and frantically wanted to get to that point in such a rush that the foundations of the DCEU were rocky at beast, paper-thin at worst. While Marvel saw modest-to-good returns for their first five pictures - Iron Man $580 million, The Incredible Hulk $260 million, Iron Man 2 $620 million, Thor $450 million, Captain America: The First Avenger $370 million - Warners instantly expected a $1 billion box office for the very first foray into their DC Expended Universe. So, when 2013’s Man of Steel fell way short of that figure, bringing home $668 million, WB panicked. And what do you do in times of panic? You shine the Bat-signal. To steal a phrase from STARBURST’s big boss man (not to be confused with the sadly deceased grappler of yesteryear - although the boss does execute a smooth Bridging German Suplex and Sidewalk Slam), Warners pulled off a shit-bag shuffle of epic proportions. With Man of Steel already confirmed and given a release date, they couldn’t risk losing further face by scrapping the sequel, and so instead they brought the everpopular Caped Crusader into the fold and quickly rejigged Man of Steel 2 into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But not only that, to move things forward at a pace that even the Flash would be proud of, it was decided that Batman v Superman would also feature Wonder Woman and give introductions to Aquaman, the

20 aforementioned Scarlet Speedster, and the dour, dull Cyborg. So there, after only two movies, already we’d seen the Holy Trinity of DC’s Justice League team together as the three other members of the group were lined up to join them. But not even throwing all of that at the screen could get WB to hit that magic $1 billion mark, with the Justice League-lite affair managing to bring home $870 million at the global box office. Of course, that’s not a figure to be sniggered at, but when so much stock is invested in matching the $1 billion take-home of several Marvel movies - a list that had by that point expanded to include Avengers: Age of Ultron and soon Captain America: Civil War as hitting that marker - it’s ultimately another blow to the DCEU and Warners’ plans for it. The Pieces in Place To go back to one of the first points made in this feature, if done correctly, a shared cinematic environment littered with some of our most beloved DC staples is something we’d all be over the moon to see. Making this whole situation even more frustrating, however, is the fact that so many of the pieces in place are perfect choices for their respective roles in the DCEU. For Henry Cavill, he was previously up for the Man of Steel role back when Brandon Routh nabbed the part in Superman Returns, and Cavill looks every inch Superman in his two DCEU appearances so far. Unfortunately, some truly criminal writing has led to the poor fella being handed a depiction of Kal-El that seems to forget any of the fundamentals that have made the character such an icon and beacon of hope over the many decades. Then we’ve got the World’s Greatest Detective, as played by Ben Affleck. While we were firmly on the Batfleck train from the moment his casting came out of left-field, many were a tad sceptical on the decision to put Affleck under the cowl, most notably due to certain people’s negative thoughts on the totally-underrated Daredevil. But still, even those doubters can’t help but have been amazed by Affleck’s portrayal of the Dark Knight in Batman v Superman and even briefly in Suicide Squad. This was a different Batman to what we’d all seen previously on the big screen, with him beaten down and battle-worn as his grizzled gaze looked back on far too many nights spent amongst the infamous gargoyles of Gotham City. Up next was the casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman; another piece of inspired casting that again caught many by surprise. The petite Israeli was labelled too small to play the formidable Amazon by some, while other doubters were as fickle as to lambast her casting because she didn’t have the necessary curves or the generic figure of the overlysexualised comic book heroine. Also brought into the equation was Jason Momoa as Arthur Currie, aka Aquaman - and yet again, this seems like a truly inspired piece of casting as the King of Atlantis has never looked more badass, throwing away the notion that the Master of the Seven Seas is one of the softer, less intimidating members of the Justice League. For the Flash, Ezra Miller was added to the mix. While many see Grant Gustin as the definitive Sultan of Speed these days in The CW’s The Flash, unfortunately Gustin’s Barry Allen had yet to see his own series actually start by the point that Warner Bros were casting their cinematic Flash. For all Warners knew, The Flash may have tanked as a show and Gustin may not have been able to fully pull off the role, and so you can understand why he didn’t factor into their decision when deciding on a big screen Barry. Of course, Gustin has been phenomenal and The Flash has been largely pretty darn brilliant, and so we’re left with merely pipedreams of seeing Gustin’s Scarlet Speedster and Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow making it to the silver screen for now. But Ezra Miller is a great choice for the DCEU’s Flash and could well wind up becoming the most popular part of this shared realm if handled correctly over the next few years. And then, finally, there’s Ray Fisher as Cyborg. We mean, Fisher seems like a good fit, but… but… well, it’s Cyborg, so let’s swiftly move on. Again, sorry Vic Stone, but you’ll always be a Titan at best to us. Taking a more random move, not content with already setting up their JLA, Warners even went as far as to bring the nefarious Task Force X to life in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad; again a move done to mirror the success of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy by bringing a lesser-known group of ragtag characters to the fore, and again taking a huge risk in potentially jumping the gun far too soon in the shared movie-verse’s lifespan. That’s the bulk of the on-screen element bar a mixed bag of supporting characters - Amy Adams as a great choice for Lois Lane, Jesse Eisenberg sadly proving an utter flop as Lex Luthor, Margot Robbie beloved as Harley Quinn, Jared Leto handed a

21 truly sacrilegious depiction of the Joker - but behind the camera is where you have to really look when looking to pinpoint the major problems of the DCEU. Now, granted, Zack Snyder can do great with action when given the right tools, but it seems that so many of the problems caused to date in the shared universe have come from giving Snyder such control. Attempting to mirror how the groundwork of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was so well laid by having Joss Whedon overseeing all of the initial projects, Warner Brothers opted to give Snyder the keys to their DC castle. And man, how that’s come back to bite them on the arse! Snyder is far from a bad director, but he’s somebody who needs reigning in at times - which is where the problem lies. In addition to helming Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, he was also tasked with having a creative input on the whole load of other DCEU movies in their varying stages of development. Following Batman v Superman not achieving the numbers that Warners hoped, though, Snyder’s involvement has lessened. Instead, the impressive Geoff Johns - a bona fide member of modern-day comic book royalty - was brought in to oversee things; a move that sparked a renewed show of faith from those who had previously been soured on the DCEU thanks to the previous output. Of course, Snyder was still tasked with directing Justice League - a movie that he unfortunately had to step away from several months back due to the tragic death of his daughter - but that film now has the fingerprints of Joss Whedon on it. Wait, Joss Whedon?! Yes, as Snyder left the project, Warners won themselves a whole load of leeway with the geek community by bringing in the apple of everyone’s eye to help steady their ship. Skip forward to right now, and Whedon has been handed a co-writer credit for Justice League in addition to having directed several weeks’ worth of extensive reshoots. As for the final outcome, we’ll all have to wait for that film to arrive this November. The DCEU Rises? While Justice League is going to be a huge moment in the scheme of the DC Extended Universe for a multitude of reasons, more interesting is the prospect of the solo movie for Ezra Miller’s Flash. That particular film itself has also been dogged by various issues; most notably not having a set release date despite initially being pegged to drop in February 2018, and then the issue of both Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa leaving the director’s chair over their individual creative differences with Warners. The juicier information here, though, is that this year’s San Diego Comic-Con revealed that the picture has now been titled Flashpoint. For those well versed in the comic book world, Flashpoint is famously the name of a Geoff Johns-penned arc in which the Flash rewrites history. Deciding to go back in time to save his mother’s life, Barry then wakes up in a present day in which he is without his powers and the entire DC landscape is different: Captain Cold is the protector of Central City in the Sultan of Speed’s place; Bruce Wayne died that night in Crime Alley; Thomas Wayne became a brutal, alcoholic Batman; Martha Wayne became the Joker as a way to deal with her grief; Superman was seized by the government upon crash-landing on Earth, thus being kept as an experiment for his entire life; Aquaman’s Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s Amazons are at all-out, bloody war; Green Arrow is an Iron Manlike arms dealer; and more depressing of all, Cyborg is seen as the planet’s greatest hero! From there, Barry would eventually get his powers back and essentially create a whole new reality that DC Comics labelled The New 52, seeing the history of so many heroes and villains completely reset. So, long story short, many saw the Flashpoint title reveal for the Flash’s movie as a sign that Warner Brothers could well be getting set to reset and restart their DCEU with that particular movie. Given the constant rumours of Ben Affleck either a) quitting as Batman or b) being eased out of the role by Warner Bros before Matt Reeves’ The Batman gets rolling, some see Flashpoint as a way to bring in a new face as the Caped Crusader in addition to righting some of the previous wrongs seen so far in the DCEU. While we’d all love to see Affleck stick around for a few more Bat-outings first, his reported unhappiness at how certain parts of the DCEU have been developed should speak volumes. Then again, when you see rays of sunshine such as Geoff Johns and Joss Whedon getting involved in proceedings, you’re instantly hit by a dark cloud and left mouthing obscenities when such bonkers news breaks as the decision to develop an ‘80s-set Joker origin movie with a different actor to Jared Leto while continuing with Leto as the Clown Prince of Crime

22 in efforts such as Gotham City Sirens and Suicide Squad 2. Head-scratching at its best, kids. On that topic, it’s been confirmed that, in addition to the standard DC Extended Universe, Warner Brothers will also be dishing out additional films that take place outside of the confines of the DCEU and its continuity. One such picture will be the aforementioned Joker origin tale. While Leto will continue as the Jester of Genocide in the DCEU, the origin tale will see someone else as Mr J in a film that won’t have any ties to the shared realm of the DCEU. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, for Warners will be developing several further pictures that will feature characters already seen in the DCEU but with a different spin on them set outside of the DCEU continuity. Confused? You will be. Taking the Joker as an example, how will casual moviegoers deal with having Leto running amok as the Harlequin of Hate in the DCEU while at the same time having a film with a completely different Joker? And this isn’t just a one off, for the powersthat-be have already made it now known that they will use this plan to tell several stories outside of the main DCEU canon. The logic for this is that Warners don’t want to have every single film tied together by the same characters. To counter that, though, you can quite easily develop plenty of shared realm movies without having to bang your audience over the head with the fact that said film exists within the confines of a larger world. You don’t have to have cameos from other heroes, you don’t have to have the same characters turning up in each picture; you could simply just have delicate nods and winks to what else is out there. Then again, delicate is the opposite of what many would label the ham-fisted twists and turns from the DCEU decision makers so far. Of course, the benefit of doing separate, non-DCEUbased DC films is that it will allow for stories to be shown that don’t have to be tied to what’s already been seen in the DCEU or its continuity. That, though, then beggars the question of why spend so much time and resources developing the whole shared universe in the first place if you’re going to then look to deviate from it and create DC movies that exist outside of it already? We digress - back to the greater topic of what lies ahead for all of these DC properties. Regardless of whether Warners do indeed use Flashpoint to change direction and rejig the DCEU, something needs to happen with this cinematic realm right now to stop it descending to the realms of being a total laughing stock. Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman was certainly a step in the right direction, and so much now rests on the success of and reaction to Justice League. However Warner Brothers right their wrongs and missteps, it’s a case of the sooner the better before all of the vast array of already-announced future movies ultimately never get to happen. To think, off the top of our head, WB has Justice League, Aquaman, Shazam, Wonder Woman 2, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps., The Batman, Flashpoint, Gotham City Sirens, Suicide Squad 2, Joker, Justice League Dark, Batgirl, Nightwing, Black Adam, Lobo, Man of Steel 2, and Deadshot all in varying stages of development, with the studio seemingly spending far too much time looking way, way into the future rather than tackling the more important issues of the here and now first. Ambition is great, confidence in your product and output is great, but the fundamentals and foundations are pivotal to having any success here. Right now, the DCEU is on extremely shaky ground; Wonder Woman has won them a little leeway from many fans, yet there’s still a long way to go before they can truly deem the shared cinematic universe a success of any sort. To hammer home the point once more, we all want the DC Extended Universe to be a roaring success - after all, the chance to see Dick Grayson done correctly in Chris McKay’s Nightwing has us as excited as a kid who’s had too many Skittles - yet it seems that for every step forward there’s been several steps back over the past few years. Let’s just hope that Wonder Woman was the start of a solid, consistent push in the right direction for the DCEU rather than merely another false dawn for a concept that has the potential to be a true standout of modern cinema. DC has always loved to champion a crisis at any opportunity, yet right now Warner Brothers is going to have to use all of the tools at their disposal to stop a far less welcome crisis from unravelling.

one By Christian B DC’s finest heroes are about to make their first ever major liveaction début in Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s JuStiCe League, coming this November. But, though they haven’t formed on the big screen before, the JLa have a long and illustrious history in two dimensions on the small screen. Let’s take a look at the very animated history of the Justice League of america…

Dawn of Justice

fter being formed on the page in 1960, it didn’t take the Justice League long to make the jump to the small screen in the form of animation. In 1967, Filmation brought comic book-loving kids The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, compiling episodes of The New Adventures of Superman and the Aquaman animated series. The show was notable for featuring the JLA for the first time on TV, albeit in just three sevenminute segments simply titled Justice League of America. Uniquely, usual founding members Batman and Wonder Woman were nowhere to be seen in this version of the League. Instead, the team’s testosterone-heavy line-up consisted of Supes, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom. While it wasn’t the most auspicious beginning for the world’s finest heroes, The Superman/ Aquaman Hour of Adventure did manage to pack in many DC stalwarts - including the Teen Titans - across its sole season on the air. In that way, it was a worthy test run for the League’s true TV début…

Making (Super) Friends For the remainder of the 1960s, Filmation

continued to produce solo animated series for both Superman and Batman, but in the 1970s, the rights to adapt DC comic books switched to animation giant Hanna-Barbera. And, in 1973, the studio kicked off the original Golden Age of DC TV with Super Friends. Nowadays, Super Friends is remembered for its radical retooling of the Justice League in order to ensure the team and their adventures were 100% childfriendly. For one, the team’s traditional handle was chucked out for the more cuddly-sounding Super Friends. The story goes that producers thought the title ‘Justice League of America’ sounded too overtly patriotic following the Vietnam War. Not only that, but the physical combat that was the lifeblood of the comics was drastically reduced and some new audience identification characters for the young ‘uns were introduced. Now hated by fans, Wendy and Marvin were two ordinary, infuriatingly peppy kids who were lucky enough to hang around with the Justice League, err, Super Friends. Basically, they were this show’s version of Scrappy Doo. At least the pair’s faithful mutt Wonderdog is slightly more fondly remembered (check out his brief

cameo in The LEGO Batman Movie). So unpopular were the duo that they were quickly replaced after the first season with the Wonder Twins, a pair of shapeshifting alien superheroes, and their pet monkey Gleek. On the whole, though, Super Friends did a pretty fantastic job of translating the ever-growing DC comics universe to the screen. Apart from the core members of Superman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, the team had various occasional members that included virtually every other major DC hero around at that point. Notably, HannaBarbera made an effort to diversify the group, creating heroes from other cultures like Apache Chief, El Dorado, and Samurai. The series was also the first incarnation of the League to feature Cyborg - usually a Teen Titan - in its lineup. This wouldn’t become the norm in the comics until 2011. From 1973 to 1986, the incredibly long-running show aired under several different titles, including Challenge of the Super Friends, The World’s Greatest Super Friends, and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, before finally bowing out with The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, which ended

the franchise on a surprisingly dramatic note, as the League faced down Darkseid and the might of Apokolips.

just superhero animation but animated TV in general. Beginning with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, the DCAU grew with the likes of 1996’s Superman: The Animated Series and 1999’s Batman Beyond, before the producers finally decided it was time for the Justice League to form.

inspired by the comics, while also giving something back to the mythos. For instance, the series popularised the League’s modern HQ, the Watchtower satellite, funded by Bruce Wayne. Ask any DC fan of the early millennium and these versions of the heroes will most likely be their favourites.

While Super Friends has definitely dated over the decades, the DC Animated Universe promises to remain as evergreen as Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan. Spearheaded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini for Warner Bros Animation, the DCAU aimed to prove that superhero cartoons could be treated seriously and serve as thrilling, dramatic entertainment for fans of all ages, not just kids.

Running from 2001 to 2004, Justice League followed the continuity of the previous series by featuring the previously established Superman and Batman as they form a team of likeminded heroes to save the world. Compared with Super Friends, the founding line-up of the DCAU’s League was much closer to the comics, but it still had one major alteration. The Man of Steel and the Dark Knight were joined by Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter, with Hawkgirl taking the place usually filled by Aquaman. Presumably this was done to ensure there were at least two women on the team. Likewise, the AfricanAmerican John Stewart was chosen as the League’s resident Lantern instead of the regular Hal Jordan, to diversify the roster a little.

After 52 episodes, though, the series’ format was completely revamped into shorter, single-episode adventures, with the seven-strong Justice League increasing to a rotating rota of dozens. The result was Justice League Unlimited. Fans could have reacted negatively to the change, but Unlimited ended up being just as acclaimed as its forebear, if not more so. To prove how impressive it is, the show’s adaptation of classic Superman story For the Man Who Has Everything was actually approved by notoriously hard to please comic book supremo Alan Moore.

The result is a collection of shows that remain the cream of the crop for not

With epic stories that spanned multiepisode arcs, Justice League was directly

Though some modern fans might sniff at the series, it’s hard to deny that Super Friends has to be the single most influential DC TV show of all time. So many aspects of it - the goofy depiction of Aquaman, the Hall of Justice, and the Legion of Doom with their swamp headquarters - have gone on to sink into the public consciousness. It’s no wonder, then, that it took until the next century for the next major animated adaptation of the Justice League to emerge from under its shadow.

A League of Their Own

Unfortunately, as time went on, it became harder and harder for the producers to hold onto the rights for all the characters, as an increasing number of cartoons, live-action shows and movies were in the works now that superheroes were exploding in popularity. Cartoon Network decided to cancel Justice League

Unlimited after three seasons in 2006, and the DCAU came to an end after 14 years.

Justice League Junior With the cancellation of Unlimited and the dissolution of the DCAU, the makers of The Batman were then free to tackle their own version of the Justice League. They decided to make the most of it and the show’s fifth season, airing in 2007, formed an epic arc as Batman and Robin encountered various DC superheroes before finally forming the Justice League as we know it. Much like Unlimited before it, however, The Batman struggled to nab the rights to some of the characters. The result was that Wonder Woman and Aquaman were swapped out for Green Arrow and Hawkman. The Batman’s follow-up Batman: The Brave and the Bold also introduced its own take on the League. Instead of the JLA, though, this show brought the JLI - Justice League International - to the screen for the first time. In 2010’s Darkseid Descending!, Batman teamed up with Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice and Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern. Another episode saw the JLI take on the Legion of Doom… in a baseball match. We should probably

mention that this was a much more comedic, wackier series than most. Finally, the next animated adaptation of the Justice League occurred in the same year’s Young Justice. Though the focus was on a team of the League’s former sidekicks, the big guns themselves often featured in the show. In particular, Young Justice highlighted often overlooked characters such as Red Tornado, Black Canary, Shazam, Zatarra, Captain Atom and Icon. Though Cartoon Network dropped the show after two seasons, the outcry from fans was enough to get the show renewed. Season Three, titled Young Justice: Outsiders, is set to land on an as-yet-unknown DC-oriented streaming site in 2018.

Back In ActioN Bringing us bang up to date is Justice League Action. First airing on Cartoon Network in December 2016, Action is almost like a high-speed Justice League Unlimited. Like the beloved DCAU series, Action celebrates the breadth of the DC universe by including an ever-changing group of Justice Leaguers, with the Trinity of Supes, Bats and, err, Wonds at its heart. However, each episode is

only half the length of Unlimited. At 10 minutes, events rattle along at breakneck speeds and with large dollops of humour, apparently in a bid to capture the short attention spans of today’s kids. While its youth-oriented format might alienate older fans, at least there are other parts of the production to engage us nerdy old fogies. Action is notable for its exceptional voice cast, which includes various performers from previous DC animated shows, such as the DCAU’s Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s Diedrich Bader and Teen Titan Go!’s Khary Payton. The combination of familiar voices and producers Paul Dini and Alan Burnett has led some to see the show as a spiritual successor to the DCAU. As this wander through the Justice League’s adventures in animation has proven, there has been an incarnation of the DC superhero team for virtually every generation to call their own ever since the 1960s. Whether you were a Super Friends kid, or an Unlimited fan, or maybe even an Action lover, there is a Justice League out there for everyone. They might only just be making their début on the cinema screen, but DC’s finest have been leagues ahead of other superhero animation for decades.

by Mark Newbold As the Justice League movie is almost upon us, now's a good time to delve back into the mists of time and take a look at the origins of the original superhero team. The Avengers may be the more prominent team to worldwide audiences, but in the annals of comics history, the Justice League hold sway over almost all other superhero groups...

irst conceived back in 1960 by DC mainstay Gardner Fox and legendary editor Julius Schwartz, the Justice League was a direct descendant of the Justice Society of the 1940s. That group had first appeared back in 1941 in All-Star Comics #3 and the initial team consisted of Doctor Fate, Hour-Man, the Spectre, the Sandman, the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. With some characters being owned by National Periodical (as DC was then known) and some by All-American Publications, the original Society was not only the first superhero team but the first inter-company superhero title as well. The original run of the JSA lasted into the early 1950s, fading from publication as romance and Western comics became more popular and superhero comics passed out of favour with kids of the time. Almost a decade would pass before Schwartz suggested that Fox reinvigorate the JSA, swapping out the word ‘society’ with the snappier ‘league’ due to the popularity of baseball and Major League Baseball’s National and American league, and so the Justice League of America was born. March 1960 saw issue 28 of The Brave and the Bold introduce the Justice League of America and, after just two hot-selling issues, the team launched in their own title in November 1960. The title held nothing back, bringing in its biggest guns from the off. Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman made up the initial team, a roster that, like many superhero teams, would shift and change over the years to include Atom, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Plastic Man, Shazam,

and Zatanna amongst many others. As DC stories of the era often did, the characters shifted and swapped between the many realities and alternate worlds of the pre-Crisis DCU. Indeed, during the first JSA/JLA team up in issues #21 and #22 of the Justice League title, the term ‘crisis’ was first used. Some heroes were offered memberships. Some declined, like Metamorpho, whereas some moved realities to join the team, like Black Canary who shifted to Earth-One after the death of her husband in 1969 and joined the JLA. In the real world, the title was selling like crazy, allowing individual characters to run in their own solo titles and come then together each month for League duties. In the reality of the comic itself, other factors were bringing the characters together. Justice League of America #9 in February of 1962 saw the team battle the alien warriors known as the Appelaxians, a desperate fight that made the individual members of the team realise that together they proved to be a potent weapon against the armies of darkness. Across media and through reboots, pre-Crisis and post-Crisis, the team’s origin had been told and retold, but the mission remained the same. Secret Origins Vol. 2, #32 in November of 1988 updated Justice League of America #9’s origin in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1985 limited series that brought together the many various alternate versions of Earth in the DC universe and compressed it back into one consistent reality. This version saw the Silver Age Black Canary as a founding member of the League and removed the classic trinity of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. Justice League Task Force #16 in

September 1994 took place during the events of the universe-threatening Zero Hour series and saw the then-unheard-of hero Triumph appear. He was revealed to have been a founding member of the Justice League, leading the team. His first mission saw him save the world but ended with him being teleported into a dimensional limbo that erased him from the timestream. In Infinite Crisis #7, cover dated June 2006, the formation of ‘New Earth’, the post-Crisis name for Earth, restored Wonder Woman as a founding member of the Justice League. Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #0 in September 2006 revealed that Superman and Batman were once again founding members while 52 #51 in June 2007 saw Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman join the team with founding members’ status shortly after the group’s formation with Aquaman, Black Canary, Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter. Justice League of America #12 in October 2007 revealed the founding members to be Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. 2011 saw another change, one more in line with the team that cinemagoers can expect to see in November 2017. The Flashpoint limited series re-wrote DC history and saw yet another origin created for the Justice League in the New 52. Issue #1 of that series showed the first meeting of Batman and Hal Jordan, fighting a Parademon in Gotham City. Heading to Metropolis to find Superman, the Kryptonian attacks them. After they convince Superman that they are all on the same side and bring the Flash into the team, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman appear as Darkseid arrives on Earth. The team are

united, along with Cyborg, and they defeat Darkseid. Seen as heroes by an adoring public, the group become known as the Justice League. With a history as convoluted and complicated as the JLA, covering decades, numerous characters and standing either side of the Crisis, it’s no wonder that the Justice League of America spun off into many different series. Justice League Dark saw the shadier and more magically inclined members of the team battle dark forces while Justice League Europe shifted the focus of the team from a uniquely US outfit to one covering a broader area of the planet, something Justice League International continued to do. The JLI grew in the late ‘80s to be a prominent off-shoot of the JLA and at various times boasted Batman, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Doctor Light, Doctor Fate, Martian Manhunter, Mister Miracle, Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire, Ice, and Rocket Red. This series, spattered with humour by writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis and art by Kevin Maguire, lasted from 1987 to 1996 when fading sales saw its cancellation. Justice League Task Force, Justice League Elite, Justice League United, and Extreme Justice were further splinter groups of the main JLA, but the JLA came back together under the umbrella of one title in the September 1996 limited series Justice League: A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza, which saw the return for the first time since the Crisis in 1985 of the original seven members. 1997 brought us Grant Morrison’s JLA, with an entirely new roster of members and a rogue’s gallery of villains to battle. That

series lasted until 2006 and the Infinite Crisis miniseries, which saw Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow struggle to keep the team together. Week 24 of 52 saw Firestorm pull together a temporary JLA, but in 2007 and Justice League America #0, the League reconvened in the Batcave. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, Red Arrow, Red Tornado, Vixen, Black Lightning, and Hawkgirl formed this iteration of the group, lasting four years until 2011 and the end of the Flashpoint crossover. That said, with the New 52 kicking off and all numbering on DC titles resetting to #1, the JLA weren’t retired for long. Under the guiding hand of Jim Lee and Geoff Johns, yet another origin story was told, with the first six issues set five years in the past and then coming up to the present day with Issue 7. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Jordan), Aquaman, the Flash (Barry Allen), and Cyborg form the initial team while the Atom (Rhonda Pineda), Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond), and Element Woman later join. New Justice League International and Justice League Dark titles also launched, ushering in another convoluted era of title and roster changes (Justice League Canada, anyone?) The 2016 Rebirth event saw yet another Justice League series, this time written by Bryan Hitch and drawn by Tony Daniel and Fernando Pasarin. The title launched June 2016 with a primary roster of Superman (preFlashpoint version), Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash (Allen), Aquaman, Cyborg and two Green Lanterns. February 2017 brought a new Justice League of America series with the Atom, Vixen, the Ray, Killer Frost, Batman, Black Canary, and Lobo in the team, but modern

cinema audiences are keen to see the adventures of the classic DC heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Cyborg. That wish is soon to become reality in the Justice League movie [see page 12]. With anticipation high after the huge success of Wonder Woman but tempered somewhat by the lukewarm fan reaction to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Man of Steel, it will be interesting to see how the Justice League translates to the silver screen and fares at the box office. DC Animation, always a benchmark for quality superhero animation and storytelling, has had their own featurelength Justice League stories. In 2008, Justice League: The New Frontier received very positive reviews while 2010’s Crisis On Two Earths saw the plot of the 1964 Gardner Fox issues #29 and #30 repurposed, bringing Lex Luthor across from an alternate Earth to help the JLA fight the Crime Syndicate. In 2012, Justice League Doom continued the story while 2013 saw The Flashpoint Paradox and another alternate realities tale driven by the Barry Allen version of the Flash. The impact of the Justice League cannot be overestimated in popular culture and the comics realm. The success of the 1960 Justice League title indirectly led to the creation of the Fantastic Four, as Marvel publisher Martin Goodman tasked Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with creating Marvel’s first superhero family. In short, without the Justice League, the world of comics and cinema would look very different. How’s that for a Crisis on Infinite Earths?

By Jack Bottomley

As the DCEU prepares to unite their biggest stars (and Cyborg), we take a look at some merchandise that did just that…

his issue has centred on the Justice League, which assembles the major DC heroes together onscreen for the first time ever (in live action, that is). Indeed this is a big moment for the - as yet - less than smooth DCEU and with news stories aplenty breaking about future DC standalone films (the Scorsese-produced bullied kid Joker

origin film?!) and planned future films avoiding excessive universe building, this could well be the last time we see the heroes together for a while. So, with that said, we swat away the movie news maelstrom and dwell on the League themselves. Over the years, there have been multiple iterations of the Justice League and this is reflected in the

decades of merchandise. Each individual hero has inspired a good deal of their own merch, but to actually focus on gear that features our heroes together was a bit more of an undertaking. However, when you look into the world of movie merchandise, you don’t need Superman’s X-ray peepers to seek out the weird and the wonderful…

Justice League of America Rubb’R-Niks

Justice League Hall of Justice Play Set

Justice League of America Brave and the Bold Statue

(Multiple Toymakers, 1967)

(Mego, 1976)

(DC Direct, 2002)

We don’t know about you, but we’d never tell Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman to get stretched (Aquaman, however, owes us some money, so sod him), but with Multiple Toymakers’ Rubb’R-Niks figures, stretching was the main selling point. Their twistable, stretchable, flexible 2¼-inch figures turned the Justice League into the Justice Limber and while the actual designs of the four aforementioned heroes were questionable/ naff (delete as appropriate) - Aquaman, Batman, and Superman are very white faced… almost clown-like (ironically) - this flexi-toy set is rare and highly collectable, being harder to find than positivity on the Internet.

This fold-out Hall of Justice Playset is specifically designed for the 8” Mego dolls, with a translocation feature that moves your doll into the crime scene shown on the monitor (pretty slick sounding even by today’s standards), as well as conference table and ‘dial-a-disaster console’ (hope that makes an appearance in the new movie) interiors. OK, so it is a tad dated, but the ability to fold it all into a carry case and simply set up Justice League shop at your will was highly appealing to kids. The mechanics may be a touch clunky but visually, this is a fantastic piece of kit! In fact, one recently went for $150 on eBay.

There are some fantastic statues out there but we particularly like this DC Direct statue based on 1960’s Brave and the Bold, Vol. 1 #28 comic cover, ‘The Justice League of America’ (wonder how they’d feel serving the current commander-in-chief) battle Starro the Conqueror (supposedly appearing in the new film voiced by Burt Reynolds… OK, not really, but as most sites just make crap up anyway, we thought we’d join in). Mirroring the iconic cover, this brilliant statue sees Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Flash battling ‘the awesome menace of Starro and its starfish-deputies’.

Official Batman and Justice League of America Playset (Ideal, 1966) When The Lego Batman Movie jokingly said that DC was ‘the house that Batman built’, it was making a salient point, especially when it comes to the big screen. Indeed, with Ideal’s 1966 playset, they felt the need to call it the official ‘Batman and Justice League of America’ playset… because Batman is just that bit cooler! Seriously, though, as Justice League items go, this is the pinnacle among collectors. The 24-piece set is beautifully designed, containing Sanctuary Mountain, a Batplane, Batmobile (or ‘Bat Car’ if you must) and more, including hand-painted figures of Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash, among other less fancy figures. Finding this set in complete, boxed, mint condition has proved nigh on impossible, with only around four surviving examples thought to exist. As a result, this is a real prize, valued at $4,500 in good condition to $13,500 in near mint condition. Helps if your superpower - like Bruce’s - is being rich!

Justice League Boxer Shorts (DC Originals, 2012) Decorated by arguably the top trio of the Justice League (Bats, Wondy, and Supes), these fancy pants are certainly nice to have ready to slip on when you wake up at the crack (steady) of dawn, ready for the day ahead. A day hopefully free of clown princes of crime, New Gods and worst of all, social media trolls.

Justice League Ties (Etsy, 2017)

Justice League Cookies (Nabisco, 2004)

Cookies can solve many a problem in this world, so what better item to model on the Justice League? Nabisco’s cookies were visually modeled on Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman as seen in the Justice League Unlimited animated series. Perfect for the hungry crime fighter, although Aquaman may not be able to get them back to Atlantis in one piece… after all, no one likes a soggy cookie.

Justice League of America Colouring Set (Hasbro, 1967) This Hasbro Colouring set is simple but effective, as it comes with black and white pictures and six coloured pencils, with the seven original Justice League members on the neat box art. Hardly groundbreaking, eh? Well, this colouring set still went (in sealed condition) for $11,088 at an auction in 2006 - colour us surprised!

Justice League Bookends (DC Direct, 1999)

Ever wanted to add that little bit of oomph to your comic book shelves? Well, this collection of porcelain bookends should do the trick. These 17” high comic book heroes are nicely designed and as welcome a sight on your bookshelf as Wonder Woman’s Rotten Tomatoes score was to DC this year. The range includes the usual suspects like Batman and Superman, alongside Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man (remember him? No? OK, moving on…).

Wondering what might complement some snazzy threads to attend the Justice League premiere? The most recent item in our list may hold the answer; it’s this rather nicely designed tie by IdeasbyTiagos over at Etsy. The tie features all six heroes (including the oft-neglected Cyborg) that comprise the latest onscreen League… we dig it.

Justice League Nappy Bag Set (eBay, 2016)

It’s fair to say that, when it comes to news surrounding the DC cinema, it’s often full of shit, so what a moment of symmetry that we find a piece of merch that tackles such matters - this handmade Justice League Nappy Bag Set. Designed by theclevercactus, this nappy bag set incorporates the logos of the major League members - Green Lantern, Bats, Supes, WW, and Flash - applying them to the bag, a mat, a dribble cloth and a wipe pouch. This is taking fandom to the next level, or rather, next generation.

“There’s a New Devil iN hell’s KiTcheN...” by John Townsend

We’ve met THE DEFENDERS and already had our first taste of small screen Frank Castle, now it’s the turn of the vigilante to have his own Netflix series. Let’s look forward to MARVEL’S THE PUNISHER…

35 “All the things that I’ve done… memories… they never hurt me. But the past, it’s more than memories, it’s the devil you sold your soul to. He’s comin’… he’s comin’ to collect.” The last time we saw Frank Castle, he was assisting Daredevil in a final battle with the Hand’s enforcer Nobu. Oh, and about a gazillion ninjas. Job done, the single-minded veteran bid farewell to occasional ally ‘Red’ and torched his former family home, before stalking off into the night, sporting his trademark skull-emblazoned black T-shirt for the first time. As Karen Page’s rather sickly voiceover rolled over those final - in fairness rather poignant - scenes, fans old and new hoped the character that made the most significant impact in the second Daredevil season would soon have his own show. In a run that suffered from the Marvel/ Netflix issue of feeling somewhat baggy in the middle, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle managed to out-grit the gritty Daredevil and provide some much-needed impetus, ensuring his subplot offered more intrigue and interest to audiences than the central Black Sky story. And in April 2016, that wish came true, with Netflix confirming a full 13-episode run with Bernthal returning in the lead role. Finally, after being a secondary, albeit rather active character to Daredevil, the Punisher was getting to strike out on his own. So, what do we know? There’ll be violence… lots of it. Well, in truth, we know very little short of the official synopsis: ‘After exacting revenge on those responsible for the death of his wife and children, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) uncovers a conspiracy that runs far deeper than New York’s criminal underworld. Now known throughout the city as the Punisher, he must discover the truth about injustices that affect more than his family alone.’ So, in fact, very little would be a distinct improvement on what we do know. As of writing, neither Marvel Television nor Netflix have even confirmed the start date for The Punisher series, with the only certainty being that it will be sometime in late 2017. While not unusual for this level of predictable, warily cryptic secrecy to exist, the mystery surrounding The Punisher certainly outweighs that of previous shows such as Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A sign of real confidence, or are there some doubts

behind the scenes? As for casting, that part’s been relatively transparent, although the characters included certainly make for interesting speculation. Bernthal’s non-inclusion would have stopped the project dead in its tracks, or god forbid, led to some panicky re-casting, so any fears over that were dealt with at time of announcement, and since then there has been a steady drip-feeding of information serving to tantalise expectant fans. At the end of Daredevil Season Two before Frank torches his former residence - he recovers a disc with Micro scrawled on the front. Micro, or David Lieberman, will be played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach and will likely be the Punisher’s closest ally (reluctantly at first, perhaps?) and provider of both weaponry and technology. We would certainly expect him to play a key role in the series, and maybe even as Frank’s one true confidant. Another ally making an appearance is Deborah Ann Woll as ‘journalist’ Karen Page, although given her sense of disillusionment with Frank after he killed former commander Ray Schoonover/ the Blacksmith, quite what her role will be is open to some debate. What is interesting is that she is listed as appearing in every

episode, so flashbacks or random cameos would appear to be out of the question. Further assistance could be provided by Homeland Security Agents Sam Stein and Dinah Madani, portrayed respectively by Michael Nathanson and Amber Rose Revah, although as new characters their true motives and allegiances are, for now, a closely guarded secret. So, to the bad guys and, well, Marvel has never been short of a few of those to line up against its (anti) heroes. First up, we have Curtis Hoyle, played by Jason R. Moore, a former comrade of Frank’s and a fellow veteran, who now runs the Rockhouse Corporation. With little yet revealed about the latter, we can only speculate that led by Hoyle, they’re more than likely up to no good. Then we have Paul Schulz (24’s Ryan Chappelle) as CIA operative William Rawlins, a man who, according to the source comics, possesses little in the way of moral fibre, having set up various terrorist cells, killed numerous people and generally revelled in being a thoroughly unpleasant chap. Most interestingly, although perhaps in many ways expected, is the inclusion of Ben Barnes as Billy Russo, or the Punisher’s archenemy Jigsaw. Listed as only appearing

36 in four episodes, and therefore set to be a peripheral figure in the beginning, Jigsaw’s casting presents Frank with a potentially equally matched foe. Let’s hope this doesn’t become another anti-climax as Diamondback did in Luke Cage. Played by Dominic Cooper in 2008’s Punisher: War Zone, it will be interesting to see how showrunner Steve Lightfoot approaches the character in this incarnation. So, what might we expect? Violence. Bloody violence. And lots of it. If the brief yet rather impressive footage we’ve seen is anything to go by, Frank has an awful lot to get out of his system, both before and after his tag-team with Daredevil. From what we can tell, the series will focus on the time before Frank returned to New York City, his time in Afghanistan, and what happened to him following the conclusion of the previous season of Daredevil. Flashbacks show his family alive, adding depth to the story begun in that series, and also refer back to events in Kandahar once again referenced in Daredevil - when something traumatic happened to Frank’s platoon. Those events clearly still haunt Frank, and offer weight to the potential PTSD storyline. What we really expect is to see the true Frank Castle. Given what we already know of him, the Frank that went to Afghanistan only partially returned, but it is the death of his family that instigated the final transformation into the Punisher, and the twin timelines offer Lightfoot the opportunity to really delve into Frank’s less cuddly side. So, what might we hope for? Is it wrong of us to hope for more violence? Given the ‘grittiness’ of the Marvel/ Netflix collaborations, aside from Iron Fist’s glowing boy scout, The Punisher offers an opportunity to really plumb the depths of the human psyche. We already know Frank is ruthless, merciless to a point, bent on the single-minded destruction of anyone who gets in his way. This is also a character that doesn’t need to operate on the moral high ground such as Luke Cage, or present reluctant sentiment as seen in Jessica Jones. The Punisher is a cold-blooded killer of bad guys, a vengeful nightmare acting beyond the law, tackling those breaking the law, and for Marvel and Netflix, that makes him a rather unique beast. There will be moments of hesitation, perhaps even self-appraisal or emotion - the inclusion of shoulder-to-cry-on Karen Page would hint to that - but for the most part, we can hope for thirteen episodes of action-filled drama that avoids that baggy middle suffered in at least two of his predecessor’s sole series. We can also hope that the bleak, darkly atmospheric and cool nature of the teaser trailer transfers directly into the series. Sure, we likely won’t see Frank hammering out his skull logo with a sledgehammer around New York, as a kind of stony calling card, but we can hope for plenty of Bernthal-brooding as he dispatches bad guys with barely a flicker of conscience. The Punisher is a unique and beloved character within the Marvel Universe, and one that could be the standout in the Netflix canon so far. Let’s hope that’s the case. And violence… let’s hope for more of that. MARVEL’S THE PUNISHER will be hitting Netflix soon…

HAIl, COeN!

Crime and contempt festers below the surface of suburban America in SUBURBICON, with a script from the masters of dark comedy the Coen brothers. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate their extraordinary movies...

ay out west there were these fellas... fellas we wanna tell ya about. Fellas by the names of Joel and Ethan Coen. Born and raised in Minnesotan suburbs, the brothers would go on to become arguably the best filmmakers of their generation, with their distinct, cineliterate view of America characterising a string of both cult and mainstream hits. To examine their place in today’s moviemaking landscape, first we need to look back at their career so far. Filmmaking was always their passion; when they were kids, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy his first Super-8

by Kieron Moore camera, and the brothers collaborated for the first time on homemade remakes of classics they’d seen on TV - sadly for Coen fanatics, none of these sweded movies are available today! A film degree at New York University followed for Joel, while Ethan studied philosophy, no doubt also useful in some of their later screenplays. After graduating, Joel found work as a production assistant, while the two brothers began writing screenplays together. Their first feature was not far off... Set To Pop They put together a homemade trailer for a Texas-set neo-noir entitled Blood Simple and showed it to various potential investors. Across the course of a year, they impressed enough folk to raise $1.5 million, with which they made the movie. Blood Simple premiered in 1984, to critical acclaim. This confident début showed off many elements that would later become synonymous with the Coens, from the contemporary battered Americana to the stylistic trappings of 1940s noir. They also established their working relationship here: though both brothers collaborated on all aspects, Joel was credited

as director and Ethan as producer, which they repeated until they began sharing the director credit from 2004; they also began editing together under the still-used pseudonym Roderick Jaynes. Success spiraled from here. The Coens were always busy writing screenplays; they wrote Crimewave for Sam Raimi [see box-out] and, in fact, first drafted Suburbicon in 1986. Further opportunities to make distinctly Coen films, however, came when the success of Blood Simple led independent production company Circle Films to offer to completely fund their subsequent movies, with the brothers granted complete creative control. The first result of this was 1987’s energetic Raising Arizona, starring Nicolas Cage as a small-time crook who kidnaps a baby to please his broody wife. Their first brush with comedy, Raising Arizona also introduced the very Coen trope of the everyday (if morally questionable) protagonist who struggles to keep life in order in the face of increasingly overwhelming and often absurd challenges - in this case including the ‘Lone Biker of the Apocalypse’. Tying the Room Together The 1990s saw Joel and Ethan gain increasing critical acclaim, if not mainstream success. Miller’s Crossing (1990) is their stylish take on the gangster genre, while Barton Fink (1991) is the darkest of dark

comedies about a theatrical writer trying and failing to make it in LA. They hit their first snag in 1994, when action producer Joel Silver decided to empty his pockets funding The Hudsucker Proxy, hoping he’d turn the indie duo into a mainstream success; unfortunately, this strange Preston Sturgesesque comedy about the inventor of the hula hoop was not only the brothers’ weakest film yet but also lost a whole lot of Silver’s money. Still, it’s not without its oddball, slapstick charm. And thankfully, the Coens recovered from this dip by following Hudsucker with two of their most-loved films. Fargo (1996) is quintessential Coen; in the cold, isolated Midwest, a financially desperate everyman resorts to hiring crooks to kidnap his own wife, hoping her rich father will pay up the ransom. Of course, it spirals wildly out of control. And then in 1998 came the eminently quotable The Big Lebowski, a Raymond Chandler story displaced to the 1990s and with added bowling. Jeff Bridges’ super-cool performance as ‘the Dude’ is only one of the many elements that’s led to this movie’s immense cult following; an annual festival, Lebowski Fest, is to this day held in its honour. Would That Ih Twere So Seemple The turn of the twenty-first century saw another success in the form of O Brother,

40 Where Art Thou?, simultaneously their silliest and most musical film. After this, however, the early to mid-noughties are generally seen as a lower point for the Coens. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) was too emotionally distant to engage audiences, rom-com Intolerable Cruelty (2003) was another case of big studio interests dampening the brothers’ style, and Ealing remake The Ladykillers (2004) fell flat on just about every level. But unlike their characters, the Coens were able to learn from their mistakes, and their next movie, No Country for Old Men, was their greatest success to date. Set in 1980s Texas, the Cormac McCarthy adaptation follows a Vietnam veteran who stumbles upon $2 million of drug money, as well as the terrifying hitman and the aging sheriff on his trail. It takes many Coen tropes - isolated America, brutal criminals, the everyman out of his depth, the nihilistic power of chance - and turns them into a powerful exploration of the effects of violence and the dignity in turning away from it. Not only was it a massive box office hit, but it also bagged four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. After this came a string of very solid hits. Burn After Reading (2008) features a cast of A-listers, including George Clooney and Brad Pitt, in a hilarious parody of the spy genre. A Serious Man (2009) is one of their more underrated films, a slow-burning but powerfully bleak comedy about a university professor who finds every aspect of his life simultaneously falling apart. Their first movie of the current decade was another crowd-pleaser, the Western True Grit (2010); though ostensibly based on the Charles Portis novel, it also brought in elements of that book’s first adaptation, the 1969 John Wayne-starrer, albeit through the grisly lens of the Coens. Then there was 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac and a cat on a rambling journey through the 1960s folk music scene. And last year’s Hail, Caesar! took on 1950s Hollywood, being more of a sketch show than a coherent narrative, but an undeniably joyous one. I’ll Show You the life of the Mind! From this look over their filmography so far,

many observations emerge. For one thing, the Coen brothers are precise filmmakers, taking care over every shot of their movies. They storyboard each scene in detail, with their regular artist J. Todd Anderson never short on work, and have collaborated with renowned cinematographers, including Roger Deakins and Barry Sonnenfeld, to bring their American landscapes vividly to life, always foregoing modern handheld styles in favour of classically beautiful composition. Being serious cineastes, the brothers also show a classical mindset when it comes to genre, with many of their films harking back to the movies of the 1930s and ‘40s. Film noir is a genre they’ve returned to multiple times, as is screwball comedy. They’ve also had a go at the Western, the gangster flick, and even, in elements of O Brother and Hail, Caesar!, the musical. And yet, this classical formality of style is at odds with the world and the stories they depict. The Coen brothers’ America is not the glamour of New York, but the chilly isolation of North Dakota and the desert backwaters of Texas. And in these inelegant locations, we don’t meet criminal masterminds and genius detectives; the crooks are bumbling incompetents and the cops are everyday uniformed officers. The Big Lebowski takes this one step further by supplanting the hardboiled detective of a Raymond Chandler story with a hapless stoner. This diversion from expectations extends to the way characters act - rarely do we get conventional arcs of development, in which characters atone for sins or learn from mistakes - or to story structure. Many detractors say what puts them off is the lack of satisfying conclusions - just what is the painting in Barton Fink about, for example? That’s a valid point - these movies don’t provide easy answers. It’s a Fool looks for logic... But those of us willing to go along for the ride relish in the nihilism of it all. It’s best encapsulated in the story of the goy’s teeth, recounted to Larry Gopnik in A Serious Man. One day, an orthodontist finds the words ‘help me’ inscribed on the back of a patient’s

41 teeth. He becomes obsessed with finding meaning in this, testing other patients’ mouths and even trying to ‘decode’ the letters. He asks his rabbi “What can such a sign mean?” And then the story ends. A Serious Man itself is a longer version of that same story, with Gopnik trying to find meaning in his calamitous life but constantly being faced with new problems. It’s reflective of how, in the Coens’ screenplays, chance is a powerful factor - think of that iconic introduction to Anton Chigurh, in which he lets a coin toss determine the fate of a shopkeeper. And this can work so well because, depressingly, there’s a truth in it. It’s all too believable that sheer luck, as well as human incompetence and foibles, would hold more sway than any grand plan, and that the people who’d get involved in such adventures would be everymen who’d made one mistake or fallen out of their depth. In real life, just as in the Coen movies, people don’t have life-changing moments of heroic insight, but trundle along and barely scrape themselves out of trouble. That’s not to say the movies are realistic far from it. The writer-directors have treated us to all sorts of heightened caricatures of characters, usually in supporting roles, from the almost-demonic Chigurh to the crotchety millionaire Lebowski, and yet all these caricatures are grounded in recognisable truths. The fun is in adventuring through these increasingly bamboozling worlds with characters like the Dude and Llewyn Davis, who are just as confused by it as we sometimes feel in our own bamboozling world. The Coen brothers are true cinematic artists, crossing the style and craft of classic Hollywood’s finest with the cynicism of a more uncertain age. Their morally grey take on America never fails to find the quirks and crooks at play underneath its surface - so Suburbicon, as it digs into the hidden dark side of a seemingly idyllic neighbourhood, may not be directed by the Coens but is distinctly characteristic of them, which makes us all the more excited for its release.

Written, But Not Directed By... To be a real Coen know-it-all, you can’t forget those films they didn’t actually helm. With Suburbicon being the latest addition to this list, let’s look back at films made from Coen-penned scripts...

Crimewave (1986)

Written for Sam Raimi, whom Joel had met while working as an assistant editor on The Evil Dead, Crimewave follows a death row inmate; flashbacks show the surreal events that led to his conviction for several unrelated murders he didn’t commit. Its hapless everyman hero and comedy noir stylings may be a precursor of Coen movies to follow, but it’s for good reason that this has fallen into obscurity.

The Naked Man (1998)

The directorial début of the Coens’ regular storyboard artist, J. Todd Anderson, co-written by Anderson and Ethan. Also the only movie Anderson directed, and you can see why - it’s cartoonish rubbish. It follows a chiropractor who moonlights as a wrestler and who goes on a mission of vengeance against a cripple with machine gun crutches and an Elvis impersonator. Yeah.

Bad Santa (2003)

Bet you never knew that this popular festive comedy is in fact a Coen brothers movie! Well, kind of. They were asked to direct it and said no, but did agree to do an uncredited pass on the script. Makes sense, really - if Joel and Ethan were to work on a Christmas movie, of course, it would be one where Santa is a foulmouthed con man.

Gambit (2012)

This remake of the 1966 heist comedy sat in development hell for years, but with a script penned by Joel and Ethan, eventually hit cinemas in 2012. Here, at least - it went straight to DVD in the US, because, sadly, it’s not very good. The story of an art curator trying to con his abusive boss should be Coen gold, but instead falls disappointingly flat.

Unbroken (2014)

Directed by Angelina Jolie, this World War II tale of an athlete who struggles to survive in Japanese prisoner of war camps is far from typical Coen fare, though they were only two of the four writers credited for the script - another of their rewrite gigs. It’s not their usual quality, either, being a predictable awards bait flick.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance... a lot of great names were attached to this Cold War legal thriller, an excellent and tense take on the old-school espionage movie. But don’t let those guys take all the credit - much of its success was down to the script from the Coens and Matt Charman.

42 So Westeros isn’t connected to the Wild Cards Universe then? No. [Laughs] No.

Master of

THRONES Words: Ed FortunE

George Raymond Richard Martin needs little introduction. The writer has mastered the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres over his long career. He’s best known for the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which were adapted into the GAME OF THRONES TV series. His work also includes superhero anthology series Wild Cards, Fevre Dream and the 1980s version of the TV show Beauty and The Beast. Martin is a regular at the annual science fiction book event Worldcon. We caught up with him at the 75th event in Helsinki to find out what he’s been up to… STARBURST: You’re an editor, a producer, a novelist. How would you describe yourself? George R. R. Martin: I think a storyteller is a good phrase. Of all those jobs, I’ve enjoyed them all, but writer is first and foremost. If you could go back in time and start writing A Song of Ice and Fire knowing what you know now, what would be different? I’d write it faster! I’d begin it earlier and I’d probably stick with it. I started it in 1991 but I was doing a lot of other things at the time. After ‘91, I sort of put it aside for most of ‘92 and didn’t get back to it until ‘94. The regret I have about Ice and Fire is that it’s not done yet. There are still two books to write. The show has caught up and passed me, which I never thought would happen. So if I had to do it over again, I’d try to finish the entire sequence before the show was over. But it is what it is, we’re not living in an alternate world, we are here now. It’s turned out pretty well for all concerned, so I’m pretty happy with that. Like it or not, many fans feel a sense of ownership towards the Game of Thrones characters. How do you respond to your reputation for killing off beloved characters? [Laughs a warm, deep and hearty chuckle] Y’know, it’s amusing that I have this reputation as a bloodthirsty slaughterer of characters. I know a lot of other authors who have killed

off plenty more characters in their books. I don’t know where these reputations come from. They fasten on you and are impossible to escape. I do believe you have to kill some characters, especially early on, to establish that you are playing for real. The jeopardy that your characters are exposed to could be fatal. I’ve come to this conviction through a lifetime of being a reader and a viewer, as well as a writer and a creator. Knowing what I like and what I don’t like when I read, I want the tension to be visceral. When I read a book with a hero, a best friend, a girlfriend and all that and you know they’re going to make it all the way through no matter how dark it seems, I’m not generally thrilled with that kind of book. It seems to me they’re just going through the motions. The suspense is faux suspense. I really want to put my readers on the edge of their seat and for them to have a very strong emotional response to whatever is happening. Particularly to scenes of danger and jeopardy, I want them to feel as if their own life is in peril. Do you get a thrill looking at the various fan conspiracy theories? I don’t read many theories these days. Back in the ‘90s and the early ‘00s, I would go on fan sites and read some pretty amazing and outlandish theories, but I’ve not done that for a while.

Has the success of the series changed the way you write? Does killing a character off in a certain way give it a type of fame? I can’t say I’ve ever considered it that way. One thing that does change when you have a television show is that you come to know the actors who are portraying these characters, which does in some way make it more difficult to kill them. When you’re writing, the characters only exist as words on a page; it hopefully will have a powerful effect and the readership will get a memorable scene. When you kill a character on a television show, you’re firing one of your actors. From being on one of the most popular shows on television to looking for your next job, that’s a tricky situation. You do become friendly with the actors and you’d hate to do that to someone you like. I was fortunate in the case of this particular show, I already had four books written before they even started filming. A lot of the characters were already dead. Some of the actors on the show to this day haven’t read my books because they don’t know when they’re going to die. With Winds of Winter, I was very cognisant that it might cost somebody their job. Though to be fair, David and Dan, the showrunners of Game of Thrones, have proven to be far more bloodthirsty than I. There are probably twenty characters who are dead in the show but alive in the books. A number of those characters are going to die in the books eventually, but maybe not the same way they died on the show. There are other characters who are not going to die at all, who have very different fates. Talking of killing characters; if you’d written Harry Potter, would you have killed one of Harry, Ron, or Hermione? I don’t think J. K. Rowling would want me writing Harry Potter. I probably would have killed off one of them. She did kill off Dumbledore, who was a pretty big character. Tolkien never did that. He did make us think he’d killed off Gandalf, but then he brought him back in a different coloured dress. But Dumbledore really did die a death. Rowling did do her own fair share of killing. What can you tell us about the Game of Thrones spin-offs? I’m working on five different ideas with five different writers. I don’t actually like the term spin-off, by the way. A spin-off is where you take a character from an existing show and spin them off into a sequel. None of these shows we are considering are going to spin-off any characters. All of them are prequels, not sequels. They’re all set at different times in the world I have created, so I call them successor shows. It’s not me who’s rejecting or accepting ideas, that’s up to HBO. We are guaranteed to get out of this development process at least one show that will follow Game of Thrones on the air, and maybe we’ll get more, maybe two or three. It’s really too early to tell. Are we done with Dunk and Egg? I’m not done with Dunk and Egg, but it’s not going to be one of the successor shows. I did offer it to them, but HBO is not interested in that arena. I’ve written three novelettes for Dunk and Egg and they’ve been turned into successful graphic novels. I want to write more stories; they’re still quite young. How many more it will take; six, eight, ten, who can say? My plan, such as it is, is to finish Winds of Winter and then

43 write a Dunk and Egg novella before I jump into A Dream of Spring, the final book. Then I can write more Dunk and Egg. Talking about comics, is it true you were first published in the letters column of a Marvel comic? Yes, the first one was Fantastic Four #20. I had seven or eight letters in various Marvel comics in the years that followed. Fantastic Four was the first one. Would you write for Marvel these days? In 1971, when I graduated from college, I applied for a job as a writer with Marvel. But they didn’t hire me. They did have me in for an interview, so I got that far. But they chose not to have me. I look back at my life and think my life could be very, very different if they’d said to me “Here, come aboard, we’re giving you Ant-Man.” Who knows where I would be today or what I would have done? At this stage, though, no. I’m too old and I’ve developed my own voice and I have a great deal of love and affection for the comic book characters of my youth, particularly the Marvel pantheon, but I don’t necessarily like what they’ve become in this day and age. I hate all these endless reboots and restarts and retcons that mess up the continuity that has been established. I think the frustrated comic book fanboy that never got to write for Marvel comics in the ‘70s finally got to do it his own way when I created the Wild Cards series. That’s my own superhero universe. Mine and the forty other writers who have helped create it with me! We’ve got twenty-three Wild Cards books in print and four more originals in the pipeline. We are reissuing the old ones and more graphic novels are coming out and we are talking about a TV show - possibly more than one - all interlocking with each other. Marvel has got their own stable of writers who are on top of their universe, but I’ve got the Wild Card universe. Wild Cards showcased a lot of talent over the years, what can expect to see next? The Wild Cards book that I’m working on right now is actually going to be a lot of fun because it’s set entirely in the British Isles. In some ways, it’s a parallel story to the first Wild Cards book, which was a historical volume. The Wild Cards universe spins off on September 15th, 1946. In the first volume, we go up to 1986, which was the present when that came up. This does the same thing but in England in 1946. As the years pass, we see the heroes, villains, jokers, and aces that come up in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. To do that, we have some of our regular Wild Cards writers and we have one British writer, Paul Cornell, who was active

in previous volumes. We have also added some new British writers to our mix. We have Mark Lawrence, who’s an amazing writer, and Emma and Peter Newman, and Peadar ó Guilín. Talking of British stories, what happened to the Jack the Ripper novel? Never finished that. An unfinished book or story, you never really forget about it. It’s stillborn. You wish you could go back and bring it back to life someday. I don’t know, maybe when I’ve finished Ice and Fire and the Dunk and Egg stories and I have my copious spare time, then maybe. About 200 pages exist, but I’m a very different person from when I wrote those pages back in 1984. It’s been a long journey with the Song of Ice and Fire novels. Has the essential essence changed over the years? I don’t think it’s changed. I don’t plot out my books ahead of time the way some people do. I like to say there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects draw blueprints and they know the square footage of everything and every detail before they saw a piece of wood or drive a nail. The gardeners go out and plant a seed. They hope something cool comes up and they tend to it and shape it as it grows. No writer is completely one or the other, but I’m very much a gardener not an architect. That said, I do know the broad strokes and have known those for decades. So much fantasy is compared to Tolkien, and your work frequently is. Which authors inspire you? Well, you threw Dad in there. Which opens up all the people who influenced me when I was young and Tolkien was certainly one of them. I encountered The Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager. Before that, Robert A. Heinlein had a huge effect on me, his juveniles, starting with Have Space Suit Will Travel. The Dean of Science Fiction, he was called. He had an immense influence on me. Lovecraft is one of the greatest horror writers of all time; him, Stephen King, and Edgar Allan Poe are the big three, no one else comes close. Later on, Jack Vance, one of those writers who kept going into his ‘90s and still as good throughout. He was equally adept at fantasy, he didn’t write a lot of fantasy but it was superb, especially the Dying Earth and the Lyonesse books. Why do you think fantasy is back in such a big way? I think there’s a hunger in human beings for colour; for imagination. Larger than life adventures. Romanticism, as it used to be called, the romance of the romantic poets. It’s interesting to look at fantasy and science fiction, two sisters separated at

birth. When I was young, science fiction was so much more popular than fantasy. Tolkien had a big part with changing that, so did Judy-Lynn del Rey, who proved that Tolkien wasn’t a unique phenomenon. They really created the genre today. But that’s only part of the answer. Why did science fiction become less popular? I think that has to do with fundamental changes in society. When I was a kid, fantasy was unbelievable stuff about knights and fairies. Science fiction felt real, we believed in progress and the world of tomorrow. We were going to have flying cars and jet packs. We were going to go to the stars. But the truth is, we’ve lost faith in all of that. Space feels like a thing that has been abandoned. We can’t look to tomorrow, so we look to other worlds and the dreams of fantasy that have become more tangible. Is it fiction’s job to inspire a better world? I think the job of fiction is to enrich our lives. In my books, I say a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, a man who does not read lives only one. I think that’s true. You’re a lifelong fan of the convention scene but science fiction fandom has grown greatly over the years. How has it changed? There have been changes. There’s a lot of continuity, of course, which is one of the things I like about science fiction fandom and convention fandom, in particular. There’s a sense of history here. When you attend Worldcon you’re attending a convention that goes all the way back to 1939, and a convention that has always been about community rather than profit, unlike some of the other mega conventions that have sprung up round the world. They’re much larger than Worldcon now, but they’re shows. They even use that word, show. You buy a ticket. In Worldcon, you buy a membership; it’s an important difference. The community of science fiction fandom is one that I’m proud to be a part of. When I first stumbled on it in 1971, there was a sense that I’d found a community that I wanted to be a part of. MISSISSIPPI ROLL: A WILD CARDS NOVEL edited by George R. R. Martin and featuring Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Carrie Vaughn David D. Levine, and Cherie Priest is out in December 5th.

if it bleeds ... 30 Years of PREDATOR by James Evans

As the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring jungle-set hunter film reaches its thirtieth year, STARBURST celebrates one of the best and most popular genre mash-ups…

ie Hard came out in 1988, directed by John McTiernan and catapulting Bruce Willis to big screen fame. It’s still considered the near-perfect action thriller by a large number of people and set a template for a lot that has followed since. It’s worth mentioning this because Die Hard gets a mostly unanimous critical assessment that has transcended any notion of genre and avoids that pitfall of many classic films that are labelled ‘action’ or ‘horror’ or whatever else, being dismissed as ‘just’ a good example of its style. But the year before, McTiernan had made another film that can seriously compete with Willis’ skyscraperset thriller as one of the best examples of action film made in that decade, and indeed any since cinema was born. We speak, of course, about Predator. It’s been thirty years since the first film in the franchise came out and so what better time to examine just what makes Arnie’s jungle sci-fi-action-slasher so special? So the movie legend goes, after Rocky Balboa had defeated the metaphorical might of Mother Russia contained within one man Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, a joke did the rounds in Hollywood circles that, having ended the Cold War single-handedly, Rocky’s next move could only be a fight with an alien. Whether true or not, it’s from this probably apocryphal story that the legend contends Predator was born as a gonna-be-low-budget sci-fi script called Hunter. Though not literally with Rocky as its central character, you understand. That

movie is still to come (Creed 3, anyone?). Anyway, the script found its way to megaproducer Joel Silver and 20th Century Fox and was retooled as a big budget action flick to star the Austrian Oak himself, Arnie. At this stage, McTiernan had directed only one film (for which he had also written the script), the horror movie Nomads starring Pierce Brosnan. Schwarzenegger was impressed by Nomads and decided on the basis of it that the young director would be the right guy to helm Predator. Production was not a smooth process, with much of the problem focusing on the creature of the Predator itself, which was threatening to seriously undermine the film. Intended to be a fearsome, fast-moving creature, it just didn’t stack up against the muscle men that filled the cast. If you check out the novelisation of the movie or do a cursory Internet search, there are descriptions and test footage of the first attempt at a suit that will only make you thankful that McTiernan consulted special effects legend Stan Winston about making it vastly better for the finished product. But when you do, spare a thought for poor JeanClaude Van Damme, who suffered the ignominy of running about in the rubbish suit in said footage before (maybe thankfully) getting fired. The rest of the production was, by all reports, a gruelling endurance test of diarrhoea, stagnant water, cold temperatures and other assorted problems that made everyone involved glad when filming was done.

45 Predator would be released on June 12th, 1987 and go on to be a sizeable hit with audiences. It would not, however, be a hit with critics of the time. Much of the criticism took aim at the ‘thin’ script and slight plot with words or derivations of used to describe Predator including dull, feeble, empty and lacking in surprise. There were some complimentary reports that liked the film and almost all of these contemporary reviews pick out to recommend what has become Predator’s legacy in the intervening years: that it is an uncommonly lean, tense and exciting action classic. There are many reasons Predator has endured as not just a tentpole of Arnie’s filmography, or as an eighties action hit, but a film that gave life to a franchise and is beloved by many. Let’s explore more reasons Predator is so well-loved. We’ll start with the Governator himself, one of cinema’s least likely and at the same time inevitable stars, Arnold. At the time Predator came out, Schwarzenegger had finally landed the worldwide stardom he coveted after his successful body-building career had come to a close. First as the barbarian Conan, then as the titular Terminator in James Cameron’s 1984 classic, following that with the quintessential 1980s action man in Commando, Arnie had shown that physicality and charisma trumped acting ability or range when it came to cinematic heroes. Schwarzenegger became a star at almost definitely the best time for him - in any other decade, it’s unlikely he would have made it, but the eighties embraced the ludicrous and over-pumped unlike any other in film’s history (even more than the sword and sorcery peplum flicks of the fifties and sixties). With Arnie, it’s not about such nebulous concepts as being ‘good’ at acting, it’s just about enjoying the spectacle. That’s not to say that he hasn’t given good performances and grown into his abilities; it’s more to recognise that at the time of Predator, Arnie exemplified the musclebound superhero better than anyone else (we say that with a respectful tip of the hat to Sly). And in Predator, he does it very well. We’re not really in any doubt he will beat the odds but he certainly takes punishment when confronting the creature. Before then, as the crack unit’s

capable leader Dutch, Schwarzenegger does a fine job of suspending our disbelief that he can be a military leader, just as we were convinced he was a commando or a gloryseeking barbarian. If anyone can extract the stranded official from insurgents deep in the jungle, it’s Dutch. We have to also recognise the importance of the supporting cast. Dutch’s ill-fated unit is made up of characters distinct from each other, with three of them almost worthy of a

spin-off prequel in their own right. First up, there’s a couple of less interesting squad members in Richard Chaves and Shane Black (yep, the one who wrote Lethal Weapon and numerous others). We then have Jesse Ventura as Blain, the tobacco-chewing ‘goddam sexual Tyrannosaurus’ whose weapon of choice is a Minigun. Ventura is a veteran, former WWE wrestler and (some ten years after Predator) governor of Minnesota. He’s had a storied and colourful life that nearly rivals Arnie. 1987 was a good year for Ventura as he kicked off an acting career, also appearing in Schwarzenegger’s other hit, The Running Man. Next up is the late Sonny Landham as Billy, the man of few words (but a deep laugh) but imposing stature and a doomy instinct that whatever is hunting them in the jungle is going to kill them all. Finally, there’s Bill Duke as Mac, best buddies with Blain and determined to exact revenge on the creature for what befalls them. Duke was also great in Commando, Action Jackson, and Menace II Society. Not only that, but Duke went on to direct some excellent films, Deep Cover and A Rage in Harlem just two of many. These men make up a great support for Arnie and they’re characters you actually care about, rather than the disposable cannon fodder of similar films. That brings us to Dillon, played by Carl Weathers. Dillon is a former colleague of Dutch and now a company (i.e. CIA) tiewearing asshole who tags along on the mission (really, he’s meant to be leading the expedition but c’mon, it’s Arnie, after all). Although he’s a former football player, at the time Weathers was more famous as Apollo Creed in the Rocky series. He makes Dillon a

46 great character and it’s worth recognising here where the film deviates from cliché. For a start, Dillon and Dutch are friends; there’s no bad blood between them. Add to this at no point is Dillon a coward or stupid. He’s doing his job to start off with and yeah, he puts his friend in mortal danger but he’s still a pretty likeable asshole. Weathers is all charm and nearly as musclebound as Arnie and makes Dillon a rounded character who you root for too. Next, we have to give some love to Alan Silvestri’s wonderful score. Silvestri had written the music for Back to the Future, which is an undeniable classic, but his work on Predator is just as good. His score is loud and propulsive and complements the many action sequences by amplifying not just the tension but the horror involved, too. It’s the type of score that becomes a character in its own right and one you couldn’t imagine the movie not having. The Predator itself is a great creation and shows the instinct to go back to the drawing board and create something better for the film’s villain was a good idea. Stan Winston’s design brings the Predator to life as an imposingly tall, genuinely alien looking creation. There’s elements of Earth-bound species like lizard in the make-up and clearly the Predator is humanoid, but when it finally takes off the mask and reveals itself to us at the movie’s concluding fight with Dutch, his response is entirely justified. As inhabited by actor Kevin Peter Hall, it would go on to become a truly iconic piece of movie history and help bring about a franchise that continues to this day. There is an argument made that the Predator design has some unpleasant racial undertones to it, which has some merit and is there if you choose to look for it, but frankly, there are bigger problems in the world to conquer first.

the following year with Die Hard and throughout his filmography, McTiernan knows how to stage tense action sequences and pull a film together into something genuinely exciting. He does that here with Predator and the results are a confident, ruthlessly efficient action movie that has atmosphere in abundance. It’s in no small part thanks to McTiernan that Predator became hugely popular at the box office and on home video, because it really delivers. Although McTiernan’s later career became mired in controversy and even jail time, which seemed to bring it to an end, Predator is one of the films that cements his legacy as a craftsman of frequently great movies.

We can also give praise to McTiernan’s direction. As he would demonstrate again

Despite the violence and grimness of the film, it’s worth also pointing out there’s a

sense of fun here. As the unit fly into their jungle landing, Blain plays Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally and we’re there with them in the excitement and anticipation. We enjoy Hawkins’ attempts to make Billy laugh with crude jokes. There’s the end credits with their truly cheesy ‘turn to the camera’ cast rundown. Add to that the fact it’s an endlessly quotable film. Blain delivers a lot of this with lines like his “I ain’t got time to bleed” retort after someone notices he’s been hit in an attack, but Duke delivers his fair share, too. Of course, there’s Arnie’s now-immortal “Get to the chopper!” We could go on. This all wraps Predator up as a film that defined its time, but delivers like a classic should upon subsequent reviewings. Critical appreciation has caught up with audiences, too. Though dismissed at the time, all of these points that make Predator special are now acknowledged, with the film showing up frequently on ‘best of’ lists and top action movie charts. The franchise that Predator launched has continued as well. A very fine sequel starring Danny Glover and featuring Gary Busey and Bill Paxton arrived three years later and is a worthy follow-up (though it too was not a critical hit at the time) and now holds a cult status. Between that film and another sequel in 2010 entitled Predators, the franchise expanded into games, books, comics and all kinds of merchandise. There were also two Alien vs. Predator movies that have their fans, despite generally being considered grade-A bobbins. The point being, of course, is that something about the film resonated with audiences and had them wanting more. There’s more still to come too, with Shane Black himself writing and directing the next film in the series, The Predator, due in 2018. Black’s stated aim is to take the Predator back to the intimate scale of the original. Black is a well-respected screenwriter and director of movies like Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys, so a lot of people have high hopes for what he can achieve. If he can recapture the magic of that first film then, he could really be onto something special. Predator will be back in selected cinemas on November 9th.

STARBURST takes a look at </SCORPION>, a US TV show that may well have passed you by but is well worth checking out if you’re a fan of the likes of MR ROBOT and CSI…

magine if Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory had assembled his own version of The A-Team. Imagined it? Well, as flippant a comparison as that might be, it goes some way to offering a sense of what CBS show </SCORPION> is about. Instead of ex-Special Forces, each with their own individual, very specific set of skills, here we have a team of highly intelligent outsiders (and rather geeky outsiders at that), each with their own specific set of skills. Sound interesting? Well, in all honesty, it is, but there is also a curious background to the story - a background that follows the truth-isstranger-than-fiction adage, and one which rather adds to the interest. Walter O’Brien was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1975. Growing up on a farm, he attended the local school before continuing his education at the University of Sussex, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science and artificial intelligence. So far, so relatively normal. Except for one or two rather interesting ‘facts’. O’Brien claims to have an IQ of 197 - possibly the fourth highest ever recorded and that aged just 13, he hacked into NASA under the pseudonym ‘Scorpion’; apparently, the teenager wanted to put blueprints of the

space shuttle on his wall. He also claims that this led to his arrest by Homeland Security, but due to non-disclosure agreements signed at the time, cannot reveal any more ‘facts’ about the event. Since then, he and Homeland Security have remained ‘in touch’, and O’Brien now runs Scorpion Computer Services, a think tank of geniuses. Although this sounds very much like the standard preamble to a pilot show and too fantastical to be remotely true, and that may well be the case, O’Brien is very much a real person. He also stands firmly behind those claims to this day, although their validity is often questioned, and they remain unproven and unconfirmed. But, regardless of the legitimacy of the story, it does provide an intriguing basis upon which to produce a television show, and one that a few of Hollywood’s elite players including Alex Kurtzman (The Mummy, Star Trek), Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek Beyond) and Roberto Orci (Transformers, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) decided to take on. When transported into the sandbox world of television drama, O’Brien’s mythical background and history becomes fantastic stock material for writers, and compares

favourably to anything in the Marvel or DC Universes; although in those worlds, O’Brien would undoubtedly be the villain, a genius gone bad. Here, however, he can be portrayed as the ‘nerd with a conscience’; a superintelligent computer expert who, along with his equally eccentrically natured friends, can offer assistance and help with problems noone else in the world is equipped to deal with. Taking on the lead role is Elyes Gabel, an actor who brings a necessary vulnerability to the character of O’Brien, while still retaining a little Sheldon-like disconnect with the larger world. Balancing that awkwardness is Homeland Security handler Cabe Gallo, played by former Terminator and fan favourite Robert Patrick. Patrick lends authority to the show, blending charismatic officialdom and fatherly protection with the experience of a film and television veteran. Jadyn Wong (Happy Quinn, mechanical engineer) and Ari Stidham (Sylvester Dodd, hypersensitive ‘human calculator’) add to the team, alongside American Pie alumnus Eddie Kaye Thomas as behaviourist Toby Curtis. Perhaps the most interesting character on the team, and one who joins following the pilot episode, is Paige Dineen.

Played by Katharine McPhee, Paige is the token ‘normal’ person in the group. Her purpose is to liaise with clients and, well, anyone who encounters the team, providing empathy and understanding in situations generally too emotionally fraught or real for them to handle. As such, she plays the layman to O’Brien’s genius, allowing the explanation of complicated problems, and the complex solutions to said problems, to be less expositional and patronising than they could have been. So, with all these interesting elements thrown together, what is it about </SCORPION> as a show that makes it interesting? Firstly, it’s in the realism. While most of us may not fully appreciate the daily tribulations of being a genius in our particular field - although here at STARBURST we do believe our readers rank in the higher echelons of the population the characters remain likeably relatable. The quirks and foibles displayed may be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but behind them are normal people just trying to get along. Add to that a wit and humour often more akin to a sitcom than a drama, and you have a firm footing for the show. Secondly, there’s the heightened

realism. When the opening episode features a set piece in which a sports car is being driven along a runway at top speed while a passenger jet flies just thirty feet above, and the co-pilot is hanging on the undercarriage trying to pass an Ethernet cable to someone in the car who’s working a laptop, you know you’re in for some extreme scenarios. The remit of the Scorpion team is to protect the world from complex new threats that the ordinary authorities are unable to handle, and the showrunners have certainly run with that mantra. If we also add that Justin Lin, who’s helmed a couple of films in the Fast & Furious franchise, directed that episode, you know you’re in for something spectacular. The interactions between the characters are also key to the show, and much of the credit must go to the actors. Reeling off line after line of complicated, equation-riddled rhetoric with charm and conviction is not an easy skill, but each one inhabits their character with an air of comfort and ease. You instantly accept that these are people, Paige and Gallo aside, who have lived and worked together for some time. At the head of that is their leader Gabel; for the most part sympathetic to his

cohorts, but also tough when necessary, he bonds the group and provides the focal point for their adventures together. There are a lot of television shows available now, an awful lot, so choosing a new one to begin is often a tough decision. What </SCORPION> brings is genre-spanning entertainment; drama mixed with action, all warmly wrapped around characters you’ll actually care about within a very short space of time. This isn’t a show that can draw on the resources of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., tackle the tension of 24 or reproduce the wit and dialogue of Sherlock. But what </SCORPION> does is draw on the strengths of those three shows - and many others - combining them to produce a truly enjoyable series that challenges you not to be entertained. Groundbreaking it may not be, but </SCORPION> is a show that fills a gap, a show that never takes itself too seriously and one that carries you along for the ride, purely for the hell of it. And remember, it actually might all be true… </SCORPION> will premiere on CBS Action on November 22nd at 19:00, continuing every weekday. Sky 148, Virgin 192, Freeview 39, and Freesat 137.

50 STARBURST: Tell us about A Man of Shadows… Jeff Noon: It’s a detective science fiction story, which is a combination of genres I’ve always wanted to explore. I’ve kind of explored them in the past in little ways but this is my first serious attempt at it. It was fun to write. I like crime and I like SF so it seemed a natural thing to bring them together in some ways and bring my own particular style to it. A Man of Shadows feels very different from your early work such as Vurt. How has your work evolved? When I get an idea for something, I take time to just explore. The style and language emerges from that process of experimentation. Sometimes you get a story and you think ‘that’s quite experimental, that can be weird, and that’s a natural home for that’. Other times you get a story and it just needs to be told. A Man of Shadows was at the edge of that spectrum for me. I find it very difficult to know if I’m changing or moving on or going backwards or simplifying or getting more complex because you’re just in the work. You put yourself into it and explore the language, you have fun with it and have fun with the story. I know I wanted to write a proper detective story because I’ve been reading crime for a number of years now, I’ve always loved the noir tradition so I wanted to bring those elements in.

NOON AT MIDNIGHT WOrDS: ED FOrtuNE

Fantasy wordsmith JEFF NOON has just released his eighth novel, A MAN OF SHADOWS. We sat down with the cyberpunk author to find out all about it...

Why did you decide to take noir so literally? The basic idea of the story is that this city where Private Eye John Nyquist works is split into three areas. The main area is Dayzone, where the lights never go out so it’s lit all the time. There are no shadows, or very few. I read a book once called Crime Solei. It denotes a series of films in the ‘40s and ‘50s that are mainly set in the desert and all about men or women who are on the run in these desert towns where the sun is just beating down. I was always quite interested in that. They are noir, it’s just that you can see everything, there’s nowhere to hide. So that was a big part of the Dayzone. There’s another part, Nocturna. In this city, you have to travel toward darkness. You can’t wait for darkness because night will never fall. You travel to it if you want to do night-time activities. Sleep, play, going out into the dark, whatever you want to do, you’ve got to go there. This seems to be a good thing for a Private Eye to do; leave the light to enter the darkness whilst in pursuit of a crime. How do you map a city like that in your mind’s eye? The idea came from reading about areas of Tokyo, which I think might be called Dayzones, where the lights never go out and the bars never close and the video games stay on. They’re open 24 hours and they’re always bright and vibrant. That was the main thing I took for Dayzone. When I create a science fiction location, I’m really interested in exhausting that location. I want to explore every part of it and I want each part of it to have a different atmosphere. So I made sure that Nyquist, on his quest, travels to many, many different areas. High class, low class, night, dusk, daylight. At one point, he even enters a place called Midnight, where there is no time. So time is different in this world?

51 What’s happened in this city is because it’s cut off completely from the night and day, and is cut off from the seasons and the moon and the sun, time is governed completely by human desire. Every citizen can create their own timescale and live to it. I thought that was a really interesting thing in terms of a character who’s having trouble negotiating that world because it’s a very complex thing. So if you want to meet someone, it has to be on their scale. So Nyquist is constantly adjusting his watch. When I was researching this, I learned that before the International Time Lines were set, if you travelled through America by train you’d have to change your pocket watch at least thirty times. So we’ve gone back to a world where time has dissolved completely. People are cast adrift, though for some of them it’s difficult because their body clocks are so messed with. Your early work has a lot of your home town of Manchester in it, is that still true for this book? I can certainly see maybe there is. I kind of vowed when I left Manchester that I wouldn’t spend all my time devoted to one city. I live in Brighton now, but I have no intention to write about Brighton the same way that I wrote about Manchester. What I’ve been doing since then is I’ve been creating imaginary cities. But, of course, you can never really escape. There’s a little bit of the old and new Manchester in it. What gets you up in the morning? Words. I just love writing. I want to give pleasure to the reader. I want to astonish myself on a daily basis. I love music, I’ve just started writing music again after many years of not doing so. Just playing tunes on the guitar. I read a lot, I love to read novels. Novels and music sustain, I’ve really got into being inspired by writers. I love language and telling mad stories. Who are you currently reading? Mainly crime. A few years ago, I became completely obsessed with Jo Nesbø. I read all these thrillers two or three times. To my detriment because I could predict the story. I’d cracked the code, which was sad. I love to read old American noir books as well. Why are we so obsessed with murder and death? I’m actually currently working on a straight crime novel. I say straight, it’s a crime novel, but there’s no SF in it. No fantasy in it. I’m really going into that world. What I did was create a really exciting reason as to why somebody should kill someone else. That’s an extraordinary thing to think about. I told a friend of mine who is a crime writer and he said ‘you’ve got to write that book’. So what I think it’s really about for a writer is motive. Why do we kill? It’s an extraordinarily human act, therefore the motive will also be extraordinarily human. It’s the extreme end of humanity and I’m very interested in that. When the detective comes in, the only way you work out how they did it is to work out why they did it, and that fascinates me. What other projects are still on your to do list? The last Vurt book. I’ve got an idea for it. Not sure when I’ll do it, but I’ve got a title, I’ve got a first chapter, and I’ve got lots of notes for it and the return of Squiggle. I’ve got to do that. They’re bringing out the Vurt roleplaying game. The book has grown and grown. It’s really funny and interesting to

look at that world, which is basically my skull brought to life so people can walk through it and play in it. I’m not really a games player so I’ll have to be introduced to it in a friendly way. The people who have done the book probably know about the world more than I do now, so if I ever have a problem with book four, I can send them a question [laughs]. It’s very useful.

few notes. I was looking at an old computer of mine and I found a Vurt script I wrote probably around the ‘90s. I’d made it very street, there wasn’t a lot of SF in it. I’d obviously tried to do a low budget version of it. The film script version that I saw recently isn’t like that at all, it’s much closer to the book. It was fascinating to look at the old version that I had done, though.

Are we likely to see the Vurt play return? It’s unlikely because it’s a very big production. The film is the closest it’s ever been to being real; I can’t say more than that because things can easily fall away in the film industry, but it’s close.

What advice would you have for the sixteenyear-old version of yourself? Next year you are going to discover the most important thing you’ll ever discover in your life, so get ready for it. It will guide you and make you into a writer and artist. Though that might ruin it. I’d say just get ready.

How does one even start to make Vurt a movie? Would we all need feathers? I haven’t touched the script apart from a

A MAN OF SHADOWS is out now via Angry Robot books. The VURT RPG is coming to your friendly local games store this winter.

SUBSPACE RELAY

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Those Discovery Uniforms Explained

One of the most common criticisms of Discovery is how its look specifically the design of the ships and Starfleet uniforms - is at odds with those previously established. Discovery opens in 2256, two years after The Cage, which had a radically different design for the Enterprise and entirely different uniforms. While the real-life explanation is that the two programmes were made over half a century apart and that The Cage’s budget probably wouldn’t cover the cost of catering on Discovery, we now have the official explanation, courtesy of the first Discovery novel, Desperate Hours by David Mack. The novel sees the crew of the U.S.S. Shenzhou team up with the Enterprise crew, leading Gant, one of the Shenzhou’s bridge officers to make the following observation: “Gant and his team from the Shenzhou wore dark blue Starfleet utility jumpsuit uniforms with black trim, while the Enterprise team sported pale gold or light blue jerseys over black trousers - a new uniform style that so far had been issued exclusively to the crews of Starfleet’s vaunted Constitution-class starships.” The radical difference in ship design is explained by Spock: “It was clear to him that the two ships had been designed and constructed in different eras, according to very different aesthetic standards. Such drastic changes in a short span of time were not unusual among the humans of Earth, though it had proved a constant source of bemusement among their Vulcan and Andorian allies.” Discovery marks the first time in Trek that tie-in novels and comics are all considered canon (indeed, one of the show’s writers, Kirsten Beyer is tasked with ensuring it all remains consistent), so this is the official in-canon explanation of the difference. It also chimes with the previous announcement that the look of Discovery will evolve to be closer to the more colourful Original Series aesthetic during the course of the show’s run, and leaves open the possibility of the older designs showing up should the Discovery ever encounter a Constitution-class ship. Whilst it’s a bit of a stretch, it’s not without precedent in Trek canon. When The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine were both on air, the two crews sported different uniforms, with the older, TNG uniforms being gradually faded out in favour of DS9’s darker versions, which were later adopted by Voyager. And the dark and moody look of the Enterprise E, Defiant, and Voyager are a world away from the hotel-in-space look of the Enterprise D, launched under a decade earlier. Doesn’t explain the hologram communications or Klingons though…

ALL THE NEWS FROM THE WORLDS OF STAR TREK WITH IAIN ROBERTSON

DISCOVERY ratings

Although CBS was predicting Discovery to be a hit, the success of the show has taken them somewhat by surprise. The first episode that was broadcast on the network, The Vulcan Hello, achieved around ten million viewers originally, and around fifteen once catch-up ratings were added on. The network also reported its biggest surge in subscriptions for CBS Access, the streaming platform that will host the rest of the series. Meanwhile, and somewhat predictably, a lot of people have been watching Discovery in various naughty ways, with the pilot making it to number eleven in Pirate Bay’s most searched-for show list. Many US-based fans have been complaining about CBS putting the series on its subscription service. However, we UK fans who want to watch new Trek legally have had to pay for Netflix or Sky since the TNG days, so all we can say is suck it up.

Discovering Season Two

With Discovery being a better than expected success for CBS, a second season is virtually guaranteed. Don’t hold your breath, though, as executive producer Alex Kurtzman reckons it could be early 2019 before we see it. “There have been preliminary conversations about when and how [it could air] and we’ve been very consistent in our message, which is that rather than announce a date and have to push again, let’s take into consideration everything we’ve learned from this season” he said. “Now we know what we can do and where the sand traps are, so let’s give ourselves ample time to announce a date that makes sense to everybody - both the needs of production and CBS.” This marks a distinct contrast to the first season, which, as we all know, débuted eight months later than initially planned. He also revealed that the writers have a number of story ideas for the second season already. We’ve also had a minor adjustment to this season, with nine of the fifteen episodes now airing before November’s mid-season break, instead of the originally planned eight. The remaining six will air from January.

Netflix’s Most Watched

Those lovely folk over at Netflix - who host every episode of Trek - have revealed their ten most re-watched episodes. And it’s, well, a bit odd. You’d fully expect the best series and episodes to be featured prominently and, well, you’d be dead wrong. There’s no Original

Series or Deep Space Nine whatsoever, or Enterprise for that matter. In fact, it’s mainly Voyager, and bar a couple of random entries at nine and ten, the list consists entirely of Borg episodes. And while we like a bit of Borg action, there are many, many better episodes. Perhaps tales of mindless automatons click with a section of Netflix’s audience for some reason? So, no City on the Edge of Forever, All Good Things, Inner Light, Arena, In the Pale Moonlight. In fact, Best of Both Worlds aside, none of the generally acknowledged ‘best episodes ever’ make the cut. Instead, we get this rather random list: 1. Endgame parts 1 & 2 (VOY) 2. Best of Both Worlds part 1 (TNG) 3. Best of Both Worlds part 2 (TNG) 4. Scorpion part 1 (VOY) 5. Scorpion part 2 (VOY) 6. The Gift (VOY) 7. Dark Frontier parts 1 & 2 (VOY) 8. Q Who? (TNG) 9. Time and Again (VOY) 10. Clues (TNG) It’s worthwhile nothing that the list was produced prior to Discovery’s début, so it’ll be interesting to see if Trek’s latest, Borg-less incarnation can make the same impact.

Tarantino Expresses Vague Interest in TREK, Fans Get Over-Excited

When Paramount eventually get round to making another Trek film, they may have an unlikely A-list choice of director. None other than Quentin Tarantino has suggested he’d be interested in taking the reins of the Enterprise (yes, we know the Enterprise doesn’t have reins, it’s a clichéd metaphor). In a recently unearthed 2015 interview, the director was asked if he’d be interested in directing a Star Wars film. He replied that he was more of a Trek fan, praising the 2009 reboot, but stating he wasn’t a fan of Into Darkness. He also noted that Yesterday’s Enterprise had great potential for a film adaptation. When the subject was recently brought up again, Tarantino stated “it would be worth having a meeting about,” if Paramount was interested. Don’t hold your breath, though. He’s currently prepping his ninth movie, about the Manson family, and has stated many times that he intends to retire from directing after his tenth. Much as we love Tarantino, we can’t see him wanting to go out on a Trek movie, so we’re going to file this under ‘never going to happen’.

And finally…

Straightforward. But times change. Finances change. So strategies must change, too.

nothing. That’s the script’s name. Its author is Chris Bryans.

Downloading the script is two clicks away. Another click for feedback. chrisbryans.wixsite.com/nothing Tag line: Alzheimer’s in reverse.

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We know we’re a month late with this one, but STArBUrST would like to wish The Next Generation a Happy 30th Birthday. The pilot, Encounter at Farpoint, aired September 28th, 1987. Hey, Deep Space Nine turns 25 next year, we promise to remember that one. Probably.

Write script. Send script. Script gets read. Script is liked/disliked.

Teaser: Suddenly, nothing was what everybody wanted. Thank you.

FROM THE DESK OF THE STARBURST TREKOLOGIST B. JONES

Exchanging Russians for Aliens and Talking Vegetables!

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hout it out loud - Star Trek: The Animated Series! Twenty-two all-new episodes featuring original stories focusing on the original Enterprise crew, written by some of the original writers. How amazing was it that in 1973 we got new Trek episodes from the original series universe? Created by Filmation, the series was critically acclaimed and was the first Star Trek series to win an Emmy Award when its second season won the 1975 Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment - Children’s Series. In other words: it was good! The main cast was voiced by their original actors, which really added to the production values of the show - not to mention the voice acting bill. Initially, Filmation did not want George Takei and Nichelle Nichols to reprise their roles. But when Leonard Nimoy learned of their exclusion he said that he would “... not be a party to this if two of the minorities who contributed to making Star Trek what it was when we were on television cannot be incorporated.” That’s your actual Vulcan on an actual soapbox! Whilst the characters of Uhura and Sulu had Leonard Nimoy rattling the gates on their behalf, there had to be a casualty and that was Ensign Chekov. Unfortunately, with so many star voices, the budget simply didn’t allow for Walter Koenig to return as Chekov.

He was re-assigned to Starfleet Academy for the duration of the series. Last one in - first one out! As a consolation, Walter Koenig was invited to write one of the episodes and turned out The Infinite Vulcan, a time travel story that was heavily influenced by the scientific breakthrough of cloning. Well, this was 1973 and a long way off from Dolly the sheep. Much to Koenig’s annoyance, the story was rewritten by Gene roddenberry to add talking vegetables. Yes, that’s right - talking vegetables. Like the ones you see singing in The Muppet Show. Bet Koenig didn’t see that plot twist coming! Despite not featuring as a character in the episode, Koenig was the first Star Trek actor to write an episode for the series. He did manage to include a reference to himself in the episode, as the walking bush is called a retlaw - Walter spelt backwards. Do you think he was a ‘plant’? The Enterprise didn’t fly without a navigator, however, as Mr Arex sat in that chair for the series run. Since this was an animated show, it was possible - and much cheaper - to draw an alien character to be part of the main bridge crew than in the live action series. Mr Arex featured heavily in the stories, mostly as navigator but sometimes as Science Officer and once even as Captain. Arex was a three-armed and three-legged

being from the planet Endos. Do you think he got a special ergonomic three-buttocked seat at the helm? His soft tenor voice was created by James Doohan, who seemed to be the go-to guy for any extra male voices or aliens or... rabbits... or talking vegetables! Majel Barrett, who voiced her original character of Nurse Chapel, got the job for any other female characters, most notably the feline alien officer M’Ress. With the sad and unexpected passing of Anton Yelchin after the last Star Trek movie, perhaps this is the perfect time to introduce a new alien character to the bridge? With the advances in computer animation it shouldn’t be any more difficult than working with a talking racoon or a walking tree? After all, Mr Arex certainly wouldn’t be Jar Jar Binks!

This month, the nutso Nick Spacek takes a look at a recent portmanteau film that needs more love...

SOUTHBOUND

AND DOWN

nthology films are nothing new to horror cinema. The story collection format has been a hallmark of the genre, going all the way back to Paul Leni’s 1924 silent film Waxworks. Leni’s film helped set the template for what viewers have come to expect from the horror anthology: a framing device helps set up the various stories that will be related over the course of the film, and then the mini-movies play out, returning to the interlinking tale in between each instalment. The omnibus usually wraps up with some sort of ironic twist ending, à la The Twilight Zone, before the credits roll. It’s an effective setup, judging by the innumerable films that utilise the format: Tales from the Crypt and many other Amicus releases in the 1970s, Deadtime Stories and Creepshow in the 1980s, Grim Prairie Tales and Tales from the Hood in the 1990s, and all the way up through recent collections like Chillerama and the V/H/S series have all taken the anthology and made decent money and fandom from the format. However, despite the success of these films with fans, there’s always something somewhat lacking in horror portmanteaus. Despite a robust frame tale, the real lack of through-line from one instalment to the next leaves most collections feeling like compilations, rather than a proper movie. It was the rare feature such as 1985’s Cat’s Eye that managed to connect all the

pieces in a robustly satisfying way. For the most part, anthologies have all had more in common with a dog-eared issue of Creepy than anything that might approach actual cinematic storytelling. Lately, however, it seems that enterprising producers and directors are taking the anthology and making it into something more than just a collection, but rather a series of interconnected tales exploring a shared universe and characters. Michael Dougherty’s 2007 film Trick ‘r Treat took the concept of several tales all happening on the same night and became a movie that is definitely more than just a bunch of stories. Characters from one section pop up in the background of another, the story related in one instalment is shown in full later on, and the whole thing comes full circle by the end. It’s a brilliant concept, and was the high water mark for modern anthologies for the better part of a decade - that is, until the 2015 release of Southbound. Southbound takes the idea of a shared cinematic universe for its short films and ups the ante in a big way. Premiering at the 2015 Toronto International Film Fest as part of the festival’s Midnight Madness lineup, Southbound immediately demonstrated that it was more than just another anthology. Toronto Film Scene writer Andrew Parker kicked off his review by stating that, “While anthology

horror is back in vogue, the uniquely solid Southbound blows all other examples out of the water quite handily.” It was a statement echoed by Perri Nemiroff at Collider, who went on to point out, in terms of anthology films, Southbound was “more even and has more connective tissue than most”, which really does a fine job of sorting out Southbound’s most enduring feature, which is that every story in the film is connected in some tangible way to the ones both preceding and succeeding it. Starring everyone from musician David Yow of The Jesus Lizard to stand-up comic Dana Gould, along with a slew of people whose faces you’re sure to recognise, Southbound hits a lot of genre sweet spots, while still offering up something new and exciting. The resulting film is one that bobs and weaves, interpolating strange creatures from beyond, wreaking vengeance on those who have done wrong, along with mystic symbolism, omniscient voices, and - obviously - ritual sacrifice. There’s a lot of blood - an awful lot, really - but there’s a surprising amount of black humour to be found in every section. Even as Mather Zickel’s character, Lucas, is carrying the battered body of the young woman he nearly obliterated with his car, the viewer will find themselves giggling as things begin to fall apart (literally) in his

hands. That levity keeps the film tied to its evolution from those previous V/H/S anthologies, all of which had at least one instalment that played in the realm of comedy for a minute or two, such as the bonkers final segment of V/H/S/2, Slumber Party Alien Abduction. One of the film’s producers, Brad Miska who also helped bring the V/H/S films to the screen - explained that the concept behind Southbound was that everyone involved wanted to make a film that was fresh and exciting and that while Trick ‘r Treat was definitely a movie they enjoyed, that wasn’t the primary inspiration. “If anything, it was sort of a response to the V/H/S rip-offs and other anthologies that were coming out that felt lazy,” Miska told us. “We wanted to try and further the anthology and do something that felt different, even though Trick ‘r Treat will always be the gold standard.” Southbound is certainly anything but lazy, and even goes one further than Trick ‘r Treat. Whereas that film features narratives that interweave, Southbound’s stories also lead from one to the other in a sequential fashion that’s not only direct but cyclical. All of the characters in this dusty desert universe pass by one another, if not interacting directly. It’s a complicated skein from which to pull, but it really succeeds

in making Southbound a film that bears up under multiple viewings.

she’d do this project with me. She asked, ‘Can I direct one?’”

On a basic level, the interconnectedness begins when Mitch (Chad Villella), from opening tale The Way Out, enters a hotel where the band The White Tights are staying in the next instalment, Siren. At the end of Siren, The White Tights’ Sadie (Fabianne Therese) runs into the road to be hit by the protagonist of The Accident, who is on the phone with Sandy (Maria Olsen), who leaves the door open in The Trap, allowing Danny (Yow) to enter in. Finally, it’s Danny’s sister who attracts the notice of Jem (Hassie Harrison) in The Way In, who is killed by Mitch from The Way Out.

Miska had no hesitation in her getting behind the camera because, he says, she’s incredibly talented, and Miska knew “she would kick ass” - which she does, knocking it out of the park with the film’s strongest segment, Siren, about a garage rock trio encountering a strange family after blowing a tire. Benjamin then rounded David Bruckner back up, and Miska was able to get MPI Media to back it based off a pitch. From there, Miska continues, they mixed in Patrick Horvath, who would do Jailbreak, arguably the film’s strangest segment. Miska had always wanted Horvath for V/H/S, so it was a bit of a coup. From there, the writers, directors, and producers started a sort of brain trust.

The original idea for Southbound came from the fact that Miska had a concept for a new kind of anthology and started talking back and forth with writer Matt Bettinelli-Olpin a bit, as well as some communication with directing team Radio Silence, with whom Miska had worked on the V/H/S segment 10/31/98. “[Radio Silence] came back and put their own spin on my nugget of an idea, and really wanted it to feel seamless,” Miska says. “It was the seed of a direction but enough to start discussing at length. I immediately called Roxanne Benjamin one of my favorite people, who produced V/H/S and V/H/S/2 with me - and asked if

“Everyone would meet to discuss ideas and plans, and worked together to create the seamless atmosphere,” explains Miska. “The biggest win, I think, was the decision to shoot in the desert.” The desert setting of Southbound is vast and uncompromising, and it is desolate, although sparsely populated. The film is almost monochromatic in how washed-out the harsh, unceasing sunshine makes everything, be it during daylight or nighttime. The heat’s almost palpable and lends a certain panicked urgency to every character and their situation. Along

with the omnipresent radio DJ - voiced by genre icon Larry Fessenden - the desert is both the connective tissue of and a character in the film. The decision to make the segments all part of one overarching story came from Radio Silence, who wanted them to interweave, and the producers decided on the desert setting. “Once everyone started bringing in treatments we played around to see in what order they work,” Miska continues. “It’s dangerous because you’re committing to that lineup and there’s no reorganising it. Also, it was tough having to use the same crew for the entire shoot, although it was the best I’ve ever worked with. It was like the best summer camp ever.” Also connecting the film is the way the brain trust worked together. When talking with Miska, the topic of coordinating five interweaving stories came up, especially given that the V/H/S films have a wraparound story, but the interior sections are mostly disconnected from one another, whereas Southbound’s segments tie into one another quite a bit. The producer described it as akin to making several films at once. “As somebody who loves puzzles, making an anthology is a super frustrating and nearly impossible task that feels incredibly rewarding when assembled,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun figuring out how to put all the pieces together and

make it work. You also get to work with several talented people at once and build relationships that last a lifetime.” In terms of impact, Southbound made a big splash on the festival circuit, and then again on home video, as well as when Mondo released the film’s score by The Gifted on vinyl earlier this year. However, it keeps finding fans, especially now that it’s streaming. Being able to call the film up on Amazon Prime means that someone might just happen upon it, and end up pleasantly surprised - much like Miska’s relations. “Personally, I love that I was able to actually show my family. As proud of V/H/S as I am, it was embarrassing and weird showing that film to friends and family who don’t like horror,” Miska explains. “Southbound is safe enough for anyone, and we were really proud to make something that looked so gorgeous, which juxtaposes how ‘ugly’ the V/H/S films were.” The producer explains that the look of Southbound was something they tried to do with the V/H/S: Viral segment, Gorgeous Vortex by Todd Lincoln, but fans rejected it in a big way. “Which bums me out,” Miska says, because he thinks it’s stunning. “I loved how unapologetic we were with that franchise - but, hey, Southbound was for the V/H/S

haters in some way, I guess.” Given that film is circular and cyclical, and that the fan theories as to what the hidden meanings of the different segments allude spawn a fascinating rabbit hole down which to escape, it almost seems like a given that Southbound would have some sort of followup in the works, in the way V/H/S has spawned both a franchise and a spin-off in SiREN. When asked if he foresees any expansion of the Southbound universe, however, Miska’s unfortunately a little uncertain. “Possibly,” replies Miska. “We have some ideas, but everyone is super busy right now. Producer Chris Harding has been trying to rope everyone into a room, but I’m not sure it’ll ever come to fruition. It’s a bummer because I think we have an INSANE concept.” That said, Miska will continue to work on Bloody Disgusting, the horror movie news and reviews site he co-founded in 2001, as well as working on new projects. “I’m a masochist who likes playing with fire, so I’m doing an indie sci-fi film,” Miska concludes. “Indie and sci-fi are two words that when combined could combust.” SOUTHBOUND débuts on Horror Channel on October 29th. Sky 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

INDEPENDENTS DAY by Martin Unsworth

SCOTT LYUS This month, we chat to a British writer and director whose recent short SILENTLY WITHIN YOUR SHADOW wowed festival audiences all over the world. His new release ECHOES OF THE PASSED looks likely to do the same…

STARBURST: What made you want to become a filmmaker? Scott Lyus: It all pretty much started for me when I first watched Jurassic Park. I was way too young to really understand what filmmaking was or that there were roles such as a director, producer or editor, all I knew is what I was watching was pure magic. I was completely taken out of the real world and transported into this amazing larger than life world. Jurassic Park has it all. Everything I still love about cinema to this day came from that film. Great characters, great story with important undertones, action, drama, and especially horror. As with Jaws, I see Jurassic Park as the perfect summer horror film; a throwback to the B-movie creature pictures of the ‘50s. However, the journey really started for me after I listened to the audio commentary on the first Hostel film. I was in college at the time and I didn’t know too many people that were diehard horror fans. So listening to that commentary, and hearing the way in which Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino got excited about all the little details and references Eli throws into the film, really hit me and showed me that there were guys out there talking about this stuff and getting as excited as I was over these films. I know it seems silly now given the amount of horror fans I’ve met over the past few years, but at the time I wasn’t on Facebook or Twitter, I didn’t have many friends that were crazy into film, so it really meant a lot to me and gave me something to aim for. In a way, it showed me there is a place for me, for people like me that really care about this stuff. Unlike some directors, you went straight into horror - why was that? Within cinema, my favourite genre has always been horror. I love what you can do with the genre and what you can say. How open it is and how much you can explore. I don’t want to stay directing horror for my entire career, in fact, I have a few films I want to make that are very much outside the horror genre, but all keep some elements of horror. For me, horror is within

SI L E N T LY W ITHIN YO UR SHA DOW

everyday life but it’s also the twisted side of us we don’t explore in real life. The dark side of everyone, the world around us and our history. I guess that’s why I tend to create character-driven horror. Horror for me is a lot scarier when it’s real, when it can happen to any of us, at any time. More so than anything, I find it deeply interesting and thought-provoking. I never just make a film, I have to be inspired and feel that there is a story worth telling. With my first short Supernova, I wanted to explore the question of how thin the line is between right and wrong. With Order of the Ram, blind belief in faith and how far that can push us. Silently Within Your Shadow, obsession and relationship struggles, and with Echoes of the Passed, I wanted to take a deep look into grief and loss and where that can lead us. So which filmmakers do you look up to as inspirational? I take inspiration from a few different filmmakers and if I’m honest, most are not horror related. I, of course, take a lot of inspiration from how people such as Eli Roth, Ti West, and Adam Green have established themselves in horror

but with regard to style, it’s more James Whale, John Ford, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg to name a few. Coming to the first film that brought you to our attention, Silently Within Your Shadow. It gives a new slant to the triedand-tested ventriloquist dummy trope, and did really well on the festival circuit. How did you get horror icon Bill Moseley on board as the voice of Hugo? Getting Bill involved was really a shoot for the stars moment. I always want to challenge myself and really push myself with what is achievable. With regard to Silently, the most popular question I get is how the hell did you sign up Bill? It’s not often that you see an established horror icon in a low budget short and I wanted to challenge that. So I started to think if I could cast anyone as the voice of Hugo, who would I cast? And the first name I thought of was Bill. His voice is so iconic and I knew he would really bring Hugo to life in a way you’ve never seen before. So I approached him with the screenplay and he loved it. He loved the idea behind the film, that it focused more on character than silly jump scares, and we spoke in depth about not wanting to create another Chucky, and let Hugo

stand on his own. The story is very much about Lucette and her struggles with obsession, the balance between her career ambitions and her relationship, and Bill completely got it. I asked him if he would like to voice Hugo and as they say, the rest is history. Your latest short Echoes of the Passed is set up as an old-school haunted house story. You must have been a fan of those growing up. Any particular favourites? Yeah, I was a huge fan. Some of my favourite films growing up were the old haunted house and paranormal films, the ones you would catch on a Friday or Saturday at midnight. I would always stay up way past my bedtime and sneak up some snacks from the kitchen. I loved films like The House on Haunted Hill from 1959, The Haunting from 1963 and the 1982 Poltergeist. Each had a huge impact on me and even more so when I revisited them years later when I could really appreciate how good they were. On Echoes, however, I also took inspiration from a few more recent takes on the classic haunted house picture, such as The Innkeepers and The Others. As well as paranormal shows such as Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Lockdown.

What was the shoot like for Echoes? The shoot was tough but without doubt the finest time I’ve ever had shooting a film. I feel I’m at my best on a film set. I love making films: setting up shots, blocking actors and even the long hours. We shot the film over three straight nights, from the moment the sun went down to the second it came up. I have trouble sleeping so it was perfect for me. A lot of the crew struggled come those final few hours but no one complained, everyone soldiered on and really believed in what we were doing. The crew was pretty much made up of the same people from my previous films, with a few new additions, including make-up artist Sarah D’Cruz, who is insanely talented, my beyond incredible First AD Barbara Toschi, and gaffer Neal Parsons, who seriously knocked this one out the park. In fact, my whole camera team deserves a huge shout-out, including First AC Isabelle Meyrignac, Lighting Technician Jacek Holdanowicz and Second AC/DIT Clem Nash. And, of course, my ever present partner in crime, DOP Sharad Patel. When it comes to shots and framing, I have a very detailed plan of how I

want the film to look, what I want the frame to say and how I want the light to hit certain areas or characters in a certain way. I then challenge Sharad and his team to pull it off and my god, they went above and beyond on this picture. Every time they set up, I was blown away as they had created a look far beyond what I was hoping for and more so than any film we’ve ever done together, I feel it really shows when you watch Echoes as the lighting and atmosphere play such a huge part in the film. I also have to mention the cast as each one of them brought something incredibly special and amazing to the table. Paul Dewdney, who plays our male lead, puts in such a powerful and mesmerising performance, and one that will stay with you long after the credits role. Alongside Mac McFadden and Tony Sands, who act as our through line for the entire film, as I always saw them as the audience in this picture; the comedy and chemistry they share is incredible. And, of course, our female lead Sophie Tergeist, who pulls the whole picture together and delivers what I believe is her best performance to date.

This is the second time you’ve used Sophie in your films; how did you discover her? Echoes is actually our third film together as between Echoes and Silently, we shot a little film titled Holding Back for a 48-hour film challenge. You can find the short on my YouTube Channel and once again, it shows off what an unbelievable talent Sophie is, as the film is essentially Sophie delivering a seven-minute monologue. Her range and dedication for character is second to none. Sophie puts so much time into her characters that as a director you can’t help but feel that you need to up your game to play on her level. I was extremely lucky to have Sophie audition for the role of Lucette in Silently, and as soon as I watched her audition tape, I knew I had found Lucette. I literally pulled down the casting notice, sent her an email and told her she had the role. Sophie was also the first person to know I had signed on to direct Echoes. Tony Sands pitched his script, and while we both agreed it needed a little work, straight away I knew Sophie was perfect for the

EC H O E S OF T HE PAS SED

character of Liz. As soon as I left the meeting, I rang Sophie and told her I’ve found our next project, told her the story and before I knew it, Sophie had put together a complete backstory. If Sophie doesn’t one day end up in Hollywood, there really is no justice in cinema. What have been the biggest challenges for you as a filmmaker? As with most filmmakers, my biggest hurdle has been getting my work seen. Before Silently, the only person in the world who liked my stuff was film reviewer and content writer Zoë Rose Smith. To this day, I still thank Zoë for flying the flag for me and believing in the horror I wanted to tell. Since then, we’ve become good friends and I actually brought Zoë on board Echoes to help with our marketing and PR. When I finished Silently, Zoë asked me if I would like to screen the film at the first ever London Horror Society event in front of A Nightmare on Elm Street. And, of course, I jumped at the chance and from that night everything kind of took off for me. It was the first time I met the founder of the London Horror Society, Chris Nials, who is now one of my closest friends in the world and a co-producer on Echoes, as well as many awesome people within the London horror scene. I guess it kind of proves that even if things are tough for a few years, keep believing in yourself, keep faith in the stories you want to tell and eventually you’ll find your crowd. Do you have any disastrous stories from the set of any of your films? On my most recent films, everything has actually gone really smoothly. However, on my first two shorts, Supernova and Order of the Ram, we had nothing but issues. Supernova we shot in my friend’s parents’ house and we pretty much locked them upstairs in their bedroom for two weekends straight. We also blocked the toilet a few times, which is never a good idea. However, they were amazing about it and really helped us pull that film off. Then on Order of the Ram, we had nothing but issues. It’s the first time I had ever filmed outside and you name it, it happened. From runners and dog walkers wondering what the hell we were doing, to planes flying overhead, even the police asking me what we were filming. Explaining to the police that I was filming a horror picture about a satanic cult deep in Croydon Forest and that I wasn’t actually sacrificing anyone is an experience I’ll never forget. Then to cap it all off, our final day in the forest got completely rained off, and I had to reschedule the shoot, which then resulted in half the crew and one cast member not being able to attend, leaving us to shoot the final scene with only a handful of people, all of whom were pulling double duty on the roles we needed filling. Safe to say, things have got a lot better since then. But if I’m honest, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I made a lot of mistakes, those films are not great by

63 a long way, but I still believe in them and I’m very proud of what we achieved with what we had. If it weren’t for those mistakes, I don’t think I would be where I am today.

REVIEW

You’ve used crowdfunding a lot; do you think the audience for that has begun to subside a little? Both Silently and Echoes were crowdfunded, and with Echoes, especially, we had incredible success. We were very lucky to be coming off the back of the Silently festival tour and a lot of people were really excited to see what we were doing next. However, I do think crowdfunding is starting to fade a little. It’s a hell of a lot of work, and throws up a whole bunch of new problems that need solving. The best part of crowdfunding is finding your audience before you even make the film and then connecting with those fans once the film is complete. Having received nothing but positive feedback from everyone that backed Echoes, it really does make the whole journey worthwhile, but it’s not for everyone and even the best ideas fail for all kinds of reasons. If it’s your only option, it’s worth a shot but you need to put the work in. You have to live and breathe that campaign for 30 days, making sure everyone you know helps push and support the campaign. As I said, the biggest upside to crowdfunding is building a community, so even if you don’t make your end goal but walk away with a community of people excited about your work, that’s a win in my book. Do you have any advice for anyone looking to make the first step into the business? The only advice I can give is: be different and don’t be scared to tell the stories you want to tell. If the content is good and you’re making the films you want to see, the audience will come. Maybe not at first, but stick out and you’ll find your crowd. You’re going to come across a lot of haters, a lot of people that will tell you your films suck and you should just give up. I know I did. But embrace it, use it to drive forward and prove them wrong. Turn their hate into your motivation. If no one else believes in you, believe in yourself and eventually the crowd will follow. What plans do you have for the future (that you can tell us about anyway!)? Well, the big news, and I believe this is the exclusive announcement, is that my next project will be my début feature film Walking Against the Rain. We’re locked to shoot next year and all that’s left to do is cast the picture. I’m currently in talks with some very desirable actors and hoping to have some more news on that front very, very soon. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world. Two strangers make their way across a barren landscape to find each other, with two batteryoperated radio mics their only connection. With all they once knew now a distant memory, they not only fight for survival, but their sanity. My aim is to not just make another zombie film, with Walking Against the Rain being an exploration into how people accept change and loss in different ways, and how in this lightning-paced technological age we take human interaction for granted. So watch this space, as I may have some very exciting developments very soon!

ECHOES OF THE PASSED will be screening at festivals worldwide soon. Find out more about Scott and his work by following on Twitter @scottlyus and on YouTube: CrossroadPictures.

ECHOES OF THE PASSED CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: SCOTT LYUS / SCREENPLAY: TONY SANDS / STARRING: PAUL DEWDNEY, TONY SANDS, SOPHIE TERGEIST, MAC MCFADDEN / RELEASE DATE: TBC Following the success of his previous short, Silently Within Your Shadows, director Scott Lyus takes us on an atmospheric ghost hunt in which the spectres of the past may be a little more close to home. In a deserted ramshackle house, amongst the creaking boards, flickering lights and howling wind, a professor and his assistants set up to spend the night for research purposes. The house is reportedly haunted. As the quartet settle down to begin their evening, Liz (Tergeist) recounts the tale of the family that lived there forty years earlier to the inquisitive helpers Frank (writer Sands, who older readers may remember from eighties TV series Moondial) and Fred (McFadden). It’s a creepy and sinister story that not only puts the pair on edge, but provides some palpable tension. The young children of the family had gone missing one night and the parents were accused of their murder. The tragedy doesn’t stop there as the father committed suicide shortly after and the mother died of a broken heart, claiming the ‘house took the children’. As the evening goes on, the past resurfaces with some disturbing revelations. Lyus’ short is an effective exercise in atmosphere and tension, with the story bringing many spine-tingling and thought-provoking moments. As events unravel, it becomes as much about grief and loss as ghosts and haunted houses. In the space of just twenty minutes, we’re sent on a rollercoaster of emotions and thanks to the moody cinematography of Sharad Patel and the engaging script by Sands, the tension is soon amped to the max. An impressive sound design bolsters the eeriness, and Tergeist’s delivery is pitch-perfect; not straying into a clichéd campfire recitation but genuinely captivating. As the short reaches its dramatic but beautifully understated denouement, one can’t help but wish there had been longer to build the tension and deeper character development to increase the emotional impact of the climax. It’s the biggest downside of the short format. It’s a testament to all involved that we’re left thinking this, though. Like Lyus’ previous release, Echoes of the Passed is set to tour the film festivals of the world over the next months. If you get a chance to see it, make sure you do.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Doctor Who Infinity

We here at STARBURST love Doctor Who as a TV show, as an audio series, as novels, as comics... the list goes on, but one medium the franchise has never got right is video games. There’ve been many attempts, but, well, none of them have been any good. The most popular, perhaps, has been Doctor Who Legacy, a reasonably fun way to waste some time on your phone, if not at all a good representation of Who. However, the studio behind that game, Tiny Rebel Games, is putting together something new Doctor Who Infinity. Consisting of five puzzle adventures with a comic bookinspired style, Infinity will be much more story-focused than Legacy, bringing on board established Who writers and comics artists to make each adventure feel like a proper episode. The first such story, The Dalek Invasion of Time, will see the Twelfth Doctor and Missy team up against the Skarosian pepperpots; it’ll be written by George Mann with art from Mike Collins. We’ll find out whether Infinity can break the Who game curse when it launches on PC, iTunes, and Google Play in late spring 2018.

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See Bessie!

With its bright yellow paint job and ‘WHO 1’ licence plate, the car known as Bessie was a key part of Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor. And now you can use it to chase down alien invaders, too! Well, not really, but you can have a good hard look at it. The modified 1954 Ford Popular has been put on display at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, Hampshire, as part of an On Screen Cars exhibition also featuring vehicles driven by James Bond, Elvis Presley, and Mr Bean. Now there’s a team-up we’d like to see. The display is open now, and tickets also include access to the National Motor Museum as well as Beaulieu Abbey and its grounds. Don’t forget your driving gloves!

Who Talk

Who Talk, the series of unofficial but always interesting commentaries from Fantom Films, has seen two new releases this month. The first covers The Talons of Weng-Chiang, a fan favourite celebrating its fortieth anniversary; it’s moderated by Nicholas Pegg and features producer Philip Hinchcliffe, designer Roger Murray-Leach and costume designer John Bloomfield. Then there’s Adventures in Space, which covers a selection of space-based

all the news from the worlds of doctor who with kieron moore

First Doctor episodes, from The Savages and The Keys of Marinus to The Space Museum. Contributions come from Maureen O’Brien, Richard Martin, and several other people involved. Both are now available as CDs or downloads from fantomfilms.co.uk.

Class Officially Dismissed

We knew this was coming, but BBC Three’s Who spin-off Class is now officially confirmed to not be coming back for a second series. Oh well.

See Pearl Mackie!

She impressed us all as Bill Potts - and will be doing so once more in this year’s Christmas special Twice Upon A Time - but Pearl Mackie’s next job will be back on the West End stage, where she made her name before being cast in Doctor Who. Mackie will be playing Lulu in a production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, a dark comedy set at a sleepy seaside hotel. She’ll be acting alongside Toby Jones (the Dream Lord!), Zoe Wanamaker (Cassandra!) and Stephen Mangan (who sadly has not been in Doctor Who yet!). It’ll run at the Harold Pinter Theatre from January 9th until April 14th, 2018.

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WATCHING DOCTOR WHO

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few weeks ago, Big Finish announced that they would be producing a series of new adventures for the First Doctor, and that these were going to be full-cast audio dramas rather than narrated stories. This shouldn’t have been that unusual an announcement, as Tim Treloar has been appearing alongside Katy Manning in their Third Doctor Adventures as a recast Third Doctor, and both Peter Purves and Frazer Hines have both recorded dialogue for their companions’ respective Doctors in the past. But what sets these First Doctor Adventures apart is that they will feature an entirely new cast in the roles of the very first TARDIS team, rather than mixing still-living actors alongside new actors in the parts of those who have sadly departed us. Well, not quite ‘an entirely new cast’. Because what’s remarkable about this is that Big Finish have reconvened the actors from Mark Gatiss’ 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, meaning that David Bradley, Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell, and Claudia Grant have not only played the actors who played the first Doctor and his companions on television, but they also ‘played’ those characters themselves in the

sequences recreating scenes from very early Doctor Who. These new actors have, in other words, had a certain amount of practice when it comes to performing, understanding, and representing those characters. This news wasn’t universally well received, however. As is always the case in as large and diverse a fandom as the series has, a rather vocal element was outraged at the recasting of such iconic roles. For some, it was that Glover and Grant would be playing characters for whom the original actors survive, while for others the very idea of recasting the First Doctor, regardless of the fact that William Hartnell died 42 years ago, would be sacrilegious given how closely the role is associated with that particular actor. Which rather forgets that it is now 52 years since the First Doctor was first recast, for the movie Dr. Who & the Daleks. That was ten years before Hartnell passed away - in fact, it was while he was still playing Doctor Who on television. Indeed, another eighteen years after that and the First Doctor was recast once again, this time for the series’ twentieth anniversary story The Five Doctors. Oddly, while the

an in-dePth look at the whoniVerse BY Jr soUthall

second of those two instances is still fairly widely thought of as heresy among a certain quarter of fandom, those same people appear to have fewer issues with the first. Which might be an example of quality overcoming preconceptions, given that the movie Doctor Who was played by Peter Cushing while the anniversary First Doctor had been Nebrox in Blake’s 7. Ironically, a much bigger outcry occurred over the recasting of a deceased Peter Cushing as himself in Rogue One. But we’ll let that pass, as Doctor Who doesn’t have the budget that Lucasfilm do when it comes to resurrecting the dead to reprise their roles. The Star Wars example does raise the question of how acceptable it is for a popular franchise to revisit its own past and by doing so revise certain elements that would previously have been thought of as immutable. When Rogue One squared a plot hole that had bugged fans for years - the idea that the creators of the Death Star would produce something quite so vulnerable to attack - it did so with sensitivity to the original material but not undue reverence. It was also a story that

67 was worth telling in its own right, one that didn’t need the continuity revision but that became a richer film because of it. When Doctor Who did something ostensibly similar, placing Clara at the First Doctor’s departure from Gallifrey in The Name of the Doctor, it again invoked the ire of a small section of fandom who imagined that such unseen icons of the series should remain unseen. But that scene was an integral part of an episode that rewarded a far greater number of long-term viewers, by not just replicating sequences from the series’ history, but by placing actual scenes from Dragonfire and Arc of Infinity up there on the screen in 2013. The fiftieth anniversary was, after all, the only excuse Doctor Who needed for revisiting its past in such a way. Is recasting major roles - like including David Bradley as the First Doctor in the forthcoming Christmas Special Twice Upon a Time - a step on from the smaller scale ‘meddling with the past’ (and quantifying its mysteries) that the likes of Dennis Spooner (who introduced the first ‘other’ Time Lord), Terrance Dicks (who named the Doctor’s species) Robert Holmes (who named the planet they came from), Russell T Davies (who killed the Time Lords off) and Steven Moffat (who subsequently resurrected them) have indulged in over the years? Arguably not. One reason fans might give for the recasting of the First Doctor as being different to, say, the recasting of Sherlock Holmes in a variety of film and TV adaptations, is that the 54 years of Doctor Who have been an ongoing story, rather than a series of reboots and remakes. It’s worth bearing in mind that no such accusations plague the producers of James Bond, where it is now commonplace to replace the lead actor despite On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969 being a continuation of, rather than a restart for, the franchise. Indeed, not only was Sean Connery still alive at the time, it was only two years since he’d appeared in You Only Live Twice. It could be argued that each of the actors who has played the Doctor is indelibly linked to their particular interpretation of the part, but that was

equally true of Roger Moore and lest we forget, Pierce Brosnan was playing the same character rather than a regenerated reincarnation of him. Outside of Doctor Who fandom, recasting is just a necessary part of telling long-term continuing stories, rather than a cynical and disrespectful slight to the actors associated with those roles. Just ask Dumbledore. Having said that, it was only William Hartnell who took on the role of the Doctor ‘as written’; in other words, who was engaged to play a pre-existing part (one that he might not have been first choice for anyway), rather than being cast to bring his own personality to a new interpretation. Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor is very much Tom Baker, whereas Hartnell played the Doctor as any actor might play a part that was pre-

ARTWORK BY SIMON BRETT

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written with a particular personality in mind. Of all the Doctors that might be recast, the first is the one where recasting would be less about replacing an actor rather than simply finding someone new to reinterpret the character as written. Hartnell even aged up in order to make ‘Doctor Who’ the ancient wizard that the character obviously required. The First Doctor is also the only Doctor it is genuinely worth telling new television stories about: the reason he’s the Doctor that Twice Upon a Time is returning to is because he’s the one who hasn’t experienced regeneration before; the episode wouldn’t work with any of the others. Other than in order to celebrate the actors who played the Doctors or their companions, there’s nothing particular to any of the subsequent incarnations that gives a reinterpretation the same level of validity. They’re re-interpretations, ones deliberately crafted with the specific actors who played them in mind, rather than an original character in the way the first was. The first Doctor Who was simply Doctor Who - until the Second Doctor came along. The Big Finish set will probably be rather more in keeping with early TV Doctor Who, but essentially it’s not such a great remove from the 1960s films’ alternative interpretation of the programme. These new First Doctor Adventures will basically be a complement to the Big Finish Unbound series, albeit using An Adventure in Space and Time as a springboard. The irony is that back in 2013, fans looked at Gatiss’ docudrama and many of them expressed an interest in reconvening the cast to record new First Doctor stories in a similar style. Which, as it happens, is pretty much exactly what Big Finish will now be doing. Just as long as they don’t then go on to recast the Fourth Doctor using someone like Noel Fielding. Although actually, that might not really be such a bad idea…

Just Not Cricket

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t’s a case of ‘this sporting life’ now, as we look back on a period of his long existence during which the Doctor did his best to serve as umpire of the universe - a difficult task indeed when you consider that at times even he himself was not entirely sure in his decision making while trying to ensure fair play across the field of time and space. But in retrospect, that facet of Peter Davison’s performance as his fifth incarnation is perhaps the most defining, showing the way forward and allowing his successors to continue the good work of injecting a little basic humanity alongside the heroism. The first innings for the new man in the cricket whites arrives immediately post-Logopolis, using the last vestige of his old self to lead him towards the new one by way of a quick lie down in the Zero Room - “I’m the Doctor. Or will be if this regeneration works out.” Not that he knows what he’s going to get before glimpsing his new features for the first time, the Panama hat that will soon spend most of its time atop his freshly revealed young head hanging invitingly on a stand as he casts. Yet another reminder of his past aside, his faithful old recorder consigned to the dustbin of history after a quick and tuneless blow. Perhaps the ultimate pre-The Doctor’s Wife example of the TARDIS getting him where he needs to be from a personal standpoint follows, as opening a hitherto unseen door gets him access to a rather exclusive (though never seen again) changing room. Whites on, then, and time to go to bat for all that’s good in the universe! Following a glimpse of the bad, as is so often the case - two notable deaths, one practical and the other literal when the sonic screwdriver

whirred its last in The Visitation and Adric wiped out the dinosaurs at the conclusion of Earthshock. But the argument for the little things in life mattering in the face of such catastrophe surely convinces us that this most recent regeneration has worked spectacularly well. LEADER: I see that Time Lords have emotional feelings. DOCTOR: Of sorts. LEADER: Surely a great weakness in one

so powerful? DOCTOR: Emotions have their uses. LEADER: They restrict and curtail the intellect and logic of the mind. DOCTOR: They also enhance life! When did you last have the pleasure of smelling a flower, watching a sunset, eating a wellprepared meal? LEADER: These things are irrelevant. DOCTOR: For some people, small, beautiful events are what life is all about!

part of The Daleks’ Master Plan, England and Australia going at it for the famous urn. A quick inspection on the scanner allows him to determine that “Yes, it’s definitely some sporting occasion.” Around a month on from the broadcast date of the first episode, the first Test of the 1965-66 series got under way in Brisbane and would end in a draw, following on from the previous year when Episode Three of The Sensorites was delayed thanks to extended coverage of the third such match in the ‘64 edition the Aussies winning by seven wickets. Come the time of The Ribos Operation, his knowledge of the game appears to have

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

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Even following on from his leaving the crease in the final act of The Caves of Androzani, something of that spirit remains. Some not unreasonably point to a certain fellow Doctor, five incarnations down the line, who sports a family tie to Davison as the man who best carries the flame in his stead. But with the benefit of hindsight, it’s not impossible to detect subtle nuances even as far back as Christopher Eccleston, the Time War-scarred Ninth Doctor, who spent much of his time brooding over the fact there wasn’t another way to save his people and their planet (see also Warriors Of The Deep, as he reflects sourly along much the same lines and notes sadly that there should have been after nearly everyone, whether Silurian, Sea Devil, or human, meet their end following a bout of mutually assured destruction). The considerably more Mancunian one even gets his own small, beautiful event when everybody lives following a Chula warship’s crash landing in the London of the Blitz, before later dying to save the life of his companion, bowing out a hero. Sound familiar? And even David Tennant, later husband of Georgia Moffett, the former Doctor’s daughter who also played the daughter of the then-current Doctor, took more than a few notes from Peter D. The trainers, the tendency to squeak in the process of shouting, repeated instances of being “so sorry”… oh, and sacrificing himself for yet another companion minus the distraction of Nicola Bryant’s heaving bosom. Fast forward a bit and there’s also the second Peter, whose quest for truth as to whether or not he’s a good man surely rivals Davison for sheer immediate postregenerative angst. Both try to be, at least, and as Clara Oswald tells Peter C, that’s probably the point. After all, you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of cricket to know when something’s just not... A point proven during the First Doctor’s quick stop at the Oval during what is implied to be an Ashes match as

broadened somewhat, at least. DOCTOR: Well, you heard. ROMANA: Four of the clock and all’s well? Obviously just a ritual greeting and reassurance. DOCTOR: But he said it in a Somerset accent. Somerset’s one of the Earth counties. ROMANA: Ah, but there’s no space service to Ribos, Doctor. According to Bartholomew’s Planetary Gazetteer, it has a protected class three society. So there can’t be any Earth aliens on Ribos. DOCTOR: Maybe he’s a cricket scout. Yes, they could do with a good leg spinner. Whether or not cricket gained a foothold on Ribos itself was never revisited, but a look at the final County Championship standings for the year of the Fourth Doctor’s visit (1978) reveals that Somerset didn’t actually finish that season too badly in taking 228 points from 22 games, winning and drawing nine apiece while losing only four times to finish fifth behind Yorkshire - the White Rose county the most successful in the history of the competition, having won it a record 33 times since its inception in 1890. It isn’t until Tom Baker’s fall from that radio telescope and merger with the spectral Watcher, though, that we get a glimpse of the new man as a keen player and student of the game during Black Orchid, the novels Fear Of The Dark and Goth Opera going on to reveal his studies of and contributions to the Wisden Cricketers Almanack as well as featuring unlikely cameos of sorts for both former Middlesex and England man Mike Gatting and a bat signed by the very same man. Out on the field of play comes an innings worthy of ‘the Master’, who to his evident relief isn’t the one who’d tried to trap him in the MC Escher-ish nightmare seen in Castrovalva but William Gilbert, or WG Grace, who managed 44 seasons (1865-1908) for Gloucestershire and England. Howzat!

Raising his pRofile AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK MERLE Words: Martin Unsworth

#fRoMJennifeR takes a look into the psyche of what it takes to make it in hollywood in the modern climate, particularly the importance of a large social media presence. STARBURST caught up with the writer-director of the film to find out more.

STARBURST: What drove you to make the third of the ‘Jennifer’ films, even though this is unconnected narratively with the others? Frank Merle: Hunter Johnson, the writer/ director/star of the second film in the series 2Jennifer, has been a friend of mine for years. When I found out he was making that movie, I was very supportive. I came on board as the editor and as a producer, and that’s how I first met James Cullen Bressack, the originator of the ‘Jennifer’ series. When the distributor of 2Jennifer let James know he was hungry for more, I pitched my idea for a third film, which would maintain the found footage aesthetic and theme of obsession, but would otherwise be a standalone film. James and Hunter liked my pitch, so they decided to entrust me with this instalment of the franchise. Did you have any conversations with James and Hunter about the direction to take the film before writing the script? I was given free rein over the screenplay. James wrote and directed the first film To Jennifer. Hunter wrote and directed the second film. The concept for this series is that the person at the helm should be given a fair amount of creative control, which is something filmmakers always want but rarely get. So I was grateful for the opportunity to be given the freedom to make the exact film I wanted to make. James broke boundaries with his first film being made totally on an iPhone, and the second had a very meta method; were there any other ideas you thought of using for #FromJennifer before settling on the social media approach? The first and second films were both shot entirely on iPhones, so it was a bit of a controversial decision to break from that tradition and shoot #FromJennifer on GoPro cameras. But I knew this would be a standalone film. Its plot and characters are unrelated to the first two, and its tone a bit

lighter, so I felt the change in format would be appropriate. What was the budget and schedule for the film? The budget was pretty low; in fact, I can’t say exactly what it cost because it wasn’t even budgeted like a typical film. We just spent money on things we needed to and tried to spend as little as possible without compromising the story. I believe the shoot was about three weeks, which is short, but I felt like it was enough to serve our unique needs. Social media is a massive influence on people’s lives now - even your President uses it as a platform. Do you think we’ll ever be able to ‘put the genie back in the bottle’ so to speak and go back to actual talent being successful and rewarded rather than who can have the most followers? I’m not convinced that there’s a direct connection between the number of social media followers someone has and the box office results of a film. I understand the thinking behind it - if someone is famous, their fans will flock to see their work. The flaw of this logic is that these social media stars are famous for giving fans access to themselves for free. There’s no mystery to them: they live their lives as an open book. But then film producers expect their fans to pay good money to see them in a movie. Their fans can just wait to watch their next live feed for free. So, yes, I do think this trend of casting trending people will abate in time, as the correlation between Internet fame and earned celebrity eventually proves itself to be tenuous at best. How different is the set-up of a regular film compared to a ‘found footage’ style from the director’s point of view? It’s a totally different process, because the actors in a found footage film are being asked to do two things at once: they have to act, but they also have to control the camera.

On a normal film, the director has a bit of separation between technical concerns and the performances. But on a found footage film, both aspects have to be merged at all times. Would you ever hire someone like Jennifer? Well, certainly; I did, in fact! Danielle Taddei is pretty much the same person as the character she plays. She was the inspiration for the role. I mean, I should probably clarify that Danielle is Jennifer from the beginning of the film, not so much after the mental breakdown. I say that Danielle is Jennifer because they’ve had the same struggles with the lack of social media stardom hurting their acting careers. It was Danielle’s true-life experience of losing work to less experienced actors just because of the other actor’s social media presence that was my initial inspiration for #FromJennifer. What advice would you give anyone looking to get into filmmaking? Stop thinking about it, and just do it. The only thing stopping you is your own self-doubt. If you’re looking for someone to give you permission to become a filmmaker, it won’t happen. You have to tell the world you’re a filmmaker. Then go make a film. Then, by definition, you’re a filmmaker. What’s next for you? I have several exciting projects that I’m attached to. Hopefully, the next one I’ll get to make is called Broken Oaks, a twisty psychological thriller set on a rural farm. Derek Mears, the fantastic actor who plays Butch in #FromJennifer, is attached to a lead role in Broken Oaks. I look forward to another chance to work with Derek because he’s tremendously talented and versatile, and he’ll really have a great opportunity to showcase that versatility in Broken Oaks. #FROMJENNIFER is out now in the US. A UK release will follow soon.

As THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN announce a return to the small screen for three special episodes to mark the ensemble’s twentieth anniversary, we take a look at the bizarre world that captivated and terrified us, while simultaneously making us laugh uncontrollably…

here are few comedies that stray into the area of cult classic, just as there are few comedies that blend ‘laugh out loud’ moments with black humour and disturbing imagery which would not be out of place in any horror film; yet The League of Gentlemen was all of these things plus more!

The comedy-horror series, written and performed by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith, spawned a number of live stage shows, a radio show, three series on TV, a Christmas special and a feature length film between 1997 and 2005. It has generated legions of fans and turned its cast and writers into highly regarded stars. And now it has been announced, as of October 2017, that the cast and writers are taking us back to Royston Vasey with a new set of episodes. So let’s take a look back at the genesis of the show, its characters and its lasting legacy.

T H E CRE AT I ON The League of Gentlemen started with the meeting of writer Dyson and writer/ performers Gatiss, Pemberton, and Shearsmith at Bretton Hall, the former drama school attached to the University of Leeds. Whilst they didn’t take much value from the course itself, it gave them the drive to work independently towards creating their own troupe and their own revue show. Under an alias taken from a Jack Hawkins film title, the group took their shared experience of growing up in northern England, as well as their love of horror films and sketch shows such as Monty Python, to begin creating characters that would end up being the signature residents in the TV incarnation with Dyson and Gatiss, and Pemberton

73 and Shearsmith often writing as pairs respectively. The group then went onto what has become a fairly standard route for a lot of comedians: they performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (which saw them beat Graham Norton, Johnny Vegas, and Al Murray to become the first ensemble for a number of years to win the Perrier Award in 1997), then were offered a BBC Radio 4 series, which became known as On The Town with the League of Gentlemen seeing their characters verbally come to life in the fictional town of Spent, before progressing on to the BBC Two series The League of Gentlemen in which they moved their characters from the town of Spent to the Northern town of Royston Vasey (the real name of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, who would appear in the show as the town’s mayor, Larry Vaughan). And we have never left since!

wife now”. He ultimately flees Royston Vasey with his circus as the town is too weird even for him! He would later appear in the Christmas Special, kidnapping vicar Bernice, and in the film The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse as one of the characters trying to save Royston Vasey from destruction. Papa Lazarou, portrayed by Shearsmith, is often the character that the public think of first and anyone called Dave will have endured the famous greeting as delivered by Shearsmith, but with such a highly comical character, that can never be a bad thing.

three series, she is sacked for misconduct by undercover assessor Ross (played by Shearsmith), whom she then holds hostage along with lovable idiot Mickey (played by Mark Gatiss); she is arrested and released from prison only to eventually find love with the man she comes to know throughout the series as “Mickey, love!” Pauline would later appear in the stage shows where meta-jokes were made to suggest that it was Pemberton in drag. Once again, The League took an ordinary situation and went to comedic lengths to create yet another enduring character.

TH E CH ARA C T ER S What followed was the creation of some of the most endearing (yet highly disturbing) characters ever created. Interestingly, The League of Gentlemen was not an observational comedy, but the group have talked in depth about how real-life experiences have influenced the creation of their characters. Here is a rundown of some of the most notable characters:

PAULINE CAMPBELL-JONES: “Okie kokie, pig in a pokey!” If there was ever an incentive for employment, it’s to avoid the likes of Job Restart officer Pauline (assuming, of course, she lets you get a job!). Inspired by Shearsmith’s experience of being on a Restart programme at the Job Centre and seeing people actively being refused chances of a job, Pauline, played by Pemberton, became the comically abusive and violent Restart officer of Royston Vasey’s Job Centre who sees only pens as her friends and disputes that she is on record as a ‘fifty year old, psychotic lesbian’ because actually she’s forty-eight! In a story arc spanning the entire

PAPA LAZAROU: Few characters make such a cultural impact after one episode, but then few characters are Papa Lazarou. Originally conceived as a rubbish medium, nuggets from the lives of the League’s performers helped shape the character he was to become. In their early days, Pemberton and Shearsmith shared a flat in East Finchley, London and their landlord was a man named Peter Papalazarou, who would refuse to speak to Shearsmith and only apprehended Pemberton regarding any business to do with their rented flat, so answer messages left for him would consist of “Hello Steve? Is Steve there?” and “Oh, this is just a saga now!” Who would’ve thought such an anecdote would spawn such a wildly enduring character? Lazarou appeared in the second series as the ringmaster of a travelling circus who visits Royston Vasey, forcing himself into the homes of housewives, referring to them as “Dave!” before declaring that “you’re my

EDWARD and TUBBS: This husband and wife (who are also brother and sister) run the local shop in Royston Vasey and don’t take kindly to people who are ‘not local’. Edward will try to calm the situation with his catchphrase “Hello, hello, what’s going on? What’s all this shouting? We’ll have no trouble here!” He’s quite happy to back up Tubbs when people try to buy things in the shop or do such awful things as try to build a new road through Royston Vasey! There is further shock when their only son, David, tries to take Tubbs with him to London. However, Edward soon shows him the local way, turning him into a monster, and what do you do with a monster? You look for a bride for him, of course! This leads to the eventual demise of Edward and Tubbs (via being hit by a train). They also made a memorable appearance at the beginning of Apocalypse, in which they threaten Jeremy Dyson (as played by Michael Sheen) to not write them off (literally) as characters!

MRS LEVINSON and IRIS: Created by Gatiss and Dyson, we see a war of words between Mrs Levinson, who is happy to brag about how much money her husband has and her extravagant lifestyle, and Iris Krell, her cleaner who enjoys telling about her husband Ron’s sexual appetite (“he has me doing things that would make a whore blush!”) and some of the excruciating details of their encounters, some of them involving Ron’s ‘big fingers’. As the point scoring intensifies (by their reckoning it ends at 3-3), it is exposed that Mrs Levinson’s husband has been dead for some time, and that Mrs Levinson and Iris are daughter and mother. THE REST OF ROYSTON VASEY: With such a vast array of characters as the inhabitants of Royston Vasey, there are several other characters that are worth a mention. This includes Mr Chinnery (Gatiss), an animal vet whose patients seem to end up meeting the most grotesque demises, the Reverend Bernice (Shearsmith) who berates parishioners and collects to show support for the slave trade, and Herr Lipp (Pemberton), a gay German teacher from Duisberg who manages to include double entendres amongst his loose translation of English. Several notable guest appearances in The League of Gentlemen include writer Jeremy Dyson in a number of blink-and-you’ll-missit cameos. Don Estelle, otherwise known as Lofty from It Aint Half Hot, Mum, appeared as the keeper of a zoo on the island of a roundabout; Rusty Goffe, the surviving Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, appears as one of Papa Lazarou’s henchman; and the Ninth Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston, as the owner of a cinema that plays nothing but films about cats.

T H E L E G ACY The League of Gentlemen has now gone down in TV history as one of the funniest and most critically acclaimed comedy series to come out of the BBC. It was more than just a sketch show, it was comedy with a narrative that saw every character intertwine seamlessly and get their own clear story arc and conclusion. It has been celebrated with numerous awards, including BAFTAs, Royal Television Awards and the prestigious Rose d’Or, and has spawned legions of fans, with such high profile fans as director Duncan Jones, actor Tim Curry and late comedian Bob Monkhouse all publicly expressing their admiration for the show. Sadly, there has been no new material from The League of Gentlemen since late 2005. Thankfully, this has been through no ‘artistic difference’ or clash of egos, but simply through an idea having run its course; in an interview, Mark Gatiss joked that “we’re like ABBA, we never officially [split up]” later commenting that “we all just wanted to do different things”. Indeed, the creative minds behind the show between them have appeared in a number of diverse TV programmes such as Benidorm, Happy Valley, Whitechapel, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Miss Marple, Blackpool, Wolf Hall, Midsomer Murders, Game of Thrones, Lewis, and The Tracy Ullman Show, all with an equally impressive stage presence as well. Also, the cast are not completely averse to

getting together to work with one another again. Collaborations have included Jeremy Dyson’s stage production Ghost Stories, which ran in the West End with Shearsmith in the cast, and Dyson’s Funland (2005), which featured Mark Gatiss in a number of episodes. Meanwhile, Shearsmith has appeared in the Doctor Who 2015 episode Sleep No More opposite Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, as penned by Gatiss, and the most visible collaboration between the three performing members of the League is for CBBC’s Horrible Histories, in which they play American film producers who have historical events pitched to them. However, the main creative collaborations have been between Pemberton and Shearsmith, who between them have made Psychoville, a show spiritually close to League with its dark humour and horror film influence, the series being centred on an old psychiatric hospital, with a guest appearance from Mark Gatiss in one episode; it spawned two series and a Halloween special. There is also Inside No 9, a dark anthology series, in the spirit of Tales of The Unexpected, which has run for three series, with a fourth in production, achieving critical acclaim. As you can see, a lot of the subsequent work by these four creative minds has much in common with the League and they draw on things they are passionate about to create the wonderful work they are known for. There has been talk for a number of years of a League of Gentlemen reunion and now we have confirmed plans for at least three one-off specials. STARBURST looks forward to a return visit to Royston Vasey in the not-too-distant future.

The

Best of the Worst By Sol Harris

n the world of ‘so bad, it’s good’ cinema, The Room is the big hitter. But what about some of the lesser known gems? Here’s a rundown of ten hilariously awful films to whet your appetite for The Disaster Artist’s release.

Weekend at Bernie’s II (1993)

Everyone’s vaguely aware of Weekend at Bernies, the ill-judged comedy where two friends attempt to cover up their boss’s death by pushing him around in a wheelchair, eyes concealed by a pair of sunglasses. Fewer people are familiar with Weekend at Bernie’s II, in which a voodoo queen orders a ceremony to resurrect Bernie as a mindless zombie so that he can lead them to $2 million that he stole whilst alive. The spell goes awry, meaning that Bernie only re-animates when in the presence of music and the end result sees our heroes chasing a Walkman-wearing corpse as it dances its way across New York towards buried treasure. Bizarre.

The Wicker Man (2006)

James Franco’s adaptation of Greg Sestero’s book THE DISASTER ARTIST is out later this year. It covers the production of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cinematic brain-fart, THE ROOM, which since its release in 2003, built a well-deserved, ironic cult following who indulge in laughing at what the film got wrong (spoiler: everything).

Troll (1986)

There are two types of Nicolas Cage movies: those where Cage is genuinely making an effort and those where Cage is trying to pay off his insane debts accrued whilst splurging money on things ranging from a Tyrannosaurus skull to a British castle. The Wicker Man falls into the latter category.

A remake of 1973’s chilling masterpiece, this version swaps out the creeping sense of dread for Nicolas Cage running around and punching women in the face whilst dressed as a bear.

Troll sees a family move into an apartment complex, only for it to become overrun with magic with many of its tenants transformed into unintentionally funny puppets. Among the film’s highlights are a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus dancing around as a wood nymph and a protagonist named Harry Potter Jr. In fact, that last fact is the inspiration behind the upcoming sequel, Troll: The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr., an effort to capitalise on the name by tricking unwitting filmgoers into thinking this is some sort of extension of J.K. Rowling’s beloved franchise that débuted eleven years later.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

The Happening (2008)

Enthiran (2010)

Most of us aren’t exposed to many Tamil movies, so there’s an admitted element of losing things in translation that comes with watching something like Enthiran (literal translation: Robot). It’s a balls-to-the-wall action movie, but in the tradition of Indian cinema, it’s also a musical where the plot will routinely stop to give us music videos with little to no story relevance.

1978’s Halloween is widely considered to be one of the pinnacles of the slasher genre. It follows Michael Myers - an instant horror icon - as he hunts and murders a group of teenagers. 1981’s sequel, Halloween II, picked up right at the end of the first film, with Myers continuing to chase and kill. So, what did Halloween III do? Pick up at the end of Halloween II? Pit Michael Myers against a new selection of characters in a new setting? Of course not. Halloween III is a standalone film with absolutely nothing to do with its predecessors whatsoever.

Many were bitterly let down by The Happening, hoping for a return to form from M. Night Shyamalan. If you’re able to get past that sense of disappointment, then it’s actually completely and utterly brilliant… not on purpose, of course. It’s a film about the plants of the world banding together to get revenge on mankind by somehow causing us to kill ourselves in stupidly impractical ways. At one point, the film asks us to watch in horror as a man elaborately sets up a lawnmower so that it can run him over as he lies in the grass.

John Carpenter’s plan was to turn the franchise into a horror anthology series, the only through-line being the holiday for which the series was named and his role as composer. Even once you get past that, Halloween III is something to behold. The plot sees a coven of witches managing to make a series of incredibly generic Halloween masks inexplicably popular. Every kid in America will be wearing one on Halloween, which is when they’ll also be broadcasting a special advertisement that will trigger the microchip inside, somehow turning the wearer’s head into a cocktail of insects and snakes. The film met with a negative response and the anthology concept was immediately abandoned, with Halloween 4 aptly subtitled The Return of Michael Myers.

Our ‘heartthrob’ hero, a scientist played by 60-year-old Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, develops a robot named Chitti, also played by Rajinikanth and, over the course of the rambling three-hour running time, Chitti does everything from fighting fires and helping people cheat in exams to falling in love and turning evil and creating an army of copies of himself.

Mark Wahlberg plays a teacher, which is funny in itself, but the dialogue is the true stand-out of this laugh-riot. At one point, a character starts talking about hot dogs, completely unprompted… “They got a cool shape, they got protein.” Later on, when literally at gunpoint and attempting to prove that he and his party are mentally sound, Mark Wahlberg bursts into a spontaneous rendition of Black Water by The Doobie Brothers. “See? We’re normal”, he pleads. It isn’t convincing.

This is when the film completely loses its grip on reality and begins to straddle the line between unintentionally comical and downright awesome, as hundreds of robots hold hands to form a giant snake that destroys the city. If you like insane, over-the-top action of the bordering-on-selfparody variety, then Enthiran has it in spades. The effects aren’t great and the film seems to have somehow lodged its tongue in its cheek by mistake, but if a giant sphere of robots rolling down a motorway whilst shooting machine guns in every direction sounds like something you’d like, maybe you should give this film a go. If nothing else, Enthiran is an assault on the senses. Is it good? Not even close. Is it entertaining? Very.

Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017)

This film isn’t ‘so bad it’s good’ so much as it’s simply mind-boggling that such a thing got made in the first place. If you want to be completely and utterly dumbfounded for 79 minutes, then this is the film for you. It’s an animated, mostly shot-for-shot remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, complete with Gene Wilder’s likeness. The only difference is that cat and mouse double act Tom and Jerry, chase each other, indulging in their usual cartoon antics in the background. The original songs are even all intact, albeit inferior recordings performed by the new cast of iffy sound-alikes.

Night of the Lepus (1972)

Night of the Lepus is, in a nutshell, a completely sincere film in which giant, mutant rabbits terrorise the American Southwest. That should tell you all you need to know. Sometimes, the rabbits are portrayed by grown men in ropey rabbit costumes. At others, you’re treated to footage of actual rabbits running around miniature sets of farmhouses. Oh, and it features DeForest Kelley in a rare non-Star Trek role.

Vampire’s Kiss (1988)

Troll 2 (1990)

Honestly, if you could throw a dart into Nicolas Cage’s filmography, 90% of the time it would land on something that could be on this list. When talking about films that are so bad they’re good, it’s hard to go wrong with the Oscar-winner and Vampire’s Kiss is peak Cage being Cage.

Despite both films making this list, Troll 2 is absolutely nothing to do with Troll. It follows the tradition of Italian horror films exploiting a legal loophole that allows them to market themselves as sequels to other, more successful films, despite no real connection existing.

He plays a man who’s bitten by a bat, triggering a mental breakdown as he believes himself to be turning into a vampire. It amounts to 100 minutes of him experimenting with different ways to run around flailing his arms and screaming. Cage adopts an accent of his own invention throughout the film - apparently an attempt to portray the character as someone affecting a voice in an attempt to sound higher in status than they really are. The end result is probably best described as sounding like a British Ted from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Troll 2 is so densely packed with jokes that it could rival a classic episode of The Simpsons - the only difference being that absolutely none of them are intentional. It’s pitched as some sort of bizarre tirade against vegetarianism, with the evil goblins (note: the word ‘troll’ isn’t used once in the film) turning human victims into a sort of plant-based goo so that they can eat them. The goblins don’t like meat, you see. It was written and directed by an Italian couple with a limited understanding of English, but shot in America with an American cast who didn’t understand any Italian… The end result truly has to be seen to be believed. The dialogue and characters’ decisions are frequently baffling, the acting and special effects laughable, and the film frequently ventures into the territory of inadvertent avant-garde surrealism. At one point, the film’s villain - a sort of bargain bin Helena Bonham Carter - seduces a man using a cob of corn. After their foreplay, it pops, leaving him literally covered from head to toe in popcorn.

At one point, the character eats a live cockroach - something Cage insisted that he do for real, on camera, to make the film authentic. The scene cuts abruptly, presumably to hide him beginning to gag. The line between Cage’s acting talent or lack thereof has never been more blurred than it is in Vampire’s Kiss, a film that simultaneously doesn’t work and only works because of its lead’s performance. Much as reading The Disaster Artist is a recommended pairing with The Room, Troll 2 is best viewed when paired with Best Worst Movie, a retrospective documentary covering the film’s making and legacy and helmed by the film’s then-child star, Michael Stephenson, who has grown up to become a director. Here’s hoping that James Franco turns his attention to Troll 2 once he’s done with The Disaster Artist. THE DISASTER ARTIST opens in the UK on December 1st.

THE LATEST BIG SCREEN GENRE RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

BLADE RUNNER 2049 CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DENIS VILLENEUVE / SCREENPLAY: HAMPTON FANCHER, MICHAEL GREEN / STARRING: RYAN GOSLING, HARRISON FORD, DAVE BAUTISTA, ROBIN WRIGHT, JARED LETO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW clearly as he’d like. The film takes nearly an hour to gain traction, which could make its first third tiresome, difficult, and devoid of excitement and clarity for some. The plot progression isn’t swift or even a priority here; the film keeps its focus trained on Gosling’s stoic K, rarely attending to the many tertiary characters and concepts actually propelling the story. However, it doesn’t overdo; Villeneuve doesn’t bludgeon viewers with his ideas. He does request a certain amount of investment, but that comes with the territory. Its predecessor was no different. Both films go all-in with their concepts, leaving it to viewers to keep up and

refusing to slow if they won’t. This is highconcept sci-fi that rewards the patient and disappoints the restless. Blade Runner 2049 stands tall as one of the finest science fiction films of the last decade, even if it falls just short of perfection. Villeneuve has crafted something truly special here, and it’s likely to become a classic sooner rather than later. HAYDEN MEARS

EXPECTED

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CINEMA

The latest from acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 blends the heady with the heartfelt, becoming a science fiction masterwork that retains the sophistication of the 1982 original even as it pushes the story in a daring new direction. Bolstered by magnetic performances from Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, a stellar supporting cast and an electrifying final act, the film exposes the sequels-can’t-be-better idea as a fallacy and proves that sometimes bigger can be better. Set against a symphony of synth and silence, this astounding sequel moves from moments of intense meditation to those of explosive revelation with a deftness of which only Villeneuve is capable. The director understands and respects the spirit of the original enough to both deviate frequently and derive sparingly, gifting its sequel with an autonomy that would drive any selfrespecting replicant mad with glee. Here is a sequel that not only knows where it comes from but also knows what it is and what it wants to say. Here is a sequel that’s as sharply written as it is emotionally affecting. It’s this confidence, this competence that pushes this new Blade Runner away from its ilk and into a class of its own. Don’t mistake the director’s intelligence for pretension; what initially sounds like bombast is actually meant as insight, even if Villeneuve can’t always communicate or convey his ideas as

THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE

CINEMA

CERT: U / DIRECTOR: CHARLIE BEAN, PAUL FISHER, BOB LOGAN / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: JACKIE CHAN, DAVE FRANCO, JUSTIN THEROUX, FRED ARMISEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW LEGO is fast becoming an entertainment juggernaut. Not satisfied with being a mainstay in the living rooms and bedrooms of children and adults alike across the globe, they have successfully branched out into other media, mostly console games and the cinema. Having already achieved great success with both The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie, the suits in Denmark have a mould that they know works and they don’t appear to be considering changing it anytime soon. This, as it turns out, is a good thing. Like Disney and Pixar before them, LEGO is aware that the way to guarantee continued success is to cater to all age groups, something that they already do so well with their toy lines. Moving the Ninjago title from television to the big screen is a riskier move than their two previous big screen outings, as the risk of alienating those unfamiliar with the characters is very real. Fortunately, that template has been used again to great effect here. We join the Ninjago team, led by Lloyd (Franco) - who appears to be just your common teenager struggling with life and bullies - as they successfully repel yet another attack on Ninjago City by the big bad Garmadon (Theroux, in scenerychewing form). The nice twist here is that Lloyd knows that Garmadon is his father, although he keeps referring to him as L-loyd to his son’s annoyance. Sent back to his lair with his four arms between his legs, Garmadon returns with a stronger robot under his control and a better plan to win the day and conquer the brick city. In a last-minute attempt to stop him, Lloyd breaks out what Master Wu (Chan) has warned him to never use, the Ultimate Weapon! The problem is, this turns out to be nothing more than a standard laser pointer, which gains the attention of Meowra - think Godzilla, but in the shape of a cute house cat - who proceeds

to wreak havoc on the buildings and minifigures running around. In an attempt to stop Meowra from destroying everything that has been built, Lloyd and his team are forced to work with Garmadon in order to find the McGuffin that will save them all, only to find by the end of the film that the power to defeat Meowra was inside them all along. This is all bookended by Jackie Chan as a shop owner teaching a kid in his store about the importance of believing in yourself. Similar to the tale in The LEGO Movie with Will Ferrell, it’s interesting that although this whole premise of the toy world existing in tandem with real life is blown apart by the human characters being quite integral (and cats, in this instance), you’re still sucked into the experience unrolling on the screen. There’s nothing quite as annoyingly addictive as Everything Is Awesome on the soundtrack, although Heroes and Dance of Doom come mighty close! So, yes, you’ve probably seen this all

before and, in some places, the storylines have been done better. But it’s not all about that in the end. The fact is that the LEGO movies are universally accessible and manage to cleverly complete a balancing act that gives a lot for the kids to enjoy whilst entertaining the adults with knowing winks that make you smile rather than wince from embarrassment. The thing is, you forget that you are watching plastic bricks on screen and settle in nicely to enjoy the spectacle. As a result, in perhaps in one of the most unsurprising reviews of the year, The LEGO Ninjago Movie is exactly what you expect bloody good fun. Go see it if you’ve got kids. Go see it if you haven’t! JD GILLAM

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ACTUAL

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MATTHEW VAUGHN / SCREENPLAY: MATTHEW VAUGHN, JANE GOLDMAN / STARRING: TARON EGERTON, COLIN FIRTH, MARK STRONG, JULIANNE MOORE, PEDRO PASCAL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW of the movie - in fact, it soars like a rocket, man! Mind you, even this film has the sense to avoid an invisible Aston Martin! The plot really lacks the class clash and cultural contrast that made the first film flourish, as the US/UK union really doesn’t yield such vastly differing oppositions. There is also an issue in the influx of characters, as some of the A-list cast are really only here for passing scenes, especially the likes of Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Michael Gambon, and Channing Tatum. That said, the cast really do work to elevate the material to greater standing and do mostly succeed. Egerton once more is filled with cheeky charisma, a returning Colin Firth (hardly a spoiler, as it is plastered all over the posters, clips, and trailers) once again soars as Harry, Mark Strong entertains as always, and Julianne Moore sinks her teeth into her part as villain of the piece Poppy Adams. The Golden Circle has a lot of problems, as it echoes the first film a few times too many and really feels all over the place at points. As a result, it is a film unlikely to linger as firmly

in the memory as the first but in spite of the many issues, the embraced ridiculousness conjures up some enjoyable moments, and if you loved the original, you’ll likely at least have fun with this one. Heck, it’s more fun than SPECTRE. All in all, this is certainly not the lamentable, offensive, bag of crap some were expecting it out to be, it’s just too cluttered really but at least it has a go. We were thinking six, but to be honest, there is violent, punchy fun to be had if you don’t think too hard about it. Yes, it is nowhere near as strong as the first, but with villain infomercials, barmy epidemics, a douchebag President and a scene-stealing cameo, this is still a bit of a crowd pleaser. Messy for sure, but any movie with a sinister burger scene at least deserves a watch. JACK BOTTOMLEY

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

When Matthew Vaughn unleashed his take on the lesser-known Mark Millar/Dave Gibbons comic book back in 2014, many people really had no idea what to expect from Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, despite some surprising controversy, the result was a spectacularly fun romp that blended a culture clash narrative with Bond pastiche to hilarious, outrageous and massively entertaining effect. After the film became a hit, a sequel was all but assured, but in a real 360 turn, now there is something to prove with Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and as we all know from films like Piranha 3DD, Now You See Me 2 and Insidious: Chapter 2, following up a novelty or sleeper hit is not easy but can be done (see John Wick Chapter 2). The plot sees Eggsy (Taron Egerton) continuing his dangerous work at the secretive agency Kingsman, while also looking to settle into his relationship with Princess Tilde (Hanna Alström). However, his world is about to come crashing down, as the Kingsman are all but annihilated by a mysterious group known only as ‘The Golden Circle’ and remaining Kingsman agents Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) must reach out to their American cousins Statesman for help. Let’s get right down to it - Kingsman: The Golden Circle is nowhere near as good as the first film and suffers heavily from too much going on and recurring script struggles to catch that same novelty, shock and energy in this - quite long - action comedy sequel. Much like this year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, there is an ‘if it ain’t broke’ mentality to the film and this results in a story that has its share of ideas but a few too many competing for attention and a lot of callbacks to the previous film. Jane Goldman and Vaughn’s screenplay will likely come up with some rewards for those who adored the first film but if you found it offensive or repulsive the first time around (a few did apparently), then this follow-up goes that bit further. In many ways, the film, with its mad plot devices and extravagant set pieces, is like Die Another Day (stay with us) but far more knowing and boasting a far better pop cameo that shockingly emerges as the most hilarious part

MOTHER!

CINEMA

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DARREN ARONOFSKY / STARRING: JENNIFER LAWRENCE, JAVIER BARDEM, ED HARRIS, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, BRIAN GLEESON, DOMHNALL GLEESON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW It’s difficult to see Darren Aronofsky’s mother! as anything other than incendiary filmmaking. The film is Biblical in both concept and content, which has already alienated some and divided most. His previous effort, Noah, had a similar, if less polarising, effect. Historically, Aronofsky’s work has tended toward the twisted, and mother! continues this trend. This isn’t a happy film. Nor is it a hopeful one. Despite his brilliance, the director wants a level of commitment from each of his viewers that just isn’t possible given the material and the approach. Still, it’s an evocative film that challenges viewers to sit through their own darkest impulses and reflect. It’s also masturbatory in every sense, but were you expecting anything less from a pretentious showboat like Aronofsky? There are captivating performances from Jennifer Lawrence (Mother) and Javier Bardem (Him), both of whom give their all. The two share a chemistry we didn’t expect, giving the film’s final moments more heart and more heft than they would have deserved otherwise. Ed Harris (basically Adam) and Michelle Pfeiffer (essentially Eve) also turn in magnetic performances, especially because neither of them is likeable. Making us empathise with humanity would be counterproductive for Aronofsky, so he holds that empathy at an arm’s length narratively and emotionally. However, don’t confuse Aronofsky’s cynicism with meanness. The guy has a heart, and it’s made evident in Lawrence’s character, mother. Granted, several scenes challenge this statement, often conveying humanity’s hate through extreme cruelty

and a level of indulgence of which only Aronofsky is capable. However, the film uses its own excess to both undermine and underline its ultimate point: humanity runs full-tilt toward the apocalypse, rarely heeding Mother Earth’s warnings. Aronofsky’s use of excess to depict the dangers of excess works because it indicates a self-awareness, which ends up undercutting its message. Honestly, that’s brilliant. The director’s ambivalence toward the necessity of his film becomes increasingly apparent as tensions congeal and become a shapeless mass of palpable discomfort. He definitely wanted to make the film, but he also despised the need for such a statement. His obvious aversion to and

admittance of the apocalypse make the film unexpectedly well-rounded, making it thoughtful, disheartened, pointed, and passive-aggressive all at once. While mother! isn’t the Aronofsky masterpiece viewers were hoping for, it’s not the disaster it could have been either. Regardless of your feelings toward the film, one thing remains clear: it has people talking, and that’s exactly what Aronofsky wanted. HAYDEN MEARS

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

THE RITUAL CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DAVID BRUCKNER / SCREENPLAY: JOE BARTON / STARRING: RAFE SPALL, ROBERT JAMES-COLLIER, SAM TROUGHTON, ARSHER ALI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW eventually bring it down as we’re faced with a series of illogical decisions and contrived set pieces (not to mention the title being a big fat spoiler). The fact we don’t actually care what happens to the chiefly obnoxious group is a problem, and the one likeable friend is no doubt set for an unpleasant demise. That’s not to say that it’s a waste of time; the cinematography by Andrew Shulkind makes the most of the stunning scenery and director Bruckner knows how to handle the tension, but it’s just a shame that we’ve seen it all before. He wisely keeps the creature mostly hidden from view, but when we do see it, it’s an

interesting design that doesn’t altogether make sense, which actually adds to the nightmare situation. It’s just a shame the same old Blair Witch and cabin in the woods ideas are rehashed, as the central premise of guilt, grief, and the handling of trauma in a group of friends is interesting - particularly the very ‘laddish’ ensemble we’re presented with here. MARTIN UNSWORTH

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

Just in time for Halloween comes a British film that’s steeped in the genre’s tropes and harkens back to the folk horror classics of the ‘70s. With the director of the best segment of the first V/H/S film at the helm, hopes were high, but much like the people whose story we follow, it loses its way somewhat. Five old friends are getting ready to plan a holiday together. Each has a different idea of what they should be doing, with Rob (Paul Reid) pushing for a hiking trip to Sweden. On their way home, Rob and Luke (Spall) nip into an off-licence to keep the booze flowing, but interrupt an in-progress robbery. Hiding behind a shelf, Luke watches helplessly as Rob is beaten and killed. Flash forward a few months and the group has decided to honour Rob’s memory by leaving a memorial on the Swedish hillside. With the weather worsening and Dom (Troughton) having hurt his knee, they make the ill-advised decision to take a shortcut through the woods. Choosing to spend the night in a deserted shack isn’t the cleverest of ideas, either. Each of them has a distressing nightmare; one of them is even found naked and praying to a strange wooden figure in the loft. If the night terrors weren’t enough, something in the woods is stalking them. While The Ritual - which is based on an award-winning novel by Adam Nevill - manages to keep the audience’s interest, the familiarity of the scenarios and expectant jump shocks and beats

REVIEWS

IN MY MIND

DVD & BLU-RAY

DVD + BD / DIRECTOR: CHRIS RODLEY / STARRING: PATRICK MCGOOHAN, CHRIS RODLEY, CATHERINE MCGOOHAN / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 30TH Chris Rodley first contacted Patrick McGoohan as a 13-year-old in February 1968 when he wrote to the actor asking what The Prisoner, recently concluded on ITV, had all been about. Like many others who’d done the same, he received back a printed signature on a postcard encouraging him to think for himself. In 1983, Rodley - now a fledgling filmmaker - did just that and made The Prisoner the subject of his first documentary. The result, Six into One: The Prisoner File, was welcomed by fans hungry for more information on the cult series and its legendary star that - white-shirted against a California sunset - had consented to be interviewed. What viewers didn’t realise at the time was the tortuous, sometimes hilarious struggle Rodley had endured making the film, up against both his legendarily recalcitrant boyhood hero and a hopelessly incompetent local crew. In exorcising at least some of the demons from that period, In My Mind is finally the film about Patrick McGoohan that Chris Rodley can be proud of. Rodley is a wryly engaging narrator and expert storyteller - well aware what he is presenting here is equal parts tragedy and comedy. As technical issues mount up and the novice filmmaker finds himself too nervous to intervene, an unsettled McGoohan goes off-piste and starts calling the shots himself. Rodley’s dream descends into a nightmare; he’s in his very own episode of The Prisoner

and No.6 himself is out to break him. Luckily for us, Rodley kept the camera running. What we witness is a great actor fearfully close to the edge, for whom the struggle is the spur, a prisoner of the incredibly high expectations he set for himself and wilfully tested upon others. Oh, and he’s funny; bloody funny. In every sense, what took place over those few days of cat and mouse in Pacific Palisades was another performance from Patrick McGoohan; three performances, in

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fact. That first, ultimately abandoned interview in which Rodley and crew get a white-knuckle introduction to Planet Patrick at his most tricksterish takes place in a large empty house; the second - the one with the white shirt - is a far more laid-back and benign hilltop encounter that seems calculated by the actor to be the mirror opposite of the first. Finally, and most, bizarrely, there’s the ‘LA Tape’, a video McGoohan sent to Rodley at the eleventh hour in the hope it could be used in place of everything that had gone before. It’s a self-directed oddity, surreally blurring the line between McGoohan and his famous creation. Rodley quite rightly rejected it, but it makes for a fascinating coda to a bizarre series of encounters between the two men. Rodley also spoke to many key Prisoner personnel in 1983, including writer-producer David Tomblin, art director Jack Shampan and writer Lewis Griefer, and utilises candid unseen footage from these sessions to lend some much-needed, often darkly humorous perspective on their former boss. The only new interviewee is McGoohan’s daughter Catherine, who chooses her words so carefully we end up learning more from her pained expressions and what she doesn’t say about her tortured father than what she does. You should never meet your heroes, apparently. You’ll be glad Chris Rodley did. Neither a tribute nor a celebration, In My Mind is an often deeply moving act of reparation by a filmmaker who, for all the obstacles and madness McGoohan threw in his path all those years ago, always wanted to do right by him. Patrick McGoohan was at once funny, frightening and fascinating. So is this. MICHAEL COLDWELL

Credit: Chris Rodley

ZOOLOGY

DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: IVAN I. TVERDOVSKIY / STARRING: NATALYA PAVLENKOVA, DMITRIY GROSHEV, IRINA CHIPIZHENKO, ALEKSANDR NEKHOROSHIKH, ELLA SANKO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Zoology is completely based around a simple but sensational premise. A woman lives with her mother and works in a zoo as part of a life that is going nowhere until one day… she grows a tail. Not even a cute bushy tail as you might want it to be, it is a long clumsy thing, which protrudes from the base of her spine like an albino snake. Not

exactly a flattering feature, but for acclaimed Russian director and writer Ivan I. Tverdovskiy, this is exactly the point. Tverdovskiy has already explored themes of the body in Corrections Class (2014), specifically disability. Zoology seems to be looking at a body that is - in the eyes of other characters -

DARK MATTER: SEASON 3 DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTORS & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MELISSA O’ NEIL, ANTHONY LEMKE, JODELLE FERLAND, ROGER CROSS, ALEX MALLARI JR., ZOIE PALMER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW the stories grounded. There are some missteps along the way, of course; new characters Adrian and Solara exist only to temporarily accommodate the Raza whilst Six goes off to do his own thing, which has been a common problem in past seasons with One, Devon, and Nyx. Plus, this season ends on a massive cliffhanger that will never get resolved as a result of the cancellation, which is a true shame considering the possibilities presented here, as well as the potential of the show as a whole. Dark Matter started off as a unique little show with a fascinating premise, which then gradually improved in quality with each season. This is a show that offers gripping storylines with mind-blowing surprises and twists at every turn, whilst also serving

with such an eye-catching plot summary, Zoology struggles to be an absorbing film. Barring one scene involving a drawer full of mice, nothing that happens takes you by surprise. It all pans out in broadly the way you would expect it to. The final scene, especially, sees a tense but predictable outcome play out. As the whole idea is that this woman has a tail, and that she works in a zoo, a lot more could have been made of her relationship with the animals and how Natasha seems happiest around them. There are a few moments, but it is something that is never taken as far as it could be. Zoology proves to be more interesting than enjoyable, intriguing than shocking and thoughtful than especially provocative. It feels like a lot more could have been done with an idea and setting, which lends itself to so much and yet gives less than it promises.

up high intensity action set pieces and heavy doses of humour that is sorely needed when things get grim. Some audiences might see this as childish or nonsensical, but shows like this need to have levity and optimism otherwise you are just mired down in depression and angst, plus it helps make the dramatic moments even more so despite this show introducing alternate realities, bodypossessing aliens and super-tech toys like the Blink Drive. However, what made all of this work throughout its three-season run, and what made audiences keep coming back, was the characters, and the development for each of the Raza crew from the start of the first season to the end of the third season is truly impressive. We see the nanite-powered Two struggling with the tasks of being a heroic leader despite her instincts telling her she’s anything but, the damaged and sardonic Three starting out sarcastic and arrogant before ending up having a beautifully tragic love story with Sarah (despite her being just a digitally-downloaded conscious form), Six going through a redemption-driven arc from betraying his friends at the end of Season One to being one their most trusted allies, Five (the youngest crew member) ending up becoming a true badass by the end, and finally the Android gradually evolving into something much more than just a robot. The show stayed true to its characters, maintained its course, and dared to take risks when needed,

especially when Four regained his memories during the end of Season Two, becoming Emperor Ryo Ishida, and effectively being the principal antagonist here. The characters were what made this show truly special, and that was largely down to the amazing cast that brought those characters to life. Melissa O’ Neil, Anthony Lemke, Jodelle Ferland, and Roger Cross are still effective leads who manage to take their characters to real emotional depths and heights, Alex Mallari Jr. makes a great villainous foil, whilst Zoie Palmer proves to be the true powerhouse as the Android. The chemistry between these actors still holds up strongly; it was evident from day one and it became more integral as the show went on, and the passion for both the show and their characters shines through their performances. Overall, it’s really sad that this story is going to end in the middle of the book without even having the chance to wrap things up properly, but Dark Matter has been an amazing ride from start to finish. Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie created a show that will continue to be special in its own right after its cancellation, and it was the amazing cast that had us emotionally invested all the way. Thanks for the ride, Team Dark Matter, it was worth every episode.

JAMES HANTON

RYAN POLLARD

DVD & BLU-RAY

All good things must come to an end, but this end came too soon for our liking. Recently, the sad announcement came that Dark Matter was being cancelled after three fun seasons, which is a real shame considering that this was one of the most exciting, fun and creative shows to have been shown on Syfy. This final season picks up where the previous left off with Four now becoming a villain and igniting a corporate war that troubles the crew of the Raza throughout the story arc, whilst also including alternate doubles, evolving androids and the promise of an alien invasion. As always, the show is super fun throughout as each of the storylines presented were intriguing, the stakes are high, and the characters is still the best aspect about it and what keep

monstrous rather than impaired. The tail is used metaphorically as the film explores ideas like the body, religion, belief and being in a small Russian town. It is an intriguing exploration of commonly held prejudices and misgivings, which helps to move the story along. Natalya Pavlenkova portrays Natasha, the woman struck with the embarrassing affliction, and expertly expresses Natasha’s broken emotional state. She also shines in some of the film’s lighter moments, of which there are several, and in building the affectionate but difficult relationship with her doctor Petya (Dmitriy Groshev). Her mother (Irina Chipizhenko), on the other hand, epitomises the kind of superstitious woman of faith who feels terrified by this ‘tailed witch’ (going as far as to paint red crosses all over her house). Of course, she has no idea that the ‘witch’ is actually her daughter. An interesting story backed up with strong performances is great, but the problem is that it kind of stops there. For a story

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959) BD / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: HENRY LEVIN / SCREENPLAY: CHARLES BRACKETT, WALTER REISCH / STARRING: JAMES MASON, PAT BOONE, ARLENE DAHL, THAYER DAVID / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW By the late 1950s, genre cinema’s obsession with the Atom Age and its terrible, fanciful after-effects irradiated supersized rampaging monsters, genetic mutation - was beginning to fade and a new Technicolor era of fantasy cinema was thriving. Unsurprisingly, the studios turned to the great early works of science fiction literature to create the next generation of adventure films designed to show off the increasingly impressive fruits of their rapidly developing visual effects technology. H. G. Wells, the ‘father of science fiction’, had already been plundered for 1953’s War of the Worlds and The Time Machine would make its screen debut in

1960. Jules Verne, sometimesoverlooked author of more tepid vintage adventure stories, had also seen his back catalogue raided for 1956’s Around the World in 80 Days and 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Verne’s best known work, Journey to the Center of the Earth, finally made it to the screen in 1959 and, with its luxurious production values and epic visuals (which have never looked better or more vivid than on this sparkling new Blu-ray transfer from Eureka), it remains certainly the best adaptation of the story itself (let’s draw a discrete veil over the 2008 Brendon Fraser effort) and the best film crafted from

FIREFLY: COMPLETE SERIES - 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

DVD & BLU-RAY

BD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR & WRITER: VARIOUS / STARRING: NATHAN FILLION, GINA TORRES, ALAN TUDYK, MORENA BACCARIN, SUMMER GLAU, ADAM BALDWIN, SEAN MAHER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Lashings of Wild West action in an outer space setting, with razorsharp, insta-quotable dialogue delivered by a cast that would make many a genre fan weak at the knees? Yep, that’s likely the best way to describe Joss Whedon’s Firefly, a series that still to this day has a huge fandom yet was shockingly cancelled by FOX after just one single fourteenepisode season. Sure, we may have got the Serenity movie and then several comic book tales to expand the adventure, but it’s still unbelievable that we

didn’t get the chance to see the antics of Nathan Fillion’s Mal and co. continue in a TV setting, particularly with the budget and time now given to similar small screen series these days. Full of imagination and near-endless possibilities, Firefly captured the attention of so many during its brief-yet-memorable stay. Of course, you’ve likely heard all there is to know about Firefly as a show by this point in time. After all, the series premiered way back in 2002 and so we’ve all had time to digest

Verne’s texts. We’re in Edinburgh in 1880 and university professor Oliver Lindenbrook (a wonderfully waspish James Mason) is given a curious piece of volcanic rock by one of his students. Inside the rock, he finds a message from long-lost scientist Arne Saknussemm who, three centuries earlier, found a passageway leading to the centre of the Earth accessible via an Icelandic volcano. Lindenbrook tells a fellow scientist in Stockholm of his discovery but realises that his rival has already set off on a similar expedition. Racing to Iceland, Lindenbrook and his student Alec McEwan (‘50s pop idol Pat Boone) find that their rival has been murdered. It seems that someone else has designs on reaching the centre of the Earth before them and will stop at nothing to bring Lindenbrook’s eccentric expedition - which now includes the widow of his late rival, an Icelandic hunk and… err… a duck named Gertrud - to a grisly end deep below the surface of the Earth. Journey to the Center of the Earth is big, melodramatic fun and running at over two hours it’s in no hurry to reach its destination; we’re not far short of the sixtyminute mark before we get a real sniff of the group actually starting their journey proper. But once they’re on their way, the

film really revels in its visuals: gaping chasms, a field of giant mushrooms, a broiling subterranean ocean, the ruins of Atlantis and there are even a few monsters thrown in for good measure – albeit of the ‘lizards with bits stuck on their backs’ variety briefly favoured by genre films that couldn’t be bothered to give Ray Harryhausen a bell. But it’s all great rattling entertainment which takes its time to establish its characters before setting them off on their adventure and, as Kim Newman notes in one of the disc’s features, it’s one of the few Verne stories that actually has a sense of danger and urgency. Fans of Verne’s book might balk at some of the liberties taken with the text but then Hollywood’s never been a huge respecter of the written word. Journey is obviously dated but by and large it carries its decades well and it’s a fascinating landmark in Hollywood’s own journey to the big, brash blockbusters we enjoy/ endure today.

just how brilliant the show was and is. So, the bigger question here isn’t about just how wonderful Whedon’s masterpiece is, more it’s looking at whether this new release is really worth your time. If you’re a Firefly fan - and let’s face it, who isn’t? - then you likely already own one of the previous releases of this oneseason marvel. As such, you’re likely a little cautious about handing over yet more pennies for another release of the series. Now, while the swanky slipcase that this anniversary addition comes in is rather glorious to look at, the discs themselves don’t feature anything that hasn’t been seen before in terms of special features and bonus content. Unless we’re mistaken, all of the on-disc extras were all included in the previous Blu-ray release, a release that has seemingly been taken out of circulation now. Fear not, though, for there are some new goodies for fans to enjoy here, with the release featuring a nice array of character cards, a sticker set, and even a map of the Verse. The stickers are pretty standard stuff - “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” proving to be a particular favourite - but the cards and map are mightily impressive

pieces that will have longtime fans purring with excitement. So, to summarise, Firefly is still just as brilliant as it ever was and you’ll still struggle to understand why the show was canned after just a solitary season, but whether you pick up Firefly: Complete Series - 15th Anniversary Edition will largely come down to a) whether you already own a previous Bluray or DVD release, and b) just how much you want to get your greasy paws on the collector’s content included with this release. The overall package is a stylish, crammed release, but it’s ultimately your choice whether you deem the cards, stickers and map enough to justify splashing more cash on the property. For those who for some reason don’t own a copy of Firefly, this should be an absolute musthave. Captain’s orders.

Extras: Commentary / Kim Newman interview / restoration feature / trailer / isolated music and effects track PAUL MOUNT

Extras: Character cards / Map / Sticker sheet / Cast roundtable / Audio commentary on selected episodes / Three featurettes / Deleted scenes / Gag reel / Audition tapes ANDREW POLLARD

KILL, BABY,,, KILL! (1966) BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MARIO BAVA / SCREENPLAY: ROMANO MIGLIORINI, ROBERTO NATALE, MARIO BAVA / STARRING: GIACOMO ROSSI-STUART, ERIKA BLANC, FABIENNE DALI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Mario Bava is one of the most important directors in genre cinema and if you haven’t checked out any of his films, now is the perfect time. Bava’s background in fashion photography clearly influenced his highly stylised, psychedelically coloured genre films, which have benefitted more than most from Blu-ray cleanups. Arrow’s new release of Kill, Baby... Kill! (aka Curse of the Dead) is an exquisitely realised revisit of one of Bava’s finest moments.

Released in 1966, Kill, Baby... Kill! came after a slew of successful features that put Bava at the front of the Italian film industry. The last of Bava’s Euro Gothic films, films that he had found great success with, it follows the story of a town in the Carpathian Mountains haunted by the ghost of a little girl who drives her victims to suicide. Bava appears to be riffing on Jack Clayton’s The Innocents, but most importantly, Mervyn LeRoy’s 1956 film The Bad Seed, which perverts the traditional

CULT OF CHUCKY

DVD + BD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DON MANCINI / STARRING: BRAD DOURIF, FIONA DOURIF, ALEX VINCENT, GRACE LYNN KUNG / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 23RD hardcore fans and posts a perfect warning to the curious as well. The action starts a few years after Curse of Chucky. Serial killer Charles Lee Ray (voiced by The Lord of the Rings’ Brad Dourif) is still trapped inside the infamous Good Guy ‘Chucky’ doll and Nica, the daughter of his former love interest (and Brad’s real-life daughter, Fiona) is

stop with Lynch, though. Fellini in Toby Dammitt would use the image of an angelic little girl in a white dress, playing with a ball. The haunting image of a child scratching at the window would turn up again in Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot. Hell, even the 2006 film adaptation of Silent Hill feels like a thematic remake of Kill, Baby... Kill! Bava is now famous for Blood and Black Lace, the film that instigated giallo and laid the blueprint for American slashers, but he was an accomplished purveyor of scifi, Euro Gothic, and Westerns. Touches and reference points to Bava can be found far and wide in the horror genre and beyond. Kill Baby Kill is one of his most influential moments, a perfect Gothic horror film, and a kind of sign-off from the ‘classic’ phase of the genre, which had served him so well since Black Sunday in 1960. Arrow’s release is gorgeous and has some great bonus features too, including a revealing interview with Bava’s son and a fascinating video essay on the Gothic child from Kat Ellinger.

in a sanitorium on account of being framed for multiple murders. The plot sees the little monster run merrily amok in the ‘loonybin’ with characters who can’t make up their minds just how mad they actually are (or indeed, would like to be). Confused yet? You will be, but that’s part of the joy of this caper. The deaths are as daft and gory as you’d hope (and, sssh - Chucky’s are rather sweet-tempered sometimes), but filming actually gives an icy blast that makes you marvel at the magic ability of even ‘schlock’ cinema to switch mood on a dime. We waft from mourning via some really gorgeous cinematography to split-screen, realism-out-thewindow madness in a moment. Director Don Mancini even does a nifty job of splicing utter fan-friendliness with the occasional social comment. No, really - Seed of Chucky was about self-acceptance (with a lot of murder chucked in) and here, it becomes impossible to just ignore the plight of the asylum patients Nica meets, with Elizabeth Rosen’s ‘Madeline’ a particular standout. She is complemented by Michael Therriault as a manipulative, squicky shrink in the One Flew

Over The Cuckoo’s Nest mould. Some of the minor characters’ acting is a little too hammy to work fully, but that does stop the action from becoming too serious, because the real star isn’t, well, real. The Dourifs make this look so easy. Brad’s ventriloquism of Chucky’s inability to decide whether he wants to up his game or just sit and watch seems pleasantly genuine in a cynical serial killer type of way, but the real revelation is Fiona as Nica. We know from Curse that she can do doe-eyed ’n’ desperate, but a nifty little plot point allows her to get her ‘dom’ on… just in time for a scene-stealing appearance by the one and only Jennifer Tilly as Chucky’s lover, Tiffany. Tilly remains as delightfully subversive as she ever has been and she’s got it licked. Cult of Chucky takes the franchise to its (psycho!)logical conclusion. There are daffy, orange Easter eggs aplenty and enough blood to entertain the (as yet) uninitiated. Is Chucky still fucking with us? Oh yes, he is!

SCOTT CLARK

CHARLIE OUGHTON

DVD & BLU-RAY

There is a strange, quiet beauty in the minimalism of the medical environment in this most anticipated feature concerning one of the icons of horror cinema… until that little ginger fucker adds a bloodbath of colour, that is! Writer/director Don Mancini is back with a few friends for the seventh instalment of the Child’s Play ‘killer doll’ series. It has enough backstory to satisfy

assumptions of childhood in its psychopathic brat Rhoda Penmark. Bava merges LeRoy’s cynical new age paranoia with the generic Europe-centric Gothic of increasingly lucrative Hammer productions. The result is a film void of the stale good vs. evil approach found in much of those Hammer films. Bava’s entrancing style, the euphoric sweeps of colour, the perfect cinematography and a cool bass-led soundtrack from Carlo Rustichelli make Kill, Baby... Kill! a perfectly pop Gothic masterpiece. Sticking to sickly greens and yellows, Bava paints a town rotten to its core, where the murderous ghost of a little girl is not as bad as the ignorance and superstition it breeds. And yes, it’s still scary. Bava was nothing if not an accomplished conductor of atmosphere, dragging the audience into whatever fever dream he desired. For the most part, it relies on the shock of its deaths and the tension of the girl’s appearances, but on another level, it triumphs through moral ambiguity and trippy disorientation. In the last act, Bava achieves some wonderfully loopy sequences, which call the casual surrealism of David Lynch to mind, an artist who has cited Bava as an influence. The influence doesn’t

THE VILLAINESS

DVD + BD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: BYUNG-GIL JUNG / SCREENPLAY: BYUNGGIL JUNG, BYEONG-SIK JUNG / STARRING: OK-BIN KIM, HA-KYUN SHIN, JUN SUNG / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 30TH Like Ms. 45, Nikita, Haywire, and, more recently, Atomic Blonde, Byung-gil Jung’s The Villainess positions itself as a badass film about a vengeful female assassin/agent. Praise at Cannes and FrightFest had hopes high for a martial arts equivalent to those bombastic femsploitation flicks. It follows the story of Sook-Hee (Ok-bin Kim), a vengeful young woman taken in by a secret organisation only to be repurposed as a deadly spy. First up, it’s a great looking film full of superb locations.

Those sets slide between lurid decaying environments and slick opulent locales drenched in John Wick-inspired neon colours. There’s some images in here that feel instantly iconic and understandably - make the poster, as cinematographer Jung-hun Park imbibes The Villainess with a comic book style, fetishising action poses and power angles. But the film seems torn between a pulpy story about a femcentric spy organisation, a gritty revenge trip, and a dull melodrama. It’s the melodrama aspect

EAT LOCALS

DVD & BLU-RAY

DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JASON FLEMYNG / SCREENPLAY: DANNY KING / STARRING: BILLY CROOK, CHARLIE COX, MACKENZIE CROOK, DEXTER FLETCHER, ANNETTE CROSBIE, FREEMA AGYEMAN / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 30TH Take Daredevil, her from One Foot in the Grave, and Dexter Fletcher, chuck in some fangs and what do you get? A comedy vampire caper that has no right to work but provides a chuckleworthy two hours of goodhearted cod-danger. Eat Locals is the new title from Evolution/Hereford Films. Directed by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ Jason Flemyng in his first time behind the camera, Eat Locals carries

all the hallmarks of Hereford’s gangstersploitation - We Still Kill The Old Way, etc. The setup sees East End geezer Sebastian (played by the beautifully named first timer Billy Crook) as he is driven for what he thinks is a dirty weekend with a lady friend. Upon arrival, he is treated to the sight of Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Annette Crosbie (One Foot in the Grave), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and ramshackle others who turn out to be vampire lords hell

that strains patience, deriding that high-octane energy in the second act with a dull compulsory romance. By the halfway mark it feels like we are miles from the disorientating world of an indoctrinating agency and the theatrical training compound they run. It even feels a far cry from the brutally unrelenting opening slaughter sequence. Which explains why the film keeps dodging around in time, slipping bits and bobs in when it knows the pace is collapsing and the character work is becoming increasingly dry. The characters that are most interesting, Seohyeong Kim’s Chief Kwon (the M of the agency) for instance, don’t get as much attention as they should. The femsploitation angle is lost and it becomes a kind of dull gangster love triangle affair, albeit with some superb fights peppered throughout. The camerawork and editing are the film’s worst enemies, though. At first, it manically serves first-person action pretty well, especially in the opening Hardcore Henry-esque massacre. As the film goes on, this becomes increasingly irritating, not to mention just a little headache inducing. Again, the issue is not the action itself; it’s the invasive,

muddled presentation. Which is a real shame because the action is often balls-to-the-wall adrenaline-fuelled catharsis. Ok-bin Kim makes a badass heroine and the film is never more resplendent than when she’s rolling out hyper-violence in speedy sword fights or break-neck gun-fu. All that with a consummate sense of style and a no-shit blood-drenched attitude from both director and cast, an attitude that drifts for a while but thankfully returns for the finale. In the end, The Villainess feels like a crammed origin story for something as opposed to a standalone. If that’s the case, there’s room for improvement on the foundation of something cool. Whilst the facts of the plots are hard to follow and the fights over-shot, there’s still fun to be had in the bombast and candour of it all, not to mention those fights which survive the camerawork and reveal some brutally pristine choreography. Byung-gil Jung has ambition and talent, but over-working seems to at times obscure an otherwise enthralling caper.

bent on divvying up prey from their particular regions. Realising they’re unlikely to see eye to eye with him (with or without a mirror), Sebastian tries to leg it. The whole thing then descends into a very British farce between the vamps, the bad boy and the services sent to keep the whole thing in check. There are some crimes against script writing here (random references to Tolkien that are duly delivered with lead - really?). That said, there is a certain charm about many of the performances. Charlie Cox is great value and brings his marvellous pained morals back to his very English accent while Annette Crosbie yanks her other foot out of the grave and goes great guns in a way that outdoes Honor Blackman’s turn in Cockneys vs. Zombies a few years ago. Doctor Who’s Freema Agyeman would benefit from remembering a glottal stop does not a stroppy character make, but at least she’s trying. The show is practically stolen by Billy Crook (sorry) whose utter lack of guile (and oddly hipster haircut) make you root for him regardless. He is every gutsy whippersnapper from Oliver! onwards. The rest of the roles are basically both directed and scripted as a kind of UK-character Minstrel show, with Fletcher bug-eyeing his way through a farmer and Gavin and

Stacey’s Ruth Jones being cuddly and Very Welsh. It honestly feels like a panto, in a good way, after you get past the rather slow intro. Parallels with everything from Shaun of the Dead to What We Do In the Shadows go down a treat. There’s even a nice little bit of social class dialogue bubbling under the surface that results in a final and very wry political money shot. The cinematography and effects are nothing to write home about, though they are perfectly serviceable. How ‘Danny Dire’ can a load of gangsta vampires be? Answer’s in the dodgy rhyme, but despite a lack of bite, Eat Locals is an enjoyable little morsel.

SCOTT CLARK

CHARLIE OUGHTON

THE DOCTORS: THE TOM BAKER YEARS DVD / CERT: E / DIRECTOR: KEITH BARNFATHER / PRESENTER: NICHOLAS BRIGGS / STARRING: TOM BAKER, ELISABETH SLADEN, IAN MARTER, LOUISE JAMESON, MARY TAMM, JOHN LEESON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Koch Media’s reissues of Reeltime Pictures’ Myth Makers interviews arrive here at The Big One, the Tom Baker collection – and it’s a bittersweet affair. While on the one hand it includes perhaps the pride of the Keith Barnfather collection, a fiftyminute interview with the Fourth Doctor himself, elsewhere the interviewees are notable for how many of them are, in all cases devastatingly prematurely, no

longer with us. The three seasons of Doctor Who produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes between 1975 and 1977 are feted by fans as the series’ glory days, an unrepeatable golden period of unforgettable moments, glorious dialogue and terrifying monsters. The icing on the cake was the programme’s regular cast, the redoubtable Tom Baker bestriding the production like

DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) DUAL / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: LUCIO FULCI / SCREENPLAY: LUCIO FULCI, ROBERTO GIANVITI, GIANFRANCO CLERICI / STARRING: FLORINDA BOLKAN, BARBARA BOUCHET, TOMAS MILIAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW a peasant community mired in superstition and religious fervour. Immediately unsettling from its opening juxtaposition of a modern raised motorway bisecting the rural, seemingly forgotten community below, Don’t Torture a Duckling rips up the increasingly dog-eared giallo playbook of chic designer violence, swish city settings and fashionable people to deliver a new and shocking level of brutality and a cast of characters that represent the opposing poles

rather slighter but still indispensable chat. The meat is on Disc One. Alongside a quite substantial conversation with Elisabeth Sladen, recorded before her modern televisual reinvention, there’s a rare opportunity to enjoy Ian Marter talking Target novelisations and Doctor Who Meets Scratchman while ambling about the Terror of the Zygons locations. Ultimately, though, what really sells this collection’s importance is the three-quarters-of-an-hour spent in Tom Baker’s company in East Hagbourne (site of The Android Invasion) in 1989, before the affectation took over entirely and so with perhaps as much honesty as Baker has ever allowed about the programme and his place in it. As usual, the low budget archive sound and picture issues are but tiny niggles when placed beside the value and enjoyment offered up by such a tremendous and truly essential collection of interviews.

of encroaching modernity and entrenched, old-fashioned belief in good and evil. It’s a tension manifested in a killer who, in a change of pace for your average Catholic priest, seeks not to sexually abuse pubescent boys, but to render them in a state of grace, lest they grow up to be corrupted by the modern world. The picture transfer on this dual DVD/Blu-ray package is sympathetically grainy and richly colourful, honouring Sergio D’Offizzi’s immaculate cinematography. It’s one of the great ironies of Fulci’s career that most people’s experience of his 1980s splatter-king heyday came courtesy of ratty pan-and-scan rental tapes that largely obliterated his mastery of widescreen composition; however, this is another grand restoration in more ways than one. Extras are as comprehensive as we’ve come to expect from Arrow. A pair of ‘video essays’ on the social function of the giallo within working class Italian society and accusations of misogyny in Fulci’s work are, despite their academic bent, engagingly on-the-nose. Cast and crew interviews yield some priceless anecdotes, not least from Florinda Bolkan, subject of the movie’s notorious chainwhipping scene. Having never

actually seen her truly heartbreaking demise, she gamely watches it for the first time oncamera. It’s fair to say she’s a bit shocked, but recovers enough to praise Fulci who she adored - sort of (“Lucio was very peculiar… he really was…”). Best of all is an extensive audio recording that Fulci made himself in 1988 in response to a series of written questions from a journalist. If you’ve ever wondered how such an immensely cultured chap ended up making Zombie FleshEaters and The New York Ripper, his genially honest testimony makes for essential listening. Effortlessly quoting everyone from Virginia Woolf to Kafka, he takes an odyssey through his own career and its place in the wider history of film, emerging in old age with poor health and a poor bank balance, yet feeling immensely rich for having made the journey. As self-assessments go, it’s wonderful. Cruel, beautiful and all the colours in between, Don’t Torture a Duckling is a compelling and beguiling work from a greatly underrated filmmaker.

Extras: Introduction by Briggs and Barnfather JR SOUTHALL

MICHAEL COLDWELL

DVD & BLU-RAY

In a remote rural backwater of Southern Italy, a serial killer is targeting local teenage boys. The investigation takes in a range of suspects including the village voyeur (Vito Passeri), a tragic, self-proclaimed witch (a barely recognisable Florinda Bolkan, star of director Lucio Fulci’s previous giallo, Lizard in a Woman’s Skin) and a beautiful young woman from the city with a shady past (Barbara Bouchet), before the truth finally reveals a savage darkness at the heart of

a colossus, the Man Who Was Born to Play Doctor Who. The succession of companions he acted alongside each brought out different aspects of his otherwise opaque character, Sarah Jane, for example, eliciting an often-softer Doctor, while against Leela a rather tetchier Tom was much in evidence. The Tom Baker Years concentrates most heavily on these earlier seasons, all but one of the set’s participants having débuted prior to the end of 1977. John Leeson, better known to all as K9, makes for an affable if slightly grandiloquent subject to close the collection, whereas Louise Jameson (whose selection is peppered with various readings in a Victorian museum in Leeds) is intelligent, engaging and game for a bit of fun. It’s a good job, indeed, that so many of Doctor Who’s luminaries don’t mind sending themselves up somewhat, especially in the earlier of Nicholas Briggs’ interviews, where we find Mary Tamm impersonating Alice to Briggs’ White Rabbit, running around in the grounds of Eynsford Castle in Kent – chosen presumably because it’s in the same county as Leeds Castle where The Androids of Tara was shot – before settling down to have a

#FROMJENNIFER

VOD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: FRANK MERLE / STARRING: TONY TODD, DANIELLE TADDEI, DEREK MEARS, MEGHAN DEANNA SMITH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW We’ve come a long way since James Cullen Bressack brought us his filmed-on-an-iPhone shocker To Jennifer, and now a third film hits shelves. However, other than the character name and utilising a self-shot POV camera technique, #FromJennifer has no connection to the others. The Jennifer in Frank Merle’s movie is a down-on-her-luck actor who is told by her agent (horror legend Tony Todd) to raise her social media profile so that she will be more desirable to directors

and producers. One of the girls in her acting class, Stephanie Hart (Meghan Deanna Smith) has done just that (with annoying levels of accuracy), so Jennifer asks for her help. Unfortunately, an ex-boyfriend has released an intimate video of her carrying out a sex act onto the web, which isn’t exactly the sort of exposure she wanted. This results in her being offered parts in exchange for a repeat performance and her agent dropping her. It does, however, give her the idea to enact her own

ARROW - SEASON 5

DVD & BLU-RAY

BD + DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: STEPHEN AMELL, DAVID RAMSEY, EMILY BETT RICKARDS, PAUL BLACKTHORNE, WILLA HOLLAND, ECHO KELLUM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Following Damien Darhk’s twisted plans for chaos in Arrow’s fourth season, Stephen Amell’s Emerald Archer is back to tackle a terrifying and personal new threat to both himself and his secret identity. In addition to being targeted by said threat - the mysterious, clinical Prometheus - Oliver has to balance this challenge with an equally daunting task: being the Mayor of Star City. With new faces arriving, and with plenty of familiar faces returning, the fifth season of Arrow was lined up to be a great one. Let’s see whether it delivers on its promise, though. While we’ve been huge fans of Arrow since the series debuted in back in 2012, we’ve got to be

honest and say that, despite Neal McDonough on magnetic form as uber-rogue Darhk, certain parts of the previous season were a tad dull at times - most notably the Baron Reiter-centred flashback element set back on the island of Lian Yu. To many, this fifth season needed to get the adrenaline flowing once more, needed to interestingly and intricately showcase character development again, and, in some ways, needed to return more to its gritty roots. Thankfully, Season 5 does not disappoint. From the get-go, we get an Oliver Queen who is loathe to let anyone get close to him. Once more, we get to see the Green Arrow cracking

type of revenge porn and raise her Internet profile at the same time. While Stephanie will be helping Jennifer with the video editing and online side of things, she needs a strong arm partner in her venture, and employs hulking simpleton Butch (Derek Mears, who played Jason in the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th). He’s loyal and trustworthy, and willing to do anything to make Jennifer happy, even if he gets a little overzealous and takes things too far. Taking a timely swipe at the Internet-fame hungry crowd we’re faced with on a daily basis (and who make us dread using YouTube these days), #FromJennifer is a brilliantly entertaining - and shocking tale. As Jennifer (don’t ever call her Jenny!), Taddei is perfect. Like a young Winona Ryder, she’s a doe-eyed ingénue whose plan for both success and revenge are as misguided as her career choice. While she doesn’t set out to cause physical harm to anyone, as things spiral out of control, so does her mental state. Tony Todd really camps things up as the agent whose sincerity and loyalty are more than a little suspect, his silky voice adding an extra level of sleaze to the character while

Derek Mears’ dangerous but well-meaning gay sidekick is both tragic and hilarious. However, it’s arguably Meghan Deanna Smith’s Stephanie who steals the show, but for all the wrong reasons. She’s self-obsessed and addicted to social media, always thinking what her ‘fans’ would want to see next. We see this kind of vacuous attention junkie all the time and it never fails to infuriate us, and that’s just what Smith does in the role, she’s that good! Filming on multiple GoPro cameras this time around rather than iPhones allows for a slightly more cinematic feel (in that we get cutaways and such) while also keeping the intimacy of the ‘found footage’ style. The premise (if not the horror aspect) is all too believable; we’re constantly bombarded with self-proclaimed scream queens and actors whose online presences suggest success even when they’ve done little in the way of actual work. #FromJennifer is arguably the strongest and most accessible of the trio of ‘Jennifer’ films, particularly since one doesn’t need to know anything about the others to enjoy it.

skulls and taking names in his relentless pursuit to cleanse Star City, his city; each petty criminal or demented mastermind is seen as a personal insult to the Master Bowman and all that he represents. And while the show does often shine brightest when Ollie is working solo or within a small, tight unit of trusted allies, this fifth season manages to nicely balance that aspect while also introducing some new members of Team Arrow in the form of Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), Evelyn Sharp/ Artemis (Madison McLaughlin), Rory Regan/Ragman (Joe Dinicol) and Dinah Drake/ Black Canary (Juliana Harkavy) in addition to bumping Echo Kellum’s Curtis Holt up to a bona fide member of the group as he takes on his comic book Mr. Terrific persona. As the old saying goes, though, a good hero is only as good as their villain, and the use of Prometheus here is a masterstroke from the minds behind the show. Sure, he’s vastly different from the comic book character of the same name, but Prometheus is a villain who is extremely personal to both Oliver Queen and the Green Arrow. Playing out as a whodunit affair, the season teases you at every turn over the real identity of this villain, but that’s just one of the

many twists and turns that are present throughout a season that is a roaring return to form for a series many had started to become a tad concerned about. And what about the flashbacks, some of you may ask. Well, despite dragging a little at times, overall it’s a vast improvement on last year’s trips back to Lian Yu. Initially seeing Oliver in a truly brutal Russian setting, many will enjoy seeing his backstory play out; we see how things dovetail with the opening moments of the show’s very first episode as he again returns to Lian Yu - this time in a desperate attempt to make it home to Star(ling) City once and for all. With new allies and new villains, Arrow manages to return to its roots while moving forward in a way that will have you itching for more ahead of the show’s sixth season premiering this October. Once again, the series has managed to hit a prolific bullseye and prove why Arrow is still the undisputed daddy of The CW’s Arrow-verse.

MARTIN UNSWORTH

Extras: 2016 Comic-Con Panel / Three featurettes / Deleted scenes / Gag reel ANDREW POLLARD

GRANNY OF THE DEAD

DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TUDLEY JAMES / STARRING: MARCUS CARROLL, ABIGAIL HAMILTON, OLIVER FERRIMAN, WILLIAM HUW / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW As the rotting corpse of the zombie subgenre shuffles on, with no small thanks to the TV behemoth The Walking Dead, lowbudget filmmakers continue to pick over the bones for any morsel of meat to entertain us with. With its commercially schlocky

title, Granny of the Dead could easily be relegated to the forgotten world of the bargain bin, but there’s a little more here than its throwaway image suggests. The unlikely setting for this macabre adventure is Wales, and our ‘heroes’ are a group of

BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN

DVD + BD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: SAM LIU / SCREENPLAY: JAMES KRIEG, BRUCE TIMM / STARRING: KEVIN CONROY, MELISSA RAUCH, LOREN LESTER, PAGET BREWSTER, KEVIN MICHAEL RICHARDSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW and the main adventure itself is absolutely fine. It’s elsewhere that many may ultimately take issue with Batman and Harley Quinn, though. And boy, are there issues here. First and foremost, when we first meet up with Harley we see her complaining about being viewed by some lowlife as a sexual object - only to then spend the entirety of the film being positioned as a sexual object by the minds behind Batman and Harley Quinn. From close-ups of her derriere, to her stripping to her underwear, to her actually shaking her breasts at one point, it’s easy to see why many fans would be in uproar at how sexualised Quinn has become here. In addition, there’s actually a scene based around Harley farting up a storm that causes the Batmobile to pull over, and

tried and trusted cinematic techniques to make the clearly low-budget film feel like a blockbuster, even if the shot-ondigital quality betrays it. It doesn’t shy away from the gore, either, with some impressive prosthetics and passable CGI meaning we get an array of dismembered body parts and a bitten-off penis for good measure. As one would expect with a low-budget effort, the acting is variable, but nothing too jarring, and the cast certainly have a lot of energy and give it their all. That extends to the game old folk who are plastered in make-up and get to have lots of fun attempting to kill and eat the teens. You might be amused and lured by the quirky title, but Granny of the Dead has much more going for it. It might not reach the lofty commercial heights of Edgar Wright’s classic, but neither does it simply ape or riff on it.

then the ending will have plenty of viewers slapping their head in frustration as they mouth obscenities at the screen. That’s not to say that Batman and Harley Quinn is a total dud, and the animation style and certain elements of its tone will conjure up fond memories of the muchloved Batman: The Animated Series - which, in turn, is helped by the returns of Conroy and Lister as the Caped Crusader and Nightwing. And while it may be a little off-putting initially to not hear the vocals of Arleen Sorkin or even Tara Strong as Harleen, Melissa Rauch does an impressive job as the Maid of Mischief. Elsewhere, there are plenty of nods and winks to keep eagle-eyed DC fans busy, while the music used throughout the feature manages to hit the right beats brilliantly, with Harleen’s take on Blondie’s Hanging on the Telephone even having the Dark Knight himself tapping along. Overall, Batman and Harley Quinn is a mixed bag that struggles to know what it wants to be, with fun, kid-friendly antics and some genuinely funny lines thrown together with some more suggestive adult content and the at-times horrifically sexualised take on Harley. Being perfectly honest, the movie is a rare misstep for Warner Brothers’ animated DC output, and it feels horribly misjudged at several points. Making this even more annoying is that there was such

potential here, and even now there are elements of the film that are hugely appealing - the fluid animation style that harks back to Batman: The Animated Series, the excellent musical nods, the many DC references, Conroy and Lister making the best of what they’re given, and Rauch proving a strong choice as Harley Quinn - but it comes down to the fact that, regardless of how much you find yourself enjoying parts of Batman and Harley Quinn, it’s ultimately too much of a struggle to override the negatives. By this stage of the game, Warner Bros and director Sam Liu have earned our trust when it comes to this animated universe, so here’s hoping that lessons can be learned from Batman and Harley Quinn’s failings and this is simply a blip on the radar. And in case you need a little pickme-up afterwards, the sneak peek at next year’s Gotham by Gaslight adaptation looks phenomenal, not to mention there’s two brilliant Harleycentric Batman: The Animated Series episodes included on this release to raise your spirits.

MARTIN UNSWORTH

Extras: Sneak peek at Batman: Gotham by Gaslight / Two featurettes / Two bonus episodes of Batman: The Animated Series / Trailers ANDREW POLLARD

DVD & BLU-RAY

A completely original adventure featuring Batman and Harley Quinn? In the aftermath of Harleen’s newfound postSuicide Squad popularity? With fan favourite Nightwing thrown in for good measure? On paper, Batman and Harley Quinn sounds like a match made in heaven, so let’s see if it lives up to its fun promise. Plot-wise, Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Nightwing (Loren Lister) find themselves tasked with stopping the twisted plan of Poison Ivy (Paget Brewster) and the Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson). With the future of mankind hanging in the balance, the long-time Dynamic Duo have no choice but to seek out the help of none other than Harleen Quinzel, aka the Joker’s main squeeze Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch). It’s a largely paint-by-numbers story,

young friends who have come to realise that the world (or at least their part of it) has become stricken with an outbreak of the undead. Strangely, it appears to be localised to the old folk, as Ed (Carroll) finds out when he wakes up to find his Nan in the kitchen frying his pet cat. Ringing around his mates, they attempt to come up with a plan to get to safety and avoid being munched on by the false teethwearing septuagenarians. Although largely being marketed as a comedy horror film in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, what we actually have here is a little less broad in the humour department; there are certainly some moments that will raise a smile, but nothing to make you laugh out loud in the lads’ banter. However, it certainly doesn’t scrimp when it comes to the gore and shocks. It’s barely ten minutes in when we’re confronted with our first wrinkled zombie and although the pace of the narrative wavers a little, there’s very little let-up in the action. Writer/director Tudley James manages to use some

GOTHAM - SEASON 3 DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / WRITERS: VARIOUS / STARRING: BEN MCKENZIE, ROBIN LORD TAYLOR, CORY MICHAEL SMITH, SEAN PERTWEE, CAMREN BICONDOVA, MORENA BACCARIN, DAVID MAZOUZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Although Channel 5 holds the broadcast rights to Gotham in the UK, it has elected to refrain from actually airing the third season. This makes this DVD collection the first chance that fans on this side of the pond will have to watch Gotham’s third season through official means. Occasionally Gotham will make use of background music that either comes from one of the Burton films, or feels like it would have fit in perfectly among the rest of those films’ scores. This

may seem like it’s an odd point to start with but it highlights how similar in tone this series is to those movies. Gotham really does feel like an answer to Burton’s take on Batman in television form. The third season is no exception. The plots are purposefully bizarre, the actors fully embrace their roles, and the sets combine the theatrical and garish with the grim and gritty. Gotham has a wide array of characters, and it manages to more or less balance them all.

DVD & BLU-RAY

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE COMPLETE SERIES 1 - 7 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION DVD / CERT: 15 / CREATOR: JOSS WHEDON / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR, NICHOLAS BRENDON, ALYSON HANNIGAN, ANTHONY HEAD, CHARISMA CARPENTER, JAMES MARSTERS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW With Joss Whedon’s iconic Buffy the Vampire Slayer celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, the powers that be have seen fit to release a new box set collection to commemorate this milestone. Is this merely another thinly-veiled attempt to milk this vampire-

slaying cow dry, or should this new release be picked up ASAP by fans of the Slayer? Let’s take a look. Really, if you’ve got even a passing interest in anything ‘genre’ then you’ll be well aware of the basics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With Sarah Michelle Gellar

There are a couple of exceptions; Fish Mooney is mostly forgotten this season (despite the promise she showed in Season 2) and Ivy‘s characterisation leaves a lot to be desired. The highlight of this season comes in the form of the dynamic between Edward Nygma and the Penguin. Their scenes together make for some of the most emotional and tense this season. The plot may be where Gotham Season 3 loses some people. It involves clones and secret societies, and as always, the mob is up to something. Gotham successfully navigates these things by fully embracing the over-the-top nature of it all, but your mileage may vary as to how successfully they pull that off. Gotham Season 3 comes with a small offering of extras for viewers to enjoy. Anyone who didn’t attend San Diego Comic Con last year can watch Gotham’s panel. There are also a couple of glimpses behind the scenes of the show, including Ben McKenzie (who plays James Gordon) discussing what it is like to sit in the director’s chair for the first time. Between them the extras are worth a look but

won’t take up a great deal of time to get through. This season is a strange union of melodrama, crime thriller, and superhero tale. The returning cast all get a chance to shine, and new characters such as Jervis Tetch all add something fun to the show. This collection offers fans the chance to finally catch up on the show and it offers a small array of extra features that are acceptable without being substantial. As a whole, Gotham Season 3 is worth checking out.

as Buffy Summers, the series became a huge favourite of so many during its run from 1997 to 2003 as Buffy and pals did their best to protect Sunnydale and beyond from the nefarious threats of vampires and all other kinds of beasties. But you’re not here to see us lauding praise on just how great Buffy was and to give you a concise rundown of what made the show tick. No, you’re likely here to see if this new release is indeed worth shelling out for. Put together as a thirty-ninedisc set that includes all 144 episodes of the show, there’s no questioning that this release is absolutely overflowing with special features, from cast and crew commentaries, to extensive featurettes, to music videos and sing-songs. The problem is, all of these bonus features have been included on previous releases of the entire Buffy series, which isn’t great news for those clamouring for new exclusives. On the new material front, there’s a nifty colouring page for those who happen to have some crayons handy, and then there’s the slick, smooth first instalment of the eighth season Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book. Said comic was written by Joss Whedon and picks up in the aftermath of Buffy’s explosive series finale. If you’ve yet to pick up Buffy, this is undoubtedly a comprehensive boxset that ticks

all of the relevant boxes. That said, you could be well served to pick up one of the previous box set releases for a far cheaper price than the £60 that this new set costs. As such, it can’t help but feel like a bit of a cash-in to longtime fans of the Slayer, especially considering that there’s no Blu-ray release yet and the simple fact that there was such potential to include fresh new bonus content to mark twenty years since Buffy débuted way back in 1997. Rating this release is a tad tricky when taking all of the above into account. Is the series still as great as it ever was? Of course! Is this new release worthy of splashing out your pennies for? If you own a previous release, likely not. And even if you don’t, there are other releases out there that will cost you a whole lot less if you’re prepared to miss out on a colouring page and a brief, if great, comic book.

GARETH EVANS

Extras: Audio commentaries on select episodes / Featurettes / Interviews / Karaoke singalongs / Episode scripts / Outtakes / Music videos / Cast biographies / Stills gallery / Colouring page / Season 8 comic ANDREW POLLARD

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND - 40TH ANNIVERSARY BD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: STEVEN SPIELBERG / STARRING: RICHARD DREYFUSS, TERI GARR, MELINDA DILLON, FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The cinematic importance of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind can’t be underestimated. Coming off the back of the monster success of Jaws and in development before he took to the water to make the shark epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind confirmed his arrival in the upper echelon of Hollywood. Already a star on the rise, a member of the

legendary movie brats along with George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Brian De Palma among others, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (or CE3K as it’s often abbreviated) was a risky and costly project to embark upon. Greenlit by the struggling Columbia Pictures, the movie cost $20 million to make and ultimately brought in a worldwide haul of $337 million, no small feat for a film

GUARDIANS

DVD + BD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: SARIK ANDREASYAN / SCREENPLAY: ANDREI GAVRILOV / STARRING: SEBASTIEN SISAK, ANTON PAMPUSHNYY, ALINA LANINA, SANJAR MADI, VALERIYA SHKIRANDO, STANISLAV SHIRIN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW created - well - they disappeared without trace, scattering themselves to the furthest corners of what used to be the Soviet Union. Except now the rogue scientist is back (looking like a cross between Batman’s Bane and the X-Men’s Magneto) and he’s got a cunning plan to control all of the world’s machines and military satellites, bringing humanity to its knees. All

Edition, which infamously included new effects showing the inside of the mothership, and Spielberg’s restorative and more satisfying 1997 Director’s Cut. Also included are a making-of documentary, Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters featurette, Deleted Scenes and the classic 1977 Featurette Watch the Skies. There are also storyboard to scene comparisons, an extensive photo gallery, and the theatrical trailers but new to this gorgeously packaged set is the Three Kinds of Close Encounters featurette, a brand new interview with Spielberg on the legacy of CE3K plus interviews with J. J. Abrams and Denis Villeneuve about the impact of the film. Arguably the most fun inclusion is the Steven’s Home Movies and Outtakes featurette, which includes rare and never-before-seen home movies and gags from the set of the film but ultimately the film, itself is the real treat of this box set, a movie that continues to engage audiences forty years on.

that stands between him and global domination are four ageless superhumans, tracked down surprisingly easily by the newly reinstated ‘Patriot’ organisation: a man who can levitate rocks, a beautiful woman who can control her body temperature and make herself invisible, another man with two massive swords who can move at the speed of light, and a third guy who can turn himself into a were-bear and is concerned that one day he’ll be stuck inside the bear’s body for good. They are the Guardians and this film is, surprisingly, not that bad at all. True, there’s nothing new to see here: the script is ropey, the CGI is a bit haphazard, the superpowers are questionable and you don’t have to think too hard to realise the ingenious villain’s masterplan is actually deeply stupid. But there’s also a strange kind of charm to it, a sort of admirable ‘little engine that could’ determination to take Marvel on at their own game (which sometimes succeeds because Guardians is waaaaay better than the recent Fantastic Four fiasco) and a sense that everyone who was involved with this project realised they were pushing something smelly uphill so just

decided to enjoy the process and have a good time. And the performances are pretty good for a film of this type (not that playing a superhero has really challenged anyone’s dramatic range) with each character getting a minute or two to show some angst and then do something ridiculously gungho (the invisible girl’s moment, when they attack the villain’s transmitter, is priceless). As for the DVD, it’s a barebones disc but thankfully, it does offer two ways to watch the movie: either with its original Russian audio (with English subs) or in an English dub. Choose the Russian audio: the subtitling isn’t the best and it’s sometimes impossible to read, but it’s eminently preferable to the English audio track, which sounds like it was recorded by an amateur theatre group sleepwalking inside an echo chamber. The Guardians of the Galaxy don’t have much to worry about, but this is definitely more fun than watching Batman v Superman again…

MARK NEWBOLD

IAN WHITE

DVD & BLU-RAY

Many years ago, Russian scientists conducted underground experiments on unsuspecting civilians. The program was called ‘Patriot’ and the experiments, although gruesome, endowed many of their recipients with astonishing superpowers. But then one of the scientists went rogue and the program was shut down. As for the superhumans the experiment

released in the same calendar year as Star Wars. CE3K is rightly regarded as one of Spielberg’s greats, sitting comfortably alongside such classics as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws and E.T. Imbuing the film with a sense of unease, mystery and wonder, Spielberg balanced the urban drama of Roy Neary (Spielberg’s ‘70s muse Richard Dreyfuss) and Jillian and her toddler son Barry Guiler (Melinda Dillon and Cary Guffey) with the government cover-up led by French scientist Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) and his interpreter David Laughlin (Bob Balaban). Accompany this with a masterful score by John Williams, deep in his 1975 to 1985 hot streak, starship designs by Ralph McQuarrie and visual effects by Douglas Trumbull and you had the recipe for a film that mixed the paranoia of Watergate with the post-May ’77 wonder evoked by Star Wars. November 2017 sees the 40th anniversary of the release of the film and this expansive Blu-ray collection packs in as much as it possibly can into the set. All three versions of the film are included. The original 1977 Theatrical Version, the misguided 1980 Special

AUDIOSTATIC

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF AUDIO ADVENTURES BY TONY JONES

on October 19th. Set in Even Greater London, it will consist of six parts, and there are trailers available on Soundcloud. You can follow the project on Twitter (@victoriocity). Full details have yet to emerge, but the project does involve Gemma Arrowsmith, who has worked on The Tracey Ullman Show and was once described by Vic Reeves as the greatest female comedy actor of the 21st century. We can’t wait!

On the BBC

DEATH NOTE

If you’re a fan of the manga or anime Death Note, you may like to know that a twelve-hour audio drama is being produced by German publisher Lübbe Audio, to be recorded in both German and English. This adaptation draws on the anime version and will be translated by Jonathan Clements.

JEREMIAH BOURNE IN TIME

A quick mention for a new project, Jeremiah Bourne in Time. It’s an original audio drama written by and starring Nigel Planer. Its all-star cast includes Sebastian Armesto (Broadchurch 3, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Poldark) as Jeremiah, Tim McInnerny (Blackadder, Notting Hill, Outlander, Game of Thrones), Celia Imrie (Harry Potter, Dinnerladies, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Planer’s fellow The Young Ones star Christopher Ryan. The story (as the title might suggest) explores the effect of time travel on Jeremiah, and there’s a good mix of humour, action and mystery. It’s a Big Finish production, directed by Barnaby Edwards. It’s expected to be released in the first part of 2018.

AUDIO

Podcast Spotlight

Two podcasts caught our attention this month: one horror, one humour. For horror, there’s the recently launched podcast Station to Station (Twitter: @S2Podcast). It’s the brainchild of the team behind Procyon Podcasts (procyonpodcasts.com) whose other projects include Under Pressure (set in the near future, on board an underwater research station) and The Strange Case of Starship Iris. Iris hasn’t been released yet, but promises to be a sci-fi mystery thriller set after a war with extra-terrestrials, and promising outer space adventures, themes of family and survival, as well as a few jokes. Station to Station is billed as ‘a sci-fi mystery about corporate espionage, loss, morality and close encounters of the eldritch kind’. It has its own Tumblr site (s2s-podcast.tumblr.com) and is set on a research vessel hundreds of miles from land. The site has some behind the scenes blogging and links to the first three episodes. It was created by Alex Yun and co-produced with Andrea Klassen. The episodes are just under thirty minutes each and available to download or listen. If you’re in the mood for humour, keep an ear out for Victoriocity, a neo-Victorian detective comedy drama podcast, due to commence

The BBC has offered us a more eclectic choice than normal, and there should be something for everyone. With Halloween approaching, Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime had a ten-part reading of David Seltzer’s The Omen, with the final part transmitted on Friday the 13th (and available for thirty days on iPlayer). It was read by Owen Teale (Game of Thrones) and abridged by Jeremy Osborne. As part of a celebration of all things poetry, Radio 3, in conjunction with the Philharmonic Orchestra, brought us an all new, two-hour adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. It was presented as part of its Contains Strong Language season and starred Samuel Edward-Cook (Peaky Blinders) as Alex, and the cast also included Edward Leigh, Sue Jenkins and many others. It may still be available on iPlayer, and is bound to be repeated. Finally (for now), Radio 4 Extra gave us another chance to hear Joanna Tope (whose CV includes Emmerdale, The Omega Factor, and The Tomorrow People) read John Wyndham’s Trouble with Lichen. This five-part adaptation by Scott Stanton Miller is taken from Wyndham’s 1960 novel, and was first broadcast in 2007.

FUTURAMA

If you’re missing the cancelled TV show Futurama, head over to The Nerdist Podcast. Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and the other show writers have reunited the original cast for a (one-off?) podcast including Fry, Bender, Leela, Professor Farnsworth and more. While on a routine mission to Junkleon 7, the crew encounters Klaxxon, a nefarious life form composed entirely of soundwaves from 21stcentury podcasts. Listen now at nerdist.com/the-nerdist-podcastnew-futurama-episode.

AUDIO

OST

AUDIO

omposers being replaced on films is nothing new. Sometimes, it happens due to scheduling conflicts, as when Michael Giacchino had to knock out last year’s Rogue One score in a month when Alexandre Desplat turned out too be busy. However, the story of the score to Blade Runner 2049 has as many twists and turns as the plot to the original film. Producer El-P (Run the Jewels) was evidently asked to demo a track for the trailer, and it was never used. He dropped that on Instagram in late September, saying only that the Yamaha CS80 music was “rejected (or ignored)” and that “honestly even being asked to demo it up was an honour”. A week later, Blade Runner 2049’s director, Denis Villeneuve, did an interview wherein he spelled out why he replaced his longtime musical collaborator Jóhann Jóhannsson with whom he worked on Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival - with Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch. Evidently, despite being someone everyone thought would be perfect for the project, and one of Villeneuve’s “favourite composers alive today”, the director explained that Blade Runner 2049 “needed something different, and I needed to go back to something closer to Vangelis”. The only official release of the film’s

music comes courtesy of a limited edition double compact disc set, which is individually numbered in an edition of 2049, and that’s available via bladerunner2049.shop. musictoday.com. In further Wallfisch news, the vinyl edition of his score to Annabelle: Creation sees release just before Halloween on white wax, with a printed inner sleeve and an outer jacket that hides an image inside. It looks ace, and fans of the film are sure to want to pick this

THE STARBURST GUIDE TO THE LATEST SOUNDTRACKS BY NICK SPACEK

up. We’re not 100% on the cover art, but then again, it’s all about the music, isn’t it? Silva Screen’s series of Doctor Who reissues continues to bring amazing music and sounds to your turntable, and the latest series is a set of eight story releases. The first two are Tristram Cary’s music for The Daleks, featuring music from all seven episodes as well as unreleased material, and Dominic Glynn’s music for the 1989 story, Survival, marking the first official release of the entire score. The Daleks is a single vinyl LP, while Survival is a double LP release. In mid-November, Silva Screen will release a gatefold vinyl reissue of Pino Donaggio’s score to the 1973 chiller Don’t Look Now from director Nicolas Roeg. Donaggio’s first film score is hauntingly beautiful, as is this new release. For the twentieth anniversary edition of the BFI Film Classics book on Don’t Look Now, Creative Review and BFI Publishing organised a competition, and artist Benio Urbanowicz’s winning cover art for that literary edition also graces the new vinyl reissue. In a mix of reissue and new release news, one of our favorite soundtrack-inspired musicians, Magnus Sellergren - also known as Videogram - has some new music for your ears. If you snagged the They Came from Rue Morgue compilation of horror synth tracks from Bandcamp, you heard the title track to Videogram’s latest, Test Subject 011, and were immediately hooked in by the Stranger Things-inspired cut. The full EP has two more full tracks to dive into, and they’re equally as amazing. We’re particularly fond of closing cut Hawkins National Laboratory (Outro) and the elegiac cello that kicks it off. Sellergren has also gone back through his catalogue to create Videogram Redux. Videogram’s self-titled 2014 début has been remixed, remastered, augmented with ‘bonus tracks from out-of-print releases as well as previously unreleased material’, and it’s only the beginning. The Swedish musician promises two more releases in this series of early and unreleased material. You can find it all at videogram.bandcamp.com.

If you really want to dive into the modern synthesiser music, They Came from Rue Morgue is an excellent place to start, as well as the upcoming Rise of the Synths soundtrack from Lakeshore Records. Rise of the Synths is a crowdfunded documentary that bills itself as ‘The Definitive Documentary about ‘80s retro and electronic music, the synthwave scene, and ‘80s nostalgia and audiovisual collective memories’. We can’t speak to that, as the film’s yet to be released, and they were still shooting interviews as recently as the end of September, but the soundtrack has already seen digital release in the form of two EPs back in June, and they’ve been getting played pretty much daily over the last few months. Those EPs, which feature music from Giorgio Moroder, Com Truise, Carpenter Brut, Power Glove and other icons of the modern synthwave movement, will be combined and released as a double vinyl LP, including five as-yet-unreleased cuts. It’s on 140-gram ‘Synthwave’ translucent purple wax, and looks like it might sell out, so do make sure to snag

a copy as soon as you can, so that you’re not bemoaning your lack of awesome when it officially releases in December. We don’t pay enough attention to Cadabra Records and their amazing series of ‘spoken arts’ records. The label has been absolutely owning the niche that they’ve carved out for themselves, pairing readings of classic weird and terrifying tales with the best in horror music. The label’s put out everything from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tale of terror The Hound of the Baskervilles to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, starring Tony Todd as the Count himself. However, it’s the works of H. P. Lovecraft that really define Cadabra: Pickman’s Model, The Lurking Fear, and Fungi From Yuggoth, for example. And now comes what might be the apex combination, in their upcoming release of The Picture in the House with music by the one and only Fabio Frizzi. Best known for his work on the films of Lucio Fulci, Frizzi is a master of horrifying situations, and we absolutely cannot wait to see what his music is like when paired with the earliest of Lovecraft’s adventures in the Miskatonic

Valley. The label also teased some future collaborations with The Slasher Film Festival Strategy in January, so do keep your eyes peeled for that. In a world where we had unlimited funds, we’d just buy everything Italy’s Cinedelic Records releases. They’re a font of astonishing albums, and each month, it’s all we can do not to list everything. However, it does bear mentioning that the label has the vinyl débuts of not one, but two absolutely essential scores: La terrificante notte del demonio by Alessandro Alessandroni - better known as The Devil’s Nightmare - as well as Stelvio Cipriani’s Ecologia del delitto, aka The Bay of Blood, aka Twitch of the Death Nerve. Both scores come in limited editions of 500 hand-numbered copies, with the first hundred of each on coloured wax. The Devil’s Nightmare is on blue, with A Bay of Blood appropriately on red. Both releases are the complete film scores, and the latter also has alternate versions of Evelyn Theme and Teenagers Cha-Cha. Further stranger Italian film score reissues come from where else but Death Waltz Recording Co. Daniele Patucchi’s score to the 1984 Franco Prosperi ‘animals attack’ film Wild Beasts is, as the label notes, rather sombre, which stands in stark contrast to a film that sees creatures of all stripes - from rats to elephants - going berserk when PCP leaks into the water supply of a zoo. The film just received a proper Blu-ray reissue from Severin Films back in February, and it’s a gory, bizarre must-see, augmented by the excellent synth and sax score by Patucchi. Death Waltz’s reissue is limited to 500 copies on 180-gram grey, purple, and green vinyl. Death Waltz also has a much-requested repress of their Living Dead at Manchester Morgue LP out, which ties nicely into the fact that One Way Static is repressing Nekromantik as well. It’s great to see that these labels have stuck around long enough to now have a back catalogue worthy of revisiting. It’s not just a reissue from One Way Static, however, as the label’s first soundtrack release since April’s Record Store Day LPs is another Jörg Buttgereit film - his 1989 shock classic Der Todesking. Featuring the same crew who put together the score for 1987’s Nekromantik - Daktari Lorenz, Hermann Kopp, and John Boy Walton - Der Todesking features another batch of lo-fi, creepy synthesiser work, and is the complete score, along with unreleased material that was recently discovered. It’s released on black vinyl, as well as limited edition smoke vinyl and clear-with-blacksplatter variants, available exclusively through online retailers. It should officially be out right around when you’re reading this.

AUDIO

REVIEWS

DOCTOR WHO: THE THIEF WHO STOLE TIME WRITER: MARC PLATT / DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / STARRING: TOM BAKER, LALLA WARD, JOANNAH TINCEY, ALAN COX, KIERAN HODGSON, DES MCALEER / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW In this second half of the twopart finale to the current series of Fourth Doctor adventures, the Doctor and Romana find themselves in deep waters – literally. On the oceanic world of

Funderell, the pair have discovered an ancient cover-up of the Time Lords’ making. Can they stop a rogue Gallifreyan from gaining mastery over the whole of time and space?

STORIES OF EARTH & MAGIC

AUDIO

STORYTELLER: SARAH MOONEY / MUSIC BY: JEROME O’CONNELL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW In an age where Kindles are replacing printed books, going to the cinema is no longer the event that it used to be, and music downloads have pretty much rendered CDs extinct,

it’s reassuring to know that performers like Sarah Mooney are keeping the timeless tradition of oral storytelling alive and well. Of course, there’s nothing quite like being

THE LATEST AUDIO RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

After writer Marc Platt built up such an evocative planet in last month’s The Skin of the Sleek, The Thief Who Stole Time unravels the mysteries of this world and explores the origins of its strange ecological features - seas that you can walk across! - and the local religion that revolves around the gift of prophecy. We get some satisfying, if not entirely unpredictable, answers that ensure things wrap up this run of adventures in suitably apocalyptic fashion. It’s not just one long info dump, though, as Platt retains the poetic, melancholy edge to the tale from the first part. In particular, the piece is lent some gravitas by its omniscient narrator, the richly voiced Des McAleer. In fact, the sound design and score from Jamie Robertson thoroughly deserves a mention for how it breathes life into the planet of Funderell, ensuring it is as important a character to the story as the Doctor himself. Of the cast, as we highlighted Lalla Ward and Tom Baker last month, let’s applaud guest Joannah Tincey this month.

Following on from the twist at the end of The Skin of the Sleek, Romana’s old pal Sartia from the Academy has been revealed to be the true villain of the piece. Tincey is perfect for the role and clearly relishes voicing a character who gets such gleefully evil lines as “Goodbye… forever!” Let’s hope Sartia makes a reappearance at some point. Surely it’s an irresistible idea to give Romana her own Master, as it were: a Time Lord foe who pops up and causes trouble from time to time. Overall, The Thief Who Stole Time (and, by extension, The Skin of the Sleek) is a wonderfully imaginative tale which sees every aspect of production giving it their all. The strange and unlikely lovechild of Dylan Thomas and Douglas Adams, this is a worthy end of the Fourth Doctor’s latest run of audio dramas. Be sure to dive into this one (though you might bounce off the surface).

in the audience when the storyteller weaves their magic - storytelling is, at its heart, a communal experience - but, for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be there, Sarah’s new CD is an enchanting alternative. Stories of Earth & Magic is subtitled Tales to Stir the Soul - for all Ages and, for the most part, Sarah and composer Jerome O’Connell (who provides some wonderful incidental music) manage to do exactly that. Don’t be put off by the first track Welcome In, which, with its constant repetition of Welcome to Earth, sounds very much like the opening to an episode of Teletubbies, because the four stories that follow it Tam Lin, The Wolf and the Pear Tree, The Girl Who Said No and Embroidered Dreams - are tales that are suitable for young and old alike. Sarah has a fantastic voice and a gentle, fluid style that makes this perfect bedtime listening, and when she plays the many different characters

her transitions are effortless (the grandpa in The Wolf and the Pear Tree is particularly good). It’s also lovely to see that Sarah has dusted off stories that many of us may not have heard before, with the possible exception of Tam Lin (which, apropos of nothing, was the subject of a fantastic 1970 movie directed by Roddy McDowall that’s well worth tracking down) and she even manages to give Tam an unexpected spin. If you’ve got young kids, they’re going to eat this up with a spoon. Even if you’re old and crusty (like this reviewer) or somewhere in between, if you still have a love for the ritual of storytelling, you’ll enjoy this audiobook immensely. Stories of Earth & Magic is comfort food for the soul, and who could ask for more than that?

CHRISTIAN BONE

IAN WHITE

ED FORTUNE BRINGS YOU THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF GENRE LITERATURE

BRAVE NEW WORDS Spielberg’s name attached to it. The magazine has changed owners since then. After realising that the magazine wasn’t just going to hand over the rights, the studio then decided to employ legal measures. This unfortunately blocks another studio’s attempt to bring Amazing back to our screens, and Amazing are appealing for help from the community. We’d love to see a proper pulp magazine make it to TV. We’ll be a keeping our beady eye on this one as it develops.

Kit Reed 1932 - 2017

Candy Jar Announce LEtHBRIDGE-StEWARt Series Five

Candy Jar Books has announced more additions to their popular Lethbridge-Stewart books. The New Unusual is by first-time novelist Adrian Sherlock, who wrote the short story The Playing Dead in 2016. It will be followed by A Very Private Haunting by Sharon Bidwell, who wrote the Lethbridge-Stewart short story The Wishing Bazaar in 2016. The season closes with The Man from Yesterday by novelist Nick Walters.

Charlie Brooker’s BLACK MIRROR Comes to Bookshelves

Critically acclaimed alternate fantasy TV series Black Mirror will become an anthology novel series, featuring stories by top authors. Edited by Brooker himself, the first collection will feature three novellas. The authors are the award-winning Cory Doctorow, Sleeping Giants/ Waking Gods writer Sylvain Neuvel, and Claire North. The latter is best known for her bestselling tour-de-force First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It’s an exciting collection of writers who will bring their unique talents to Brooker’s already highly regarded Black Mirror world.

Elgin Awards Announced

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the winners of the 2017 Elgin Awards. First place for Best Chapbook went to Neil Aitken for Leviathan. Best Full-Length Collection went to Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey.

QUANtUM NIGHt Wins the Aurora

American science fiction author Kit Reed has died. She is best known for her acerbic wit and dystopian fiction, which focused on loss, anger, and dislocation. She is perhaps best known for her collection Seven for the Apocalypse. Her work is regarded as archetypal feminist science fiction, and she was nominated for the James Tiptree Jr Award multiple times. She will be greatly missed.

Fantasycon 2017 Round Up

The British Fantasy Society has announced the BFS Award winners at its annual convention Fantasycon. The prestigious awards were revealed at a ceremony held at the Bull Hotel in Peterborough on October 1st. Fantasy Novel went to The Tiger and The Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Magazine/Periodical went to tor.com, Nonfiction was given to The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley. People of Colour Destroy Science Fiction won the Anthology category and the Indie Press award was presented to Grimbold Press. Best Collection went to Some Will Not Sleep by Adam Nevill. Novella was given to The Ballad of Black Tom. Short Fiction was White Rabbit by Georgina Bruce and Horror Novel went to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay. Daniele Serra was Best Artist. In addition, a Fantasycon-specific award, The Legend of Fantasycon Award, was presented to David and Sandra Sutton for their work in organising past Fantasycon events. It is not part of the BFAs and was presented just before the main ceremony. Next year’s BFAs will also feature an audio award. 2018’s Fantasycon will be at the Chester Queen in Chester, October 19th to 21st.

The Aurora Awards, which are for exceptional Canadian genrerelated literary works, have been announced. The 2017 awards were announced September 23rd at Hal-Con 2017 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Finalists were chosen by an eight-person jury from across Canada. It was then voted on by the members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. The winners include: Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer for Best Novel; Icarus Down by James Bow for Best Young Adult Novel; Best Short Fiction went to Marion’s War by Hayden Trenholm; and Best Graphic Novel was awarded to Angel Catbird Volume One by Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas, and Tamra Bonvillain.

Bear Big in LA

Man Booker Shortlist Announced

StARBURSt Launches Its Own Book Award

The world’s dullest book prize, The Man Booker, has produced their shortlist. Some of these may be of interest to genre fans. 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster is an ‘alternate reality lives’ sort of affair whereas Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders are both alternate reality historical fiction. The Bookers tend to attract a lot of media attention despite being terribly pofaced and making reading appear to be something that isn’t fun.

Classic anthology magazine Amazing Stories is in the middle of a dispute with an American TV studio over a potential TV show based on the property. According to the Amazing Stories website, a prominent TV company got in touch wanting to revive the ‘80s TV show of the same name, which was based on the magazine and had Steven

Aldiss Exhibition - A Correction

Last issue we inaccurately reported details about a Brian Aldiss exhibition at the Bodleian Library. We have since been informed that this was entirely inaccurate and apologise for any confusion caused.

Brave New Words is proud to announce that it will be giving out its own prize. The winner will announced at the STARBURST Media City Festival March 16th – 18th, 2018 in Manchester. The Brave New Words Award is for people who’ve produced exciting new work in the field of genre literature in the previous year. Literally, it’s an award for words that are brave and new. More details can be found on our website. Tickets will be on sale soon. See you there.

Brave New Words is also the name of STARBURST’s very own book podcast, presented by the same bookworm who writes this column. You can check it out on our website. You can also contact its host via email on ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com or on Twitter @ed_fortune.

BOOKS

AMAZING StORIES in Struggle with Studio

Greg Bear has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. The LASFS is the world’s oldest continuously active science fiction and fantasy club. Previous winners include Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, and Roger Zelazny.

100

COMING SOON THE WARMASTER

AUTHOR: DAN ABNETT PUBLISHER: GAMES WORKSHOP RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 14TH

One of the frustrating things about the Warhammer 40,000 setting is that when it’s good, it’s very, very good. Strip away the seemingly unlimited supply of male-power-fantasy Space Marine books and we get some rather thrilling military sci-fi with lots of space opera and Gothic drama for good measure. Of these, Gaunt’s Ghosts is the finest example and The Warmaster is the latest book in that series. Will Gaunt and his men overcome impossible odds yet again? It’s been a long wait to find out but it’s Dan Abnett; we know it’s worth it.

MISSISSIPPI ROLL: A WILD CARDS NOVEL EDITOR: GEORGE R. R. MARTIN PUBLISHER: TOR BOOKS RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 5TH

One of George R. R. Martin’s many talents is his ability to assemble engaging and coherent worlds through collaborative effort. He’s an amazingly talented editor and wrangler of writers, and this is often forgotten by impatient people who don’t understand that it takes time to write a good book. Mississippi Roll is a forthcoming addition to the gritty superhero Wild Card series. As the title suggests, it’s set on a steamboat, one that may well be haunted. It will showcase the talents of Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Carrie Vaughn, David D. Levine, and Cherie Priest.

CANTO BIGHT: JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI AUTHORS: SALADIN AHMED, MIRA GRANT, RAE CARSON, JOHN JACKSON MILLER PUBLISHER: CENTURY RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 5TH

Canto Bight, the exotic space casino where one goes to escape the troubles of the everyday (and acquire new troubles along the way). This exciting Space Vegas is a new addition to Star Wars and a jolly interesting place to set four new novellas from some of the genre’s most interesting talents. Set across one fateful evening, the tales range from a good deal turned bad to one man’s struggle for survival during what could well be the worst day anyone has ever had. In the book world, the most common Star Wars TIE isn’t the TIE fighter, it’s the tie-in.

SEVEN SURRENDERS

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AUTHOR: ADA PALMER PUBLISHER: HEAD OF ZEUS RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 30TH

John W. Campbell Award-winning author Ada Palmer isn’t that well known in the UK as yet; her début novel, Too Like the Lightning, only came out over here recently. However, it’s easy to see why she’s caused such a stir in the US. Set in a fragile atheist utopia where people’s worldviews are set in stone and one’s destiny is worked out in advance, Seven Surrenders is the second book in the Terra Ignota series. The fragile peace mankind enjoys is threatened by a strange new element; a boy who can perform miracles.

ED FORTUNE HIGHLIGHTS NOTEWORTHY NEW TITLES

TERRY PRATCHETT’S DISCWORLD IMAGINARIUM AUTHOR: PAUL KIDBY PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 23RD

Paul Kidby drew the covers for Terry Pratchett’s much loved Discworld series from 2002 onwards, and he built an impressive body of work over the years. In Imaginarium, Kidby explores the Discworld in his own unique way, through a series of beautiful and inspiring works of art. The book contains rare examples of Kidby’s work, including cover art that doesn’t have the blurb and title plastered over it as well as foreign and limited edition covers. A perfect addition to a Discworld fan’s shelf, and a great followup to The Art of Discworld.

WATCHMEN: THE ANNOTATED EDITION AUTHORS: ALAN MOORE, DAVE GIBBONS, LESLIE S. KLINGER PUBLISHER: DC COMICS RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 12TH

Superhero fable Watchmen is one of the most written-about comic books of all time, and with damned good reason. Despite its many flaws, it is a masterpiece in storytelling, using the inherent advantages of the medium to produce a cracking read. If you’ve ever wondered why the terms ‘sequential art’ and ‘graphic novel’ were invented to further define comics, or just simply want to unearth the brilliance of Watchmen, then Leslie S. Klinger’s commentary, complete with references and explanations of hidden meanings, should help you out. A must for completists.

BATMAN/THE SHADOW: THE MURDER GENIUSES AUTHORS: SCOTT SNYDER, STEVE ORLANDO PUBLISHER: DC COMICS RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 28TH

The Shadow was an early influence on the creation of Batman, so it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s taken DC this long to come up with a team-up. While investigating a murder, Batman suspects Lamont Cranston of the crime. But there are more than a few problems with this. For a start, Cranston seems to have died well over fifty years ago. And our unsuspecting Dark Knight detective has no idea that Cranston is, in fact, the Shadow.

ABE SAPIEN: DARK AND TERRIBLE VOLUME 1 AUTHOR: MIKE MIGNOLA, JOHN ARCUDI, SCOTT ALLIE PUBLISHER: DARK HORSE RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 23RD

Abe Sapien is on the run. The infamous fishman has now finally found himself on the wrong side of the law. Worse still, his body is changing into something more monstrous and he’s not the only one. Across North America, normal people are transforming into monstrous horrors. Add to this a crazed Necromancer (is there really any other sort?) and we have the perfect recipe for adventure. Will Abe finally uncover the truth of behind his existence? Read it and find out.

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A MONTHLY PICK OF GENRE FICTION BY KATE FATHERS

BOOK WORMHOLE

Wizard lives on the streets of Seattle. He wanders the neighbourhoods riding the free bus and feeding pigeons from a bottomless bag of popcorn, dispensing advice to locals using the Knowing - the form his magic has taken.

could be obtainable: kindness, attention and looking out for the vulnerable. The writing of the magic itself is subtle, woven in to the ordinary world in such a way that it makes you wonder if magic is actually happening at all. It’s muted - intimate - a magic that when it happens feels very personal. Wizard struggles with this intimacy; as in most fairy tales, magic has rules, and magic-users are bound to uphold them or risk losing their magic.

with himself, we readers struggle with how to interpret the story, and Wizard’s growing doubt in his magic only muddles our interpretive waters. Lindholm wants her readers to be in as much conflict as her protagonist, and just as uncertain about what path Wizard should take. The more you read and the more you come to love Wizard, you honestly start to wish that a choice didn’t have to be made at all. The Wizard of the Pigeons is a compelling book, with complex characters and clever dialogue. While the exploration of Wizard’s character is fascinating, one of its greatest strengths is in character interaction; you love watching characters collide. Unfortunately, for all her deftness with her characters, Lindholm’s prose can get a little purple, and could have been streamlined to make her action scenes tense and pulsepounding. It’s the single misstep in an otherwise incredible book. If Megan Lindholm is a familiar name for fantasy fans, that’s because it’s the first penname used by author Robin Hobb. Born Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, she published her last novel as Lindholm in 1992, but continues to use the penname to write short stories. In addition to three other stand-alone novels, Lindholm also authored The Ki and Vandien Quartet, and the duo Tillu and Kerlew.

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ut all magic has rules, and when a grey shape starts taking root in Wizard’s home, prodding at memories of his long-forgotten past, he finds himself perilously close to breaking them. And taking all of Seattle down with him. In Megan Lindholm’s The Wizard of the Pigeons, there are two stories. The first is about a wizard struggling with his powers. It’s an urban fantasy, focused on ‘small magic’ that in the right light seems like it

Wizard must never have more than one dollar in his pocket, he must be celibate, and he must protect the pigeons. As the novel progresses, forces enter Wizard’s life that test his commitment to these rules, with the strongest force being Wizard’s own past. Wizard doesn’t remember where he came from. He doesn’t remember a time before he was called ‘Wizard’. But when his memory starts returning, not only does he start to question the magic around him, but he finds himself forced between choosing his life of magic and recapturing his old one. It’s fantastic to see a book that focuses not only on the flash and wonder of magic, but also the personal impact it has. Magic isn’t just an external force in The Wizard of the Pigeons, it has an internal influence. It shapes characters. It affects them psychologically. Wizard is completely changed from the man he once was, and in large part that’s because of his magic. Lindholm takes the singular choice of making her fantasy not a story of conflict between good and evil, but between Wizard and himself. It’s a character study. It’s a battle between the past and the present and how to go forward, one anyone could wage. And because of that, it’s deeply affecting. The second story is about a Vietnam War veteran, struggling with PTSD and homelessness and a system that is not providing enough support. Early in the novel, we see flashes of Wizard’s past which lead us to believe that, prior to his magic, he fought in the Vietnam War. Like many veterans, he struggled with reintegrating into his previous life, and as Lindholm’s treatment of magic is so subtle, she makes readers wonder if that’s all Wizard’s magic is: a symptom of his trauma. The Wizard of the Pigeons could very easily be interpreted as the hallucinations of a scarred psyche, and when Wizard starts referring to his old life as ‘reality’, we’re thrown into further uncertainty. Is Wizard’s magic real? Or is he waking up from a years-long dream? Just as Wizard battles

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INTERVIEW

LAUREN JAMES

story of Romy Silvers was born. Is writing an essentially lonely profession? Being an author involves spending a lot of time alone, staying up late at night to write, summoning the devil in exchange for book ideas… wait, what? It’s very lonely, but that’s exactly why I like it. And probably why Twitter was invented. Why do you think ‘realistic’ science fiction is so popular? I always try to make the science in my books as accurate as possible, and I did a lot of research into space travel and the theory of space travel behind NASA’s equipment when writing The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. I think there’s a danger of crossing over into fantasy instead of science fiction if you don’t base your technology in solid scientific concepts, and there’s never been as much appeal in writing Fantasy for me. As long as there’s some seed of truth, it’s very easy to make readers believe anything else.

How would you describe The Loneliest Girl in the Universe to an alien? I’d probably start by trying to form a common communication method through sound or light, and then establish a basic mutual understanding of the universe through mathematical and physical principles, before moving on to languagebased nouns and verbs.

Why is Young Adult fiction doing so well? Personally, I am attracted to YA because it gives me things that simply aren’t available in adult fiction. I joke that as a teenager I read adult fiction, and as an adult I read teenager fiction. That’s completely true, and I’ve spoken to many people with the same experiences. I want to read diverse, fresh and socially conscious stories that represent the reality of the world I live in. I really wasn’t finding that in the literary fiction I was reading. It may be aimed at teenagers, but YA is on the cutting edge of fiction, taking risks to do new things, which other areas of publishing have never done. The YA reading community is so passionate and socially aware, and that demand online for better and more respectful diversity has encouraged more publishers to buy diverse books, meaning that YA books are on the forefront of change - one example being the huge increase in LGBT YA literature in recent years (like my second novel The Last Beginning, which has a lesbian relationship!). Things happen more rapidly and collaboratively here than anywhere else.

What inspired the story? Funnily enough, it started with a question from some physics coursework at university! The question was about special relativity, and went something like this: An astronaut travels in a spaceship to a new planet. After a few years, a newer faster ship is developed and launched, which overtakes the first ship. How old are the two astronauts when they each arrive on the planet? I started thinking about what it would be like to be that first astronaut, and dedicate years to travelling alone in space, only for your ship to be overtaken by a faster one before you even arrive. What would that feel like? What kind of relationship would you have with the person on the faster ship? From that, the

So it’s not really just Young Adults reading YA? I think there is a lot of crossover these days, but while I’m delighted that adults read my books too, my main priority is getting the books to their intended readers. I wrote The Loneliest Girl in the Universe for girls who don’t feel brave or strong enough to be the hero in an adventure story. I wrote The Last Beginning for teenagers who have moved beyond the desire to read LGBT ‘Coming Out’ stories, and are desperate to find a book about a girl who loves a girl, just having an adventure. YA authors write things that children read, things that can shape their views for life. The authors of YA have a huge responsibility to their young readers, and

Lauren James is a scientist who is best known for her books The Next Together and The Last Beginning. Her latest novel, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is out now. We caught up with her to find out more.

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STARBURST: What’s the elevator pitch for The Loneliest Girl in the Universe? Lauren James: A girl alone on a spaceship finds a connection with another ship, just at the time she needs that the most.

I think being aware of that responsibility creates very well-crafted books. Is the sci-fi community as diverse as it thinks it is? I think social media has done a lot for the diverse fiction movement, both good and bad. It’s brought a lot of attention to the issue, and encouraged publishers to take strides to increase diversity on their list and in their offices, but at times it can feel quite forceful and angry. I can completely understand why some authors have felt the need to include diversity in their fiction for fear of backlash. I’m sure that, on the other side, there are also authors who are afraid to write about minorities because social media is so vocal that they’re worried about the backlash if they got it wrong or just not-quite-right. I think, ultimately, you have to ignore all the chatter and just focus on what you, personally, think is right. Every book should be written primarily for the author, first and foremost. You have to look at the world around you and try to write about it as realistically as possible - or what’s the point of being a writer? Is publishing more accessible these days? Is it easier to get published? For me, the process was relatively straightforward - I found an agent after querying six, and after we submitted the draft to publishers we had two offers within a fortnight. However, it wasn’t easy - I worked on editing the draft for a year before submission. That isn’t something you can do unless you have the financial support to work speculatively without guarantee of income, which means writing isn’t an accessible industry for lower class demographics. What’s next? My next book (out with Walker in 2018) will involve mudlarking, time capsules, romance and - of course - more science. It’s kind of a sci-fi detective story about the extinction of humanity. What authors are you reading? And why? I love Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, Radio Silence by Alice Oseman, Lirael by Garth Nix, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke and Far From You by Tess Sharpe. I particularly love Neil Gaiman, Rainbow Rowell, Sarah Waters, P. G. Wodehouse, and Audrey Niffenegger… I could go on all day, I think! In particular, I’m always making notes when I read books by Douglas Adams - he’s the master of humorous sci-fi. I’ve adored his work since I was young. Words: Ed Fortune

Find Lauren on Twitter at @Lauren_E_James, Tumblr: laurenjames or her website laurenejames.co.uk, where you can subscribe to her newsletter to be kept up to date with her new releases and receive bonus content.

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Out Now

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REVIEWS

SLUGFEST: INSIDE THE EPIC 50 YEAR BATTLE BETWEEN MARVEL AND DC

AUtHOR: REED tUCKER / PUBLISHER: DA CAPO PRESS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW Every comic book reader worth his salt is well aware of the rivalry between the stalwart giants of the industry, DC and Marvel. Over the years, the battle of the giants has seemed to be more a good-natured publicity stunt to sell

THE ART OF RICK AND MORTY

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AUtHOR: JAMES SICILIANO / PUBLISHER: tItAN BOOKS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW In case you happen to be one of the unfortunate versions of yourself to have never experienced it, Rick and Morty is an animated TV series hilarious and cynical in equal parts, chronicling the interstellar and cross-dimensional adventures of a

THE LATEST RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

publications than any real skulduggery. It’s often been said that Marvel was sort of created by DC when, during a friendly Saturday morning golf game, the publishers of the two companies openly discussed what was selling well for DC, which was a new title, The Justice League of America. Stan Lee was ordered to create a superhero team in response and thus history was made. Was it really that friendly and downright cosy? Not according to the extensive research of author Reed Tucker, it wasn’t. The reality of the battle that has raged for over fifty years between the primarycoloured publishing behemoths plays out as a duplicitous game of industrial espionage and double-dealing in a desperate struggle to achieve and maintain the top dog status of the multibillion dollar industry. It seems that from the very start, in 1961, when DC strode the comic book world like a titan, they were a stale, corporate entity who failed to see that the young upstart company that consisted of one man and a small handful of artists were a real threat to their decades of superiority. They didn’t understand Marvel’s teen appeal. Stan Lee has always been portrayed to the public as a genial nice guy with a cool rapport with his readership and an instinctive grasp of what they want to read. DC on the other hand

liked to play it safe for kids. After all, they published Superman. Nothing needed to change. Right? Wrong. Tucker weaves a tale that includes controversies going back to the sixties when DC introduced a team of oddball outsiders named The Doom Patrol who were led by a wheelchair-bound genius, only to find that almost simultaneously, Marvel premiered the X-Men… a team of oddball outsiders led by a wheelchair bound genius. In the seventies, DC published the first appearance of Swamp Thing, only to have Marvel début Man Thing - practically identical in all aspects. Coincidence? Tucker puts forth a convincing case of insider knowledge. From industry-agreed price raising to sneakily cutting the prices the following month without telling the competition, to the battle for the rights to Captain Marvel and the current ongoing battle to outdo each other on the big screen, this is a stunning knockout story sometimes as epic and credibility-stretching as the adventures of the superpowered individuals whose tales publishing companies tell.

misanthropic and sociopathic mad scientist and his long-suffering grandson sidekick. Written by James Siciliano, a writers’ assistant on the show and scripter of season three episode Morty’s Mind Blowers, this collection showcases the myriad characters, aliens, settings and technology that make up the high-concept sci-fi rigmarole. Many entries include the sketches of a character’s original concept (or show creator Justin Roiland’s hasty scrawls on the writers’ room whiteboard), often along with handwritten notes to further realise them (Morty: “Fingers small, like hands of an 8-year-old girl”; testicle monsters: “We need to shift away from penisy”). Cross-referencing makes dipping in and out of the book straightforward, and the descriptions of characters’ geneses highlight minutiae of their design you never even noticed. The unofficial motto of the show’s art team is “Make It Weird” and the hundreds of featured images showcase a vast creative variance that reinforces just how endlessly inventive the series is, also revealing just how much each creation is thought out, from the general look and feel of the dozens of alien races, to tiny details like the precise shape of Rick’s nose or the exact length of Morty’s hair. The wealth of trivia included relates some

specific inspirations such as the armoured suits used on Purge Planet being an amalgamation of Iron Man and Mega Man, Birdperson being modelled after Hawk from Buck Rodgers, Squanchy being based on Snarf from Thundercats, and Gearhead being inspired by Roboto from Masters of the Universe. The large pages (slightly longer and wider than A4) give plenty of space to properly recreate the artwork, the paper is of a glossy, high-quality thickness that can easily withstand repeated flicking back and forth, and the cover is a hefty (glow in the dark!) hardback that gives the book enough weight to be used as an impromptu weapon to ward off any advancing Zigerions. As well as a beautiful artwork collection and a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most acclaimed shows of recent years, The Art of Rick and Morty is also a fascinating glimpse at the process of animation itself, explaining the meticulous attention to detail with which it’s designed and just how much thought and consideration goes into every frame.

ROBIN PIERCE

ANDREW MARSHALL

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GOOD NEWS BIBLE: THE DEADLINE STRIPS OF SHAKY KANE AUtHOR: SHAKY KANE / PUBLISHER: BREAKDOWN PRESS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

DR. SECOND, DR. SEVENTH, DR. EIGHTH, DR. NINTH AUtHOR & ILLUStRAtOR: ADAM HARGREAVES / PUBLISHER: BBC CHILDREN’S / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW Following the first batch of successful Doctor Who/Mr. Men mash-ups come four

HOW COMICS WORK

Dave Gibbons is a living legend of the comic books world. He’s drawn pretty much everything that matters in the world of

Judge Dredd when he is fighting crime. What is even stranger than the A-Men is the fact that the pages dedicated to that particular creation are arguably the least bizarre part of this book. The comic strips themselves are not the only content on offer in Good News Bible. Both the introduction and afterword are on hand to lend some context to Shaky Kane himself, with anecdotes that explain a little of how others view him, and what his place in the comic book industry was. Within there are also annotations written by Kane. These extras all help to imbue it with a sense of looking back at something, and thinking about what it meant then and still means today.

Good News Bible: The Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane is a book that collects and pays tribute to a very particular time in comics for a very particular creator. It is advisable that any reader seeking out the work of Shaky Kane does not use this book as their first exposure to said work. This book isn’t for dipping your toe into Kane’s style, it’s for immersing yourself fully in the strange art and characters that he created. If you are already a fan and want a good selection of his work in one place, this could be just the book that you are looking for.

new releases featuring four new Doctors being given the inimitable Hargreaves treatment. As with the first books, these are instantly recognisable as belonging to the Mr. Men stable; with the same subtle illustrative techniques that, whilst being simple, nevertheless, manage to capture the individual style of each Doctor perfectly. This new collection are, like the first four, a seemingly arbitrarily chosen group consisting of Doctors number Two, Seven, Eight, and Nine which means that the next lot will be the remaining Three, Five, Six, and Ten - a motley group indeed. It is interesting that the publishers decided to release the books in convenient groups of four, because it means that when they get around to Doctor Thirteenth they can, and probably will, release their first

‘Little Miss Doctor’. The wonderfully illustrated Doctors are far from isolated in these heavily populated and colourful books. They are joined by favourite friends and memorable foes alike notably Patrick Troughton’s companions Jamie and Victoria and a cameo appearance by the Master (in fine mustachioed mode) halfway through a story which finds Sylvester McCoy’s doctor and his companion Ace battling cute looking Cheetah People. There are also plenty of props and gadgets to look out for, including the famous sonicscrewdriver, which is wielded, to great effect, by Dr. Ninth, originally Christopher Eccleston. What seems to be apparent is that these books follow the original Mr. Men format perfectly, including the way every title character has one

book each and one book alone. That is to say - it is unlikely that we’ll see, for example, the Eighth Doctor reappearing in a number of different adventures and, given the nature of Doctor Who, you’re hardly likely to see one make an appearance in another’s story (this year’s Christmas special notwithstanding!). But fear not, because the publishers have hinted at the release of special editions including their own festive offering later this year. So, here are four more fabulously fun, colourful and delightful books for the collection with the promise of plenty more to come. Each book is sold separately.

sequential art and his credits include Watchmen, Kingsman, 2000 AD, Batman, Give Me Liberty and many, many more. What Gibbons doesn’t know about comics isn’t worth knowing and it’s safe to say that any advice the master can pass on should be seen as invaluable. His book, How Comics Work, is an interesting and highly accessible overview into one of the world’s most powerful forms of media. It’s lushly presented; Gibbons has opened his many sketchbooks and folders to fill the pages with useful information. Drawings, tips and anecdotes sprawl across each page and the whole thing is laid out in an eye-catching and easy to understand way. Gibbons begins with the basics of storytelling and moves

on to the various complexities of comic books. Sometimes these are simple pieces of advice, but often they are short anecdotes pulled from his substantial experience. Gibbons has worked with many of the best in the field and the information in these pages is indispensable. We learn much about the author’s heroes and creative influences, and gain a greater respect for the creator’s art. This is not a definitive or comprehensive book; it aims to give a substantial overview of the methods used by someone at the height of a stellar career. It doesn’t walk you through how to draw or how to write a script. Instead, it shows you how to use those skills effectively. It takes you through both simple and digital production techniques, talks

about logo design, issues advice on lettering (and highlights master letterers) and so on. It does the same for pencils, inking, etc. Gibbons has produced a crucial work here; one that talks about process. It is essentially an easy to decipher ‘master’s notebook’ and a worthy addition to any comic creator’s reference library. It’s also filled with beautiful art and those of us who simply love comics will get a kick out of turning the page and learning how various iconic graphic novels were constructed. This is vital for fans of comics - both casual and professional.

GAREtH EVANS

SIMON BESSON

ED FORtUNE

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AUtHORS: DAVE GIBBONS & tIM PILCHER / PUBLISHER: ROtOVISION / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

Good News Bible: The Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane is exactly what the title says. The book collects the comic strips that Michael ‘Shaky Kane’ Coulthard wrote during his time working for Deadline, a comics magazine during the ‘80s and early to mid ‘90s. Out of Kane’s creations, the one to get the most attention in this collection is The A-Men. For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with this strip, imagine what it would look like if Judge Dredd were a Jehovah’s Witness. The result is every bit as brutal and unusual as that sentence implies. The main character goes around promoting the ‘good book’ with all the zeal, and with the same methods, as you would expect from

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STRANGE SIGHT AUtHOR: SYD MOORE / PUBLISHER: ONEWORLD PUBLICAtIONS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

WE SEE EVERYTHING AUtHOR: WILLIAM SUtCLIFFE / PUBLISHER: BLOOMSBURY CHILDRENS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

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Lex is 16. He lives in the city that we would call London, but in Lex’s world, the capital is now merely known as The Strip. The Strip is a self-contained wasteland

MILLER AND MAX: GEORGE MILLER AND THE MAKING OF A FILM LEGEND AUtHOR: LUKE BUCKMAStER / PUBLISHER: HARDIE GRANt BOOKS / RELEASE DAtE: NOVEMBER 2ND

It’s only been a couple of weeks since she solved the case of Strange Magic - the first book in this increasingly wonderful series - and Rosie Strange, reluctant ‘heiress’ of the Essex Witch Museum, has barely had time to catch her breath. But now something extremely nasty is afoot. A phantom woman has been terrorising the staff of a posh London restaurant and the chef has been found dead in the cellar, suspended from a meat hook with his guts spilled across the floor. The restaurant’s gangsterish owner has hired Rosie and her paranormal investigator-sidekick Sam Stone to get to the bottom of the mystery, otherwise their kneecaps might be in jeopardy. But is the psychotic spectre for real or is this just a very deadly con - after all, blood only pours out from chandeliers in the movies,

doesn’t it? Rosie and Sam are about to discover that evil has many forms, and that the horrors of the past are as potent now as they have ever been. But even though Rosie is way out of her depth, you can’t put a good Essex girl down. Besides, she’s getting better at this paranormal shtick, Sam is starting to rub off on her (well, Rosie can dream can’t she?) and a weird break-in at the Witch Museum is about to make matters very personal… If Strange Magic rocked (which it did, we gave it a 10/10 when it was released earlier this year), Strange Sight rocks even harder. It’s chilling, it’s funny, it’s impeccably researched and it’s got an important message at its heart. Author Syd Moore has really performed some witchcraft of her own with this one - maybe it’s because she’s developed the

relationship between Rosie and Sam so beautifully (there’s a whipsmart Mulder & Scully meets His Girl Friday vibe going on here) or maybe it’s because she’s delivered a playful, intricate, thoroughly modern ghost story that will keep you transfixed until the very last page and then still pull the rug out from under you… who knows? One thing’s for sure - it is very rare when you find yourself shuddering one moment and laughing out loud the next, and Strange Sight hits that sweet spot perfectly. Forget Essex, Rosie Strange should be declared a national treasure. She is the best thing to happen to paranormal fiction in a long, long time.

ravaged by bomb-dropping drones where nobody is allowed to leave or enter. Times are hard, food is scarce, and joy is a distant memory. We first meet Lex as he is trying to escape across the patrolled border to sell berries for money, only to find himself dragged home by his furious and terrified father. Luckily, his father’s choice to track his son means that he is late for a meeting of the Corps - the resistance group of The Strip and he narrowly avoids being killed in a mass assassination. Meanwhile, Alan, a talented former gamer, is happily proving everyone in his life wrong. Long thought to be wasting his time focusing on gaming, Alan’s talents have secured him the coveted position of drone pilot. He’s new

to the game, but he has his sights firmly on his target, known only as #K622. Alan’s life couldn’t be more different to Lex’s, apart from the one thing that they have in common: #K622 is Lex’s dad. Sutcliffe’s descriptions of life in The Strip draw unavoidable parallels to real life conflicts that will resonate long after you finish reading. The story’s real masterstroke, however, comes with its unflinching take on the effect that living in two opposing worlds has on its two young protagonists. One is determined to survive at any cost, even if it means merging criminality with the fight for freedom, whilst the other finds his self-worth inextricably tied to a belief that his acts of violence are perpetrated in the name of justice, despite plenty

of evidence to the contrary. Most importantly, Sutcliffe never lets you forget that his main characters are boys, not men, struggling with adolescence against a backdrop of a conflict that was not of their making but nonetheless rules both of their lives. In We See Everything, NYT bestselling author Sutcliffe has created a jarring, socially relevant tale that will appeal to his old fans whilst earning him some new ones. A must-read for anyone with an interest in world events who’s ever wondered about the other side of the story.

Miller and Max, as the title suggests, is the story of director George Miller and the four Mad Max films he has directed over a period of almost forty years. Given this length of time, there’s a lot of information to cram in, but author Luke Buckmaster (a name certainly worthy of one of the films) chooses carefully and wisely what to include, producing a book that buckles the reader into the passenger seat from the very first page. When Mad Max appeared on screens in the late seventies, an icon was born. The filmmakers didn’t know it at the time and - along with discussing Miller’s formative years Buckmaster reveals the doubts and apprehensions of almost everyone involved, the struggle to find finance for a film that would ultimately be the most profitable movie for two decades. The book tells of behind-the-scenes antics,

frustrations, and broken bones from a lack of health and safety; stories that are a mixture of shock, amusement, or sometimes both. Success generates sequels and, while there’s much more discipline involved, there’s still plenty to tell. Buckmaster discusses Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, and Fury Road with equal enthusiasm, although there’s a sense that the first movie is his biggest love, and of those he’s interviewed. That’s not to belittle the writing, which remains enthralling throughout, but who wouldn’t be ferociously proud of such a début? Episodes recounted range from the practical to the mystical, court cases regarding pigs, and an eye-opening method to ‘distress’ a set. Throughout, Buckmaster allows his interview subjects to express their true thoughts,

while he himself offers no bias and never tells the reader what to think. He presents facts fairly, allowing us to make our own judgements towards both people and their situations, and has put together the pieces of several true stories to create a cohesive whole, a book that rockets along at a pace matching that of the films it discusses. While it’s an in-depth read, it’s over all too quickly; we can’t help wondering if there’s more to tell - given the amount of research and the number of interviews the author has conducted, this would seem to be the case and some may find themselves hungry to know more about Miller and his movies.

IAN WHItE

tOMMY JAMES

ALIStER DAVISON

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out. But with such a rich history in animation - and with a few notable exceptions - they’ve not really put out many books before with a focus on their early/golden age. Fortunately, with Didier Ghez’s They Drew As They Pleased

series, it is something they are rectifying, with each volume bringing together rediscovered images and designs that inspired some of Disney’s shorts and feature films (and some for projects that were never made). This volume - the third in the series - profiles six artists from the Story Research and Character Model Departments from the period, taking a look at their work, at the role their designs played in the projects and excerpts of correspondence from the artists, which offer more insight into their inspirations and work. Where the book really shines though is in the art, which varies hugely from artist and project, but all have that Disney feel of the time. The freedom that the artists were given in their designs really shines through in the pictures that are included in the book, both in the work for projects that came to be (such as Peter Pan and

Dumbo) and the projects that didn’t. There is a real feeling for what could have been in the designs for these abandoned projects, with some echoing future projects from both Disney and other animations (Roland the XIIIth bears a striking similarity to 2005’s animation Valiant, both in design and concept). The text is fascinating, offering a wonderful insight into the work and the period, and works well with the images. Any ‘Art of’ book (for most people anyway) stands or falls on the images included, and here the book is a triumph; digging deep into the rich history of a studio like Disney and managing to present us with both works that we haven’t seen before and beautiful and interesting art.

Sybel is a powerful sorceress who has lived alone on the mountain most of her life, surrounded by a menagerie of mystical beasts. There is Cyrin the boar, a riddle-master who occasionally chooses to speak with a human voice; the dragon Gyld, who misses his hidden treasure and will kill any man who gets in his way; Gules Lyon, eternally wise but remorselessly savage in his defence of his mistress; Ter, the great falcon who legendarily slaughtered seven men but will always answer to Sybel’s command; and Moriah, a cat who knows the darkest of magics. They are content together, and have no wish to encounter the world of man - a world, not so far away, where war is constantly threatening to begin again.

But when a baby is brought to Sybel’s doorstep, a baby who is heir to a tyrannous king, Sybel and her beasts are eventually forced to choose a side. And when a powerful wizard tries to enslave Sybel, she discovers she is capable of terrible vengeance. Patricia A. McKillip is one of the fantasy genre’s finest authors, and when The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was first published more than forty years ago it won the prestigious World Fantasy Award. The intervening decades haven’t diminished its power. It is an extraordinary book, and McKillip deserves all the praise she received for creating such a masterful, brave, intricately crafted universe. This is an Arthurian myth-that-isn’t, a fairytale without a ‘Once Upon a Time…’. Her command of language is

intoxicating, her characters are beautifully realised, and there is a resonating emotional power in every page. Not unlike the characters in her stories, McKillip knows how to invoke magic. Perhaps The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is not for everybody - it is, at its heart, a deeply romantic tale that is rich in psychological conflict but light in swords and sorcery. But it is an exquisite work of storytelling art and a stunning example of McKillip at the height of her powers (powers which never seem to wane). A very welcome revival of a fantasy classic, and the cover - by Elizabeth Story and Thomas Canty - is pretty stunning as well.

The versatile and talented Cavan Scott returns to the world of Sherlock Holmes in Cry of the Innocents, a tale set in 1891, nearly thirty years earlier than his début Holmes novel The Patchwork Devil. Where the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories (Hound of the Baskervilles excepted) were short works, designed for a magazine audience, modern readers like chunky books mixing action, intrigue and character. Scott is the master of all three, as his story starts with the death of a Catholic priest and quickly moves into more sinister territory with the supposed miracle of Edwyn Warwick, the eighteenth-century slave trader whose body is said not to have decomposed. A miracle or something else?

Although some 350 pages long, Scott paces the book in more than fifty chapters, giving each scene a focus and moving the story along well. The reader is soon gripped and fascinated by the mystery as Holmes and Watson leave London for the less-trodden streets of Bristol (where Scott himself lives). The story mixes priests and bodies with the usual disguises and complex relationship with the local constabulary. Fans of The Patchwork Devil will recognise Inspector Tovey, now meeting Holmes and Watson for the first time, but there’s a heady mix of dinner parties, midnight visitations, family mysteries and poisonings to help keep the reader turning the pages. The resolution is grim, tense and pure Holmes. Even knowing

the characters must survive to sleuth another day, there are moments when the reader will not be so sure; Watson, in particular, endures some difficult challenges, and the writing is wholly convincing when he does. Scott has freshened up the story by the Bristol setting, and his use of a controversial slave trader benefactor as a story element resonates with very modern concerns of those re-examining the city’s history. Fans of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson need merely rest assured that in Cavan’s hands, the great detective is as compelling as ever.

THEY DREW AS THEY PLEASED: THE HIDDEN ART OF DISNEY’S LATE GOLDEN AGE (THE 1940S - PART TWO) AUtHOR: DIDIER GHEZ / PUBLISHER: CHRONICLE BOOKS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW We’ve said it here before at STARBURST Towers, but if there is one thing Disney knows how to do, it’s put together an Art Of book; in recent years they’ve put out a lovely series of books to tie into the films they’ve had coming

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD

AUtHOR: PAtRICIA A. MCKILLIP / PUBLISHER: tACHYON PUBLICAtIONS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

AUtHOR: CAVAN SCOtt / PUBLISHER: tItAN BOOKS / RELEASE DAtE: OUt NOW

IAN WHItE

tONY JONES

BOOKS

SHERLOCK HOLMES CRY OF THE INNOCENTS

StUARt MULRAIN

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VIEW FROM THE

WATCHTOWER

COMICS

he end of September once again saw the return of Thought Bubble, the annual comics convention that is held in Leeds. One development that came from the convention this year was the announcement of a new independent comic book publisher. Cog Life Comics is based in Liverpool, and so far, it only has two comic books to its name. The first of these, Isolation, is an anthology of three stories that use its title as a theme. Hopefully, Cog Life will live up to its potential, and bring some titles that offer something different to their readers. I looked at their website, and they are selling a book with a cover made of copper and leather. At £120 it’s very expensive, but it’s also very cool. Meanwhile, in the world of mainstream

superhero comics, resurrection is the name of the game this month. Action Comics #987 answered the question of Mr Oz’s real identity, and it was a surprise. For months, fans have been speculating that Mr. Oz is Watchman character Ozymandias. With the recent introduction of Doctor Manhattan into the DC Universe, it only makes sense that other characters would show up as well. However, Mr Oz turned out to be Jor-El. According to the Man of Steel’s pop, he did not die on Krypton but was saved by some mysterious figure, and has been on Earth for a long time. This isn’t the first time that it seemed like Superman has met Jor-El. Return to Krypton saw Superman and Lois go back

GARETH EVANS PULLS MONITOR DUTY TO BRING YOU THE LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF COMIC BOOKS

in time to Krypton, and even save it from destruction. This was later revealed to be a lie, and the Jor-El that Superman met was only a hologram based on Jor-El’s diaries. With this in mind, it’s still possible that Mr Oz is not Jor-El. His apparent return is part of a storyline called The Oz Effect, which will be concluding in Action Comics #991. One thing that is interesting to note is that The Oz Effect concludes two weeks before the first issue of The Doomsday Clock is due to come out. It would make sense if Doctor Manhattan is revealed as the being who saved Jor-El. If that is true, there is a good chance we will see a dramatic revelation to that effect in Action Comics #991 that will serve to provide some set-up for The Doomsday Clock. This is just a hunch,

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in that period. It is genuinely impressive that Marvel waited this long before bringing her back. If you are a long-time Spider-Man fan, you may remember the time that Peter Parker tried different superhero identities because Spider-Man was a fugitive. You may also remember that after he abandoned these identities, they were taken up by a team known as the Slingers. While their comic ended a while ago, the characters have returned. They made their reappearance in Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #8. Recently, information has been released about the upcoming Hellboy reboot. If the thought of seeing the character on the silver screen again has made you want to revisit his comics, you’re in luck. Starting May 23rd, 2018, Dark Horse will be releasing the entire Hellboy series in chronological order, across five volumes (four main volumes, and one collection of short stories). Dark Horse has also recently announced

COMICS

but it might be something to look out for. Not one to be outdone, Marvel has some character returns of its own to discuss. Marvel Legacy #1 was something of a mission statement for the publisher. It was a way for Marvel to set out the major storylines that will dominate its comic line in upcoming months. It gave a look at the 1,000,000 BC Avengers, for example. Another thing it did was reveal the revival of Wolverine. For the readers who are unaware, Logan has been encased in adamantium since the end of 2014’s Death of Wolverine. Marvel Legacy showed his adamantium prison cut open, much like a post-metamorphosis cocoon. How Wolverine was brought back hasn’t been revealed. It isn’t too farfetched to think that his healing factor somehow kept him alive, but he was trapped in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to escape by himself. The identity and motives of his rescuer are an intriguing mystery. The second character to be returning to Marvel comics is Jean Grey, in the upcoming Phoenix Resurrection (#1 to be released December 27th). There is something surprising about both of these reveals. Firstly, while he was ‘killed’ in a way that left his return possible, Wolverine was essentially replaced by Old Man Logan post-Secret Wars 2. There seemed like less reason to get him back when his role was already being fulfilled. The return of Jean is surprising due to just how long she has been dead. Jean Grey was killed off in New X-Men #150, which was released December 17th, 2003. To give you some idea of what a big deal it is that it took her almost fourteen years to come back, I will now list some characters who were killed off and came back while Jean was still dead. The Human Torch, Wolverine, Captain America, Daredevil, Magneto, Loki, and Spider-Man (Peter Parker) are just some of the Marvel characters who have had time to be written off and return in the time it took Jean Grey to do the same. Heck, on the DC side of things, Batman managed to be written out of his own comic book twice

that Black Hammer (by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston) will be returning in 2018. Black Hammer: Age of Doom will be making its début in April. Image Comics has released its solicitations for December 2017. Among the list of comics being released that month is Spawn: A Holiday Krampus Tale. This one-shot holiday special will see Todd McFarlane’s titular character meet the Krampus (who’s like Santa, but for punishing bad children instead of rewarding good children). The Wicked + The Divine is also getting its very first Christmas annual this year. Image describes this annual as ‘mostly fan service’. From the sounds of it, the publisher is really getting into the spirit of things this year. DC’s Dark Nights: Metal is well underway, and it has a lot of tie-in books. Not only does the storyline cross over into series like Nightwing and Justice League, but it also has a wealth of linked issues. These explore the origins of the dark multiverse Batmen. DC has announced another tie-in in the form of Batman Lost. This comic will be released November 8th, and show Batman trapped in the dark multiverse. Normally, I’d bemoan another tie-in but so far, they have been good for this event. They have merged both horror and science fiction in different ways to create a sense of tragedy and dread. On a side note, the origins of two dark multiverse Batmen have been explored so far, and both of them involve a version of Batman merging his consciousness with another. It could just be a coincidence, but it feels like that is a significant detail somehow. I am going to end this month’s column on a sombre note. On September 10th, comic book writer and editor Len Wein passed away at the age of 69. To truly talk about the impact he had on the comic book industry would require me to dedicate my entire word limit of this column to doing so. Wein co-created Swamp Thing (along with Bernie Wrightson, who himself died in March this year), was a writer for The Amazing Spider-Man, and edited Watchmen, and this is but a fraction of what he did. In 2008, he was even inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. STARBURST’s condolences go out to his family and friends.

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REVIEWS

THE LIZARD

COMICS

AUTHOR & ARTIST: MARTIN FLINK / PUBLISHER: ACCENT UK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE SHOWDOWN VOL. 2: THE RACE FROM HELL WRITER: RUSS LIPPITT / ARTIST: EZEQUIEL PINEDA / PUBLISHER: BROKEN ICON COMICS / RELEASE DATE: HALLOWEEN

THE LATEST COMIC BOOK RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

The foreword to The Lizard describes Martin Flink as the Scandinavian comics creator “most deserving of the ‘most deserving of wider recognition’ award”. It’s a bold claim about the writer and artist, who’s had two shorter comics previously published by UK-based publisher Accent, and this, his first longer-form graphic novel, puts that claim to the test. Set in an apartment block in Flink’s native Denmark, The Lizard follows three residents of three different generations. Nynne is a young punk nervous about bringing a guy over for a date. Is he right for her? Does he like her? Is she talking too much? Thomas is a middle-aged priest who believes that God speaks personally to him. But these delusions, which stem back to childhood, have gone too far, and he’s being removed from his duties. And Ana is an old lady reliving memories of her lost lover - time they spent together in Africa, and drifting apart when back in Europe. All of these stories are connected by the motif of a lizard: Nynne keeps one as a pet; Thomas’s visits from God come in the form of a lizard; and Ana and her husband once encountered an African doctor who healed using the power of ‘lizard soul’. We flit between these stories like a lizard crawling around the building, and Nynne’s

lizard becomes an essential part of the poignant resolution of all three. To say any more about the stories would be to spoil the surprises, but what we can say is that Flink tells them masterfully. He flits between the three narratives to draw maximum effect out of them all, and his artwork, full of bold blacks and subtle emotional acting, is gorgeously evocative. The dialogue, though completely believable, is sparse, as Flink prefers to draw out actions over silent panels, getting deep into the subtleties of everything his characters do. And that’s the real achievement of The Lizard; over its length of around ninety pages, and its setting of one night (plus flashbacks), it makes you feel like you deeply know and understand these three tenants; it’s a similar achievement to the TV masterpiece Dekalog, albeit with an added edge of optimism. It’s a carefully observed, tender insight into real humanity. The foreword was right - Flink does deserve more recognition, and hopefully this beautiful book will bring that to him.

Like your comics bonkers and full of carnage? If so, The Showdown: Vol. 2: The Race from Hell could be just the read for you. From Russ Lippitt and Ezequiel Pineda, what we have here is the second part of an all-out race through hell as orchestrated by none other than Satan himself. Dubbed ‘the Showdown’, this extreme and brutal battle of the twisted race tracks of the underworld sees a whole host of ghoulish and garish gangs striving to topple the rest in this death match for the ages. There’s vampires, werewolves, skinheads, glamour girls and all kinds of inventive, demented sorts included here, all eager to get one-up on the competition no matter what the cost. For those looking for something a little different to the usual comic book fodder that is so often widely available, The Showdown certainly offers something that’s not quite the norm. Playing like an episode of Wacky Races as overseen by Rob Zombie, this is a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, is knowingly a tad cheesy and full of cliched dialogue, and, most importantly, is a fun thrillride of a read. The story from Lippitt is an entertaining, erratic one, and the art from Pineda - complete with colouring from Nae Esteban - absolutely steals the show as it brings this disturbing drive-through

to bullish, brilliant life. The Race from Hell certainly fires on all cylinders, and here’s hoping the third volume can rev up just as much of a brilliantly bonkers ride for the ages.

KIERON MOORE

ANDREW POLLARD

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ATARI SWORDQUEST WRITERS: ROY THOMAS, GERRY CONWAY, HOPE SHAFER / ARTISTS: GEORGE PEREZ, DICK GIORDANO, FRANK CIROCCO, RAY GARST, HIRO KIMURA / PUBLISHER: DYNAMITE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW In the early 1980s Atari had planned to release four interrelated fantasy adventure games: Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld and Airworld (the last of which was never actually released) - for their 2600 home console that told the story of twins Tarra and

ALIEN TOILET MONSTERS #1

We all love a good catchy title, and they don’t get more attention-grabbing than Alien Toilet Monsters. Sure, a

Other than being briefly discussed in Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (and undeniably an inspiration for the contest within the book), it is highly probable this video game/comic curio would have been lost to the mists of time if it were not for this reprint by Dynamite. Those that experienced this multimedia project on release will enjoy the nostalgia trip and those that are reading it for the first time can enjoy the camp, pulpy, fantasy romp due to the calibre of the creators involved - all of whom are industry luminaries. While this collection serves as a welcome relief to the more serious tone of many modern comics, it’s a shame that Atari or Dynamite didn’t take this opportunity to revisit the property and conclude the story.

standout, snappy title is one thing, but more important is whether such a bold and brave book has the content to back it up. From the duo of Eric Barnett and Carol Zara, this is most definitely one of the most unique titles you’ll ever come across, so let’s see if it’s actually any good or not. Being that this is the very first issue - the wonderfully titled Breaking the Seal - of Alien Toilet Monsters, what we have is a lot of introductory work that lays the foundations for what is around the corner. Most notably, the titular beasties themselves are absent here. That’s not to say that Alien Toilet Monsters #1 doesn’t still have its charms, though. Opening up with a nice, peaceful desert landscape, things soon take a turn for the weird when the casual image of a female desert fox eating a scorpion is flipped on its head. For you see, this isn’t just your regular Earth; no, this is one of the many corners of the multiverse which ties Alien Toilet Monsters together. Instead, here on Multi-241, we have animals that are capable of altering their genetic structure simply by eating whatever is in front of them. Hence, this cute, gracious desert fox is turned into some sort of twisted fox/ scorpion hybrid. And just like that, Alien Toilet Monsters instantly sets its stall out as being not just your regular run-of-themill read. In this opening issue, we get introduced to a more peaceful part of the multiverse and the characters who will seemingly be the main players – including writer Zara herself – in our continuing journey to fight

the good fight against the ominous threat that is soon to be looming ominously over the main narrative of the book. With art as equally exquisite as it is explosive, Alien Toilet Monsters grabs you by the seat of your pants from the get-go, and the smooth, natural-feeling, humorous dialogue of this introductory issue makes you feel at ease while also immediately engaging you in this whole bonkers world (or should that be worlds?). So much of the tale feels as grounded as can be, yet there’s clearly a whole otherworldly feel to this first issue that will have you eager for more. Overflowing with classic sci-fi tropes and having made so many of its soonto-be key players likeable in a remarkably short space of time, Alien Toilet Monsters #1 is truly one of the most unique reading experiences you’ll ever encounter. To hear that this independently published book is outselling some of the big hitters - All-Star Batman, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, New Superman, Gwenpool, Squirrel Girl and X-Men Blue, just to name a few - at North American comic book outlets is no real surprise, and this is a book that is most definitely not one to miss out on. Currently one of the industry’s dirty little secrets, Alien Toilet Monsters is off to a riotous start that has us chomping at the bit to see what happens next.

JAMES BRIDCUT

ANDREW POLLARD

COMICS

WRITER: ERIC BARNETT, CAROL ZARA / ARTIST: ERIC BARNETT / PUBLISHER: OMNIMORPHIC PRODUCTIONS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Torr, whose parents had been slain following a prophecy that they would ultimately kill the evil King Tyrannus. When old enough, the twins embark on a quest to avenge their parent’s death that sees them exploring the titular worlds searching for artefacts that would enable them to destroy Tyrannus. Each of the aforementioned games came bundled with a comic book that not only explained the plot but also served as part of a solution to a puzzle that, if solved, could win a real life contest. However, the contest, along with the game & comic series, was abandoned following Atari’s financial problems in 1982 and 1983. This collection brings together the comics that were bundled with the three games (as well as an additional comic adaptation of Yars’ Revenge). The setup is snappily delivered and the story flows at a satisfying pace. Unsurprisingly, the comic’s structure is similar to that of a computer game as the protagonists move from one fantastical set piece or location to the next while periodically battling large mythological beasts. The colours are vibrant and really pop in this reprint and, unlike its video game counterparts, each world is visually distinct with its own feel and character. Perez and Giordano do a wonderful job of bringing the world of Swordquest to life in a way that consoles of the day never could. The comic is competently written, excellently drawn and the art style is a beautiful reminder of the often vivid art style of the 1980s when the likes of Perez et al. were king. While this ‘sword-and-sandal’ tale may seem dated and slightly derivative in 2017, its fast pace and colourful visuals make it thoroughly enjoyable.

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ANIME-NATION

A monthly round up from the world of Anime And mAngA from littleAnimeblog.com’s dominic cuthbert

Crunchyroll Launches Foreign-Language Dubbing Initiative

Crunchyroll is continuing the trend of extending its reach across anime fandom with a dubbing initiative catering to non-English speakers. Kicking things off with Spanish dubs for series such as Schwarzes Marken and Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, there are plans to expand into Brazilian Portugese, German, and French dubs for further region-specific releases. What’s more, the streamers are teaming up with Sumitomo and social networking service Gree to distribute games based on anime overseas.

MARY AND THE WITCH’s Flower Books British Voice-Acting Talent The feature début for Studio Ponoc, founded by former Studio Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura, has a bunch of beloved British actors aboard for its dubbed theatrical release. And that’s just as well - Mary Stewart’s The Little Broomstick, the book which inspired the film, was set in Shropshire. Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent, and Ruby Barnhill of The BFG have all been confirmed among the cast for the film, coming to cinemas on an as-yetunspecified date in 2018.

Sentai Filmworks Seeks Funding for Hurricane Harvey-Affected Employees

Many employees of anime distributors Sentai Filmworks were severely impacted by Hurricane Harvey, with their headquarters based in Houston, Texas. The company has since launched a GoFundMe campaign for staff whose lives were affected by the devastating storm and its unprecedented levels of rainfall. “Many have been left homeless, car-less, or have been displaced seeking refuge elsewhere,” Sentai entreated fans worldwide. “Please help us raise $500,000 to assist our employees and their families.” Our thoughts are with all affected at this time.

BLADE RUNNER Blacks Out for 2049 Tie-In Short

Guillermo del Toro’s PACIFIC RIM Nickname Inspires Fan Art

Cute rumours spread that Mana Ashida, young Mako in 2013’s Pacific Rim, couldn’t pronounce director del Toro’s name and so asked to call him ‘Totoro-san’ after My Neighbour Totoro’s fuzzywuzzy forest spirit. When the auteur confirmed the story was true, the web exploded with fan art for ‘Guillermo del Totoro’, results predictably chucklesome and adorable.

Brock and Misty Return to POKÉMON Anime

After more than 15 years, Brock and Misty paid a visit to their old stomping grounds of the Pokémon anime. In the currently airing Pokémon Sun & Moon, there was a return to Kanto for Ash and Pikachu, and throwbacks all around for the old dream team. Homages were made to the classic games’ encounters with the Pewter and Cerulean gym leaders, and yet another (successful?!) attempt by Brock to get the girl. Isn’t it always the little things you miss the most?

ANIME

Live-Action DEATH NOTE Movie’s Director Discusses Sequels

While a few flung their curses at Netflix’s Death Note, director Adam Wingard is sticking firmly to his guns with plans for a possible sequel (or sequels). When he first went to Netflix, he pitched it as “at least a two-film series, maybe three”. Though the continuation of this dark fairy tale of Seattle is far from guaranteed, Wingard says “there are definitely lots of places to go” in exploring Light Turner’s inevitable downfall. Apparently, the only caveat to Netflix ordering the next film is their need for more people to watch (and actually like it) first.

In tandem with Deckard’s return in Blade Runner 2049, an anime short comes directed by Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichirō Watanabe. Titled Blade Runner Black Out 2022, and set between Ridley Scott’s original film and its screening sequel, the short hinges on a mass power outage causing a replicant manufacturing ban. Talent includes Ghost in the Shell’s Kenichirou Matsuda as Iggy, and One Punch Man lead Makoto Furukawa as Ren. The anime is up and streaming now on Crunchyroll.

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the lAtest releAses reViewed And rAted

REVIEWS

YU-GI-OH! ZEXAL SEASON 1 COMPLETE COLLECTION DVD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: SATOSHI KUWABARA / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: ELI JAY, MARC THOMPSON, SEAN SCHEMMEL, EILEEN STEVENS, CHRISTOPHER KROMER/ RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Despite being entitled Yu-GiOh! Zexal Season 1 Complete Collection, this set actually contains both Seasons 1 and 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal is the third spin-off from the original Yu-GiOh! and it is the weakest iteration of the franchise up to that point. It contains many of the same flaws that affected Yu-Gi-Oh! GX during

its run, without any of the factors that went some way to redeeming that show. The problem stems from Zexal’s main storyline. Throughout the episodes there is some time spent building up mysterious foes that Yuma faces, and there is some mystery to the disappearance of the character’s father before the events of the

FOOD WARS! SEASON 1

DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: YOSHITOMO YONETANI / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: BLAKE SHEPARD, JAY HICKMAN, STEPHANIE WITTELS, BRITTNEY KARBOWSKI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW This dramatic tone extends to cooking in general. Throughout the show, the characters are constantly set challenges by their teacher that will result in their expulsion if they fail. Because of this, every time we see a character cook the stakes are high. The show has a main character in the form of Soma, and at first it looks like this character will take too much focus, to the anime’s detriment. Food Wars!

there isn’t anything to make the experience of watching the show via this box set any different to streaming it online. Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal can be a fun show, and sometimes it shows similar promise to the other Yu-GiOh! offerings. It is let down by a plot that is often pushed aside in favour of duelist of the week episodes. As a result, it is never really allowed to develop. By the time Episode 49 has finished the show has advanced less in terms of narrative than other similar anime would have in half the time. The result is an anime that can be fun to indulge in the odd episode of, but doesn’t work as a whole. When you throw in the lack of DVD-specific extras, and the ease of finding Zexal on streaming services, there isn’t much to recommend about this collection specifically unless you really like the anime.

Season 1 avoids this in two ways. Firstly, Soma doesn’t always win. The character always loses to his father, and he battles another chef to a tie more than once. Secondly, the show occasionally puts its focus on someone besides Soma. This results in Food Wars! ending its first season with a more fleshed-out cast than it started it with. Occasionally, Soma seems too good to be someone at a food school, but this is a side effect of the anime’s focusing on the students proving they are already great, rather than being shown to learn. The cooking itself is completely over the top. Any little flourish the characters might make is animated as dramatically as possible. When someone tastes food they really like, their reaction is extreme, and often sexual. Such scenes usually play out like overdrawn orgasm metaphors. This is usually bizarre enough to be funny, but it happens so frequently that it sometimes comes across as overdone. Seeing a character’s clothes come off as they explain why they like someone’s cooking starts to feel a bit routine a few episodes in. This is a problem that

Food Wars! struggles with during the second third of this season. The special features on offer here are typical for what can be expected of an anime release. There is the option to watch both the opening and closing animations without the credits. There are also previews of upcoming anime. These videos are a good way to check for potential shows to watch after Food Wars! Season 1. Food Wars! Season 1 is bizarre. The characters and situations are constantly presented in an exaggerated fashion. It supports this with a strong set of characters. Underneath all the strange antics, Food Wars! is ultimately a show about a group of people who overcome constant challenges and grow for the better.

GARETH EVANS

Extras: Clean opening animation / Clean closing animation / Sentai Filmworks trailers GARETH EVANS

ANIME

Food Wars! Season 1 is proof that an over-the-top battle anime can be made out of anything, including cooking. The series follows main character Soma as he attends an elite cooking school. One important aspect of life at this school is the titular food wars, contests between chefs to see whose cooking is better. These food wars are treated with the same dramatic weight as a battle between characters in an anime that is about fighting.

first season. These developments might have been more intriguing were it not for the pace at which they occur. These mysteries never really get satisfying answers during the episodes present in this collection. Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Season 1 Complete Collection also suffers from comparison to the other members of its franchise in terms of how it treats its cast. How Yu-Gi-Oh deals with its characters that aren’t the spiky haired protagonist, the villain, or the grumpy rival has always been a bit of a problem for the series. In the case of Zexal, this problem is the worst it has ever been. Barring one or two episodes, any character that isn’t Yuma only serves to confront him, or support him; they are of such little importance that they can vanish for episodes at a time without their loss having any impact on the experience. Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Season 1 Complete Collection doesn’t have any special features on offer, so

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COSPLAY CATWALK

PAUL AND GEM We catch up with another cosplaying couple who met at a comic con!

COSPLAY

STABURST: How did you get started with cosplaying? Paul: It started with a Halloween costume for me, I’d always liked the idea of cosplaying before I really knew what cosplaying was, if that makes sense. My first cosplay was the Holovirus Rimmer from Red Dwarf, I picked this because Red Dwarf is one of my all-time favourite cult series to watch. The Rimmer character was always my favourite in the show and the Holovirus version always made me laugh, it was a good standout costume that worked so well and I’ve never looked back since. It worked out well because I use an original Mr Flibble hand puppet, which to be fair gets more likes than me! Gem: I was always into comic cons but never brave enough to go in cosplay, then I met my partner (thanks to his Holovirus Rimmer costume). Since then, I caught the bug! Who is your favourite character to dress as? P: Holovirus Rimmer is also my favourite. It’s such a standout cosplay that you get mobbed while you’re in it. It’s always a fantastic feeling to see people’s reactions to it as it’s a very rarely done costume and I always

A Monthly focus on the costuMed role-plAy scene At fAn conventions Around the world

get stopped for photographs while I’m in it. Even the cast of Red Dwarf picked me out in an auditorium full of cosplayers at Manchester MCM, which was amazing. On that same day, I met a woman who would later became my fiancée, she’d picked me out in the crowd because she’s as big of a fan of Red Dwarf as I am and our favourite episode is Quarantine. Strangely, we’d met years before in a club in our home town on Halloween because I was wearing the same costume! We didn’t realise this till our first date. G: Barf from Spaceballs!

since Manchester MCM was only a few weeks ago. But on the idea front, I do have parts that I’m looking to use on my future cosplays. For my next cosplay, I would really like to do Madara Uchiha from Naruto (I have a Sasuke Uchiha already) because it’s a character I’ve always liked. I would love to pull off a decent Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) but I feel this would be a big undertaking as I’d want to make it as accurate as possible. G: My next thing is to try working with foam and make the Susan Sto Helit (from the Terry Pratchett books).

How long do you spend making the costumes and how much do you usually budget for? P: Normally when making a costume it takes around two to three months, depending on what I have going on at the time (work or family commitments). It’s not something I like to rush because the process is as much fun as wearing it. I do get a lot of help from my fiancée and my mum (who is a master seamstress). I usually budget around £100 £150 per cosplay for any big keeper ones, and around £50 - £70 for smaller quick cosplays, however, I usually don’t stick to these figures! G: Normally about three months, then I’ll go to a smaller con to see how it works and then fix any faults before the main events. And I tend to try and stay under the £100 mark.

Paul and Gem are from Liverpool. You can find Gem on Facebook as Eagle 5 Cosplay and Paul as The Judge Supreme, Paul is also on Twitter @eagle5cosplay.

What costumes do you have planned for the future? P: Currently, I have no cosplays in mid-build

Words: Martin Unsworth

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Stuff we liked from around the web thiS month with JaCk bottomleY

WATTOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EMPORIUM

MERCH

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PIXEL JUICE

NEWS AND PREVIEWS IN GAMING BY LEE PRICE

COMING SOON

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2 PLATFORM: SWITCH RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 1ST

The sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles hopes to build on the goodwill that the original game garnered by offering a stunning open world environment, with many of the usual JRPG trappings. It features an entirely new cast of characters, and early reports suggest that the game looks the part and plays really well. The combat system, in particular, looks superb as it offers a streamlined take on the traditional Xeno combat. This is the sort of game Nintendo needs to attract some more niche audiences to its console.

Rockstar Reveals New RED DEAD Trailer

It’s been a long time coming, but the sequel to the classic Red Dead Redemption is just around the corner. The first game took us on an emotional rollercoaster with conflicted cowboy John Marston, and we expect nothing less than the same brilliance from the sequel. In an effort to whet our appetites just that little bit more, Rockstar has unveiled a new trailer for the game. We get a bit more of an introduction to protagonist Arthur Morgan, and some hints of a few exciting scenes, though there’s no gameplay footage. Even so, it really looks the part and we cannot wait to play it. COMING SOON

Ubisoft Reveal New Game Mode for ASSASSIN’S CREED ORIGINS

Now this is quite interesting. Ubisoft has announced that it will be providing a new game mode as part of a free update for Assassin’s Creed Origins at some point next year. Named ‘Discovery Tour’, it will remove all of the combat from the game, instead allowing players to traverse the game’s world at their own pace. Think of it as an interactive guided tour. The mode will feature little excursions where you can learn more about the game, and ancient Egypt as a whole. It sounds interesting, and is the sort of thing that we think will work well in

FALLOUT 4: VR

GAMES

PLATFORM: PC RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 12TH

Following hot on the tails of Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR brings Bethesda’s last Fallout game right into your face. The most exciting thing here is that this release will feature the entire game, so you’ll have potentially hundreds of hours of entertainment to enjoy. The fact that Fallout’s shooting mechanics tend to be a bit slower than most FPS games, which require twitch reflexes, also makes it ideal for the VR platform. Plus, there’s something that we like a lot about being able to look at your wrist and see the PipBoy there.

Assassin’s Creed, given its strong reliance on historical stories and figures.

Microsoft Working on New Game Delivery System

It’s one of the biggest frustrations of the modern gaming world. You get a brand new game, chuck it into your console, and have to wait an eternity for it to download and install itself. Then, you find that you don’t have enough space on your hard drive, so you have to delete an old game to make way for the new one. It’s an issue that Microsoft is looking to alleviate with a new video game delivery system that should ease the pressure on your hard drive. Dubbed ‘Intelligent Delivery’ it will free up space by only keeping the portions of games that you need on your hard drive, while getting rid of the rest. For example, you may be able to delete all of the code needed for extra languages for your games, which could free up gigabytes of data for other stuff. It’s an interesting innovation, and the kind of thing we need if we’re going to avoid a gaming world where we need a bunch of external hard drives just to store all of our games.

Nintendo Announce More of the SNES and NES Classics

Nintendo has confirmed that it’s going to up its shipment numbers for the SNES Classic, which should be in stores by the time you read this, with the company stating that

117 it will continue shipment well into 2018. Furthermore, they’ve also announced that a new batch of NES Classics are also on their way, which is good news for those who lost out the first time around and don’t want to have to spend the ridiculous money that people are charging for second-hand NES Classic consoles. This was always going to have to happen, given the immense popularity of the Classics line, but Nintendo certainly took their time about it. Still, it’s good to know that we will be getting more.

COMING SOON

LEGEND OF ZELDA Encyclopaedia Announced

It’s a very Nintendo-themed news month that we have here, and we’re going to continue that theme with the announcement that Nintendo are going to bring out an encyclopaedia for the Legend of Zelda series. The 320-page book will feature interviews with producer Eiji Aonuma, in addition to everything that you could ever want to know about the franchise. We reckon that fans are going to be all over this, should it ever find its way to the UK. As it stands, Nintendo has only announced a North American release, so you may have to import it if you want it.

Nintendo to Close the Wii Shop

The closure of the Wii Store was going to happen eventually, but Nintendo has finally given us some details. The company plan to shut down the store entirely on January 31st, 2019, which means that you have just over a year to get those Wii Points spent. You’ll still be able to transfer titles over to the Wii U up until that date as well. The key here is that you’ll still be able to play any games that you already have from the store, which is good news. The bad news is that you’ll lose them forever if you delete them from your system, or if your console bricks on you.

WOLFENSTEIN and DOOM to Come to Switch

The Nintendo Switch is slowly but surely building up a roster of games that will help

SPELLFORCE 3

PLATFORM: PC RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 7TH

Can you tell that we’re kind of hitting the dregs of the gaming release schedule here? December isn’t really the month for new releases, as most companies that target the Christmas market look to get their games out in November. Anyway, Spellforce 3. A fantasy strategy game, this is all about building your bases and outwitting your opponents on the way to victory. The major difference here is that Grimlore Games has pulled all of the areas of the game onto a massive continent, instead of giving them each their own islands. It may be worth a look for fantasy fans. it to compete with the Xbox One and PS4. To assist them, Bethesda has announced that they will be bringing both Doom and Wolfenstein to the console. Doom was a cracking game, which emphasised attack over taking cover and defending your position. It’s the sort of game that we don’t see coming along too often on the Switch, and we reckon it will find its way into the collections of many of the more ‘mature’ owners of the console. Interestingly, this will also be the first Doom game released on a Nintendo since 1997’s Doom 64 for the N64. Wolfenstein II has yet to come out on the other consoles, but unfortunately, the

Switch won’t be getting it at the same time as the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You may have to wait a little bit longer, but it’s good to see Nintendo slowly but surely closing the gap on their biggest rivals.

PewDiePie Messes Up Again

He may still be the most subscribed YouTube channel, but PewDiePie can’t seem to get away from controversy right now. After the uproar over a batch of antiSemitic videos that he released earlier in the year, the YouTube personality has found himself in hot water again after using a racial slur against a competing player in one of his most recent videos.

COMING SOON

SPACE HULK DEATHWING PLATFORM: XBOX ONE, PS4 RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 5TH

GAMES

Does anybody remember the Space Hulk games? Based on the Warhammer 40,000 game of the same name, Space Hulk was an early FPS that never really made any waves, despite being based on an interesting property. Already out on PC, Deathwing has been met with some pretty middling reviews thus far. Even so, it’s a decent enough slice of FPS action that should be more than enough for any fans of the series who want to give it a try on consoles, so you probably already know if you’re buying this one.

118 COMING SOON

ŌKAMI HD

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 12TH

Now here’s a game that’s worthy of a bit of attention. Ōkami is one of the best games of the PS2 era, and it’s already received the touching-up treatment in the past. However, it’s coming out again for those who missed it the first and second times around. A beautiful game, Ōkami sees you take control of Amaterasu, a god in the body of a wolf who can use the special paintbrush owned by her companion to do battle and bring colour back to her world. It’s quirky, and an ideal choice for Zelda fans. He has since issued an apology, even going so far as to state that he appears to have learned absolutely nothing after the controversies that resulted in many of his major endorsers, including Disney, cutting ties with him.

DEAD RISING 4 to Receive Update

Capcom has announced that it’s listening to its fan base for Dead Rising 4, and is preparing a new update for the game that will introduce a bunch of features that players have been asking for. Among them is the equipping of the game’s maniacs with weapons that actually suit their personalities, and the addition of six new Distress Call quests. Frank will also gain a new weapon whenever he defeats a maniac, plus Capcom is going to touch up the human

AI so it’s a bit more intelligent. Apart from that, there’s going to be some balancing, with both zombies and attack speed being sped up. This is all good stuff, and it’s great to see that Capcom is actively trying to make the improvements that fans are calling for, even on a game that didn’t sell as well as the company might have hoped.

Ataribox Gets a Release Date

We brought you news of the upcoming Ataribox recently, and now there are a few more details that lovers of classic games need to know about. Atari has announced that the console should be out at some point in spring of 2018, though we wouldn’t be surprised if this slips into a summer release given the nature of COMING SOON

console development. It comes with a price tag that falls somewhere in between $249 and $299, so we can expect a similar price for when the console finds its way to the United Kingdom. The more expensive versions will apparently feature different ‘memory configurations’, whatever that means. The console itself will run on Linux and has an AMD processor, alongside a Radeon graphics card. Atari also want to make it something like a PC hub, and claim that it will offer ‘streaming, applications, social, browsing, music, and more’. That’s a lot of words to describe so very little. We still can’t help but be a bit wary of the console, given Atari’s track record and the fact that it hasn’t released a console since the 1990s. We’d also like to see a few more details about what sort of games we can expect.

ROCKET LEAGUE

GAMES

PLATFORM: SWITCH RELEASE DATE: Q4 2017

It’s still a bit vague as to when we’re getting this, but we’re expecting Rocket League to arrive on the Switch at some point before the end of the year. Anybody who’s played it will know just how good this game is. It’s football, but with cars. And it’s much more exciting than it sounds. Ideal for casual gamers, but with enough skill involved to allow the best players to separate themselves from the pack, Rocket League is pretty much the perfect game for the Switch.

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THE LATEST GAMING RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

XCOM 2 - WAR OF THE CHOSEN (DLC) DEVELOPER: FIRAXIS / PUBLISHER: 2K GAMES / PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC, OS X, LINUX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW almost across the map. What changes this from being a simple rehash of Alien Hunters is what the game offers atop of three new big-name foes. Rather than just encountering the Chosen enough times to pin down their stronghold, you instead accomplish your task by operating alongside new resistance cells. Each has to be convinced to assist your cause, and no single one offers the same benefits. While it would have been an easy task to simply rehash standard XCOM designs and give them a new paint job, you’re instead left with diverse groups of Reaper infiltrators, ADVENT defectors known as the Skirmishers and a mysterious order of Templar psychics to call upon for help. This naturally makes the balancing act of striking bases, recovering supplies and attaining new allies all the more difficult, but the DLC always allows the rewards to be all the sweeter. New enemies and allies would be enough on their own – especially with zombie swarms known as the Lost showing up and attacking both sides – but the truly fascinating addition is what War of the Chosen does to your troops. While XCOM has always been famed for having aliens permanently bump off essential soldiers and forcing you to juggle finite resources, the soldiers themselves have always seemed oddly robotic. Even if someone is turned into near mincemeat, with enough rankings and some downtime they will barely register the

effects. That isn’t quite the case anymore. Now you have fatigue to worry about, as soldiers deployed over and over again can be driven to near breaking point. If pushed too far, they will panic much more easily and attain negative traits such as obsessively reloading their weapons or an unhealthy streak of paranoia. It’s enough to give them a bit more life, as are the relationships which can build between troops, with friendships and comradery between certain units offering bonuses in the field if deployed alongside one another enough times; ones which can also backfire quite badly should one of them be killed, but that’s XCOM for you. The point is that this helps to give a sense that you’re commanding humans in the field, and encourages players to actually build a large force of soldiers over a single elite squad and their rookie cannon fodder. Top all of this off with new bonuses such as the photo booth to commemorate the promotions, victories and losses of your soldiers, and War of the Chosen offers exactly what players want from this series. You have every tool possible to forge your own narrative within the game, and infinitely more reasons to revisit this world once more. Turnbased strategy fans should mark this down as an essential purchase for this month. CALLUM SHEPHARD

GAMES

Above all else, Friaxis is a developer that uses DLC as an excuse to completely change the rules of their games. While Bethesda and others might offer full scale expansions and weapons upgrades, they often feel tacked on in comparison to the complete dynamic shift the likes of Gods and Kings offered to Civ V or Enemy Within did to the prior XCOM release. War of the Chosen accomplishes this once more, adding such a vast wealth of new enemies, factors and things to keep track of, you can never rely upon the same old tactics that won past campaigns. The most prominent change present here is the fact your agents are now being hunted. With the arrival of three Sectoids on steroids known as the Chosen to harass your forces at every turn, every mission might see you facing off against a powerful new foe without warning. Having thankfully learned their lesson from the Alien Hunters DLC (and adding a very welcome nerf to that DLC’s abominations), the Chosen will arise multiple times throughout the campaign and while tough at the start, their main strength stems from how they learn from you. The more you use certain tactics against them, or even certain weapons, the greater their resistance will be to each one, bolstering an already impressive arsenal of skills. The Hunter, in particular, will have you grinding your teeth in frustration, with his capacity to not only ignore armour, but also nail targets from

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TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER 2

DEVELOPER: CREATIVE ASSEMBLY / PUBLISHER: SEGA / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW This really was a rare perfect match. On the one side, you have the minds behind Total War, and on the other, a fantasy world of ratmen, elves and humanoid dinosaurs. Sticking to the same engine as its predecessor, Total War: Warhammer II switches the action over to Lustria and Ulthuan. Along with opening the floodgates for new stories, this change completely reworks the nature of the map, often

making you more reliant upon ports and sea trade. While the game itself lacks basic oceanic combat, it allows one region to more actively resupply another, while a wealth of encounters from Dead Sea Dragons to lost islands provides plenty of oceanic action. Better yet, the Chaos invasion of the previous game has been replaced by a race to control the great magical vortex. You’re always on a timer to reach the end, but it

ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED

GAMES

DEVELOPER: STUDIO WILDCARD, INSTINCT GAMES, EFECTO STUDIOS, VIRTUAL BASEMENT LLC / PUBLISHER: STUDIO WILDCARD / PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC, OS X, LINUX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW ARK: Survival Evolved is a rare beast indeed. As one of many games jumping on the open world survival bandwagon, it would not have been a surprise to see it joining the likes of Rust in Early Access purgatory. Yet, here we are, three years down the line and we have

a finished product. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to see that it needed a few months more work before its final release. The game hinges on the idea of you surviving amid a land of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a stone axe at first, your task is to tame the giant beasts

provides more structure to games and a much more direct endgame objective to focus on. The blending of RTS combat alongside turn-based map management is as strong as ever. While at first each new army might seem like the same two with a different coat of paint (two animal hordes, two elf races), each quickly displays their differences on and off the battlefield. High Elves, in particular, prove to be fun thanks to their mastery of diplomacy and their spy network, breaking up alliances keeping an eye on every port. Even without this, the wealth of unique units and monsters on every side makes them distinct from one another, with each forcing you to completely rethink your tactics to take advantage of their quirks. Ironically, many of the game’s major faults stem from something its table top inspiration only recently shed: obtuse systems and the sheer length of battles. The ability to carefully manoeuvre troops and control their formations is detailed, but much of it is hidden away behind keyboard and mouse shortcuts the tutorials never bother to cover. This can make the act of controlling your armies annoying. Furthermore, there are a few too many ways battles

can devolve into a war of sheer attrition once heavy infantry or shield walls show up. Moreover, while the user interface is a brilliant improvement over its predecessors, trying to keep track of every sub-objective and status update can be a chore. It’s easy to lose track of something essential and can leave you making otherwise obvious mistakes in the late game. Total War: Warhammer 2 is problematic but it’s nevertheless another success story for Creative Assembly. It requires multiple replays to truly get used to it, but even without that, the choice of armies, excellent lore and game-changing tactics are nevertheless successful additions. So, fans of the Old World, be sure to give this one a look.

around you and find a way to thrive in the dangerous land. It’s an engaging concept and one that the game plans out well. The ecosystem is extremely varied across the gorgeous landscape, with everything from giant insects to krakens littering the island. While each can be tamed, you will often find yourself hunting them for essential resources as you slowly build up a personal encampment with high-tech equipment. You are always forced to keep searching across the island and taking risks in order to survive, giving it a thrilling sense of genuine discovery. Combined with a very detailed crafting system this should have been a surefire win, but then you try to run the game. To put it simply - ARK: Survival Evolved is so badly optimised it makes Magicka look good by comparison. High-end PCs will find themselves chugging along at the best of times, even when there is only a relatively small number of creatures on screen. Worse still, the creatures themselves are astonishingly half-done, with many retaining extremely basic animations and utterly braindead AI, reducing

many creatures to simple attack beasts. Even if you move beyond the PvE element into PvP, the game is incredibly flawed. Little has been done to balance out any disparity between players, meaning that the strong will always stay on top. This has naturally led to rampant griefing, and you can simply expect to find yourself dying over and over again to someone who had a head start on you. This is painful to write, as there is still a good game somewhere in here. It’s still a hunting fantasy with machine guns and the opportunity to tame gigantic prehistoric monsters. It’s just that with such a mishandled execution, for every moment you start to have serious fun, you are almost required to turn a blind eye to a dozen other issues. If you’re truly enamoured with the concept then give it a look, but otherwise pass this one up until the developers release a few more patches.

CALLUM SHEPHARD

GAMES

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RETRO BYTES

GAMES

he end of summer and the start of autumn can mean only one thing Halloween is just around the corner, and we thought what better time to recommend to you lovely readers a selection of some of the finest and most interesting retro horror games around? After all, ‘tis the season to be jolly scared and all that. So if you don’t fancy sitting through a load of horror movies this Hallows’ Eve and instead are looking for something a bit more interactive to give you the heebie-jeebies, why not try out some of the following? All come endorsed by the ghost of Bela Lugosi. CHILLER First we’re going to take a look at a rather obscure title published and developed by Exidy and released to arcades in 1986. Chiller was a non-scrolling light gun game and was massively ahead of its time in terms of gore and violent content. If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of it, it’s because the game was so excessive and bloody that the vast majority of arcades

simply refused to stock it. Most of the arcade cabs were exported to third world countries with far less stringent censorship laws, which ensured that, at the very least, the legacy of the game would live on. Later years saw Chiller pick up something of a small cult following in western markets, which led to an unlicensed port of the game coming out for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 (we very much doubt Shigeru Miyamoto would have approved). To say this game deviated from Nintendo’s incredibly strict censorship policy would be a huge understatement, but were it not for this port, there’s a fair chance that Chiller would have faded into complete obscurity. Gameplay consists of single screens filled with non-hostile NPCs that the player must obliterate with the light gun. As there is no particular threat from the on screen characters, the challenge comes from figuring out how to dispatch them in the quickest way possible. For example, one of the early levels features a poor young fellow tied to a torture rack. Shooting all

A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD OF RETRO GAMING WITH SEAN ONLY

the flesh off of his bones will do away with him, but figuring out where to shoot the torture rack in order to separate his torso from his legs will get the job done much, much quicker (we’d just like to pause for a moment here and remind readers that this game came out in 1986 - a full six years before Mortal Kombat!). Although rather basic, somewhat low budget and incredibly crass, Chiller is an important footnote in the history of horror and gore in video games. Well worth checking out, even if it’s only to satisfy some morbid curiosity. NIGHT TRAP One of the most controversial games of all time and one of the biggest factors in the introduction of the ESRB rating, Night Trap was developed by Digital Pictures and published by Sega in 1992. Initially released exclusively for the Sega CD, Sega later ported versions to the 3DO, MS DOS and the 32X. One of the first full-motion video-

123 the polished game that Resident Evil just couldn’t be, given the technological restrictions of the time. Add in some new puzzles, new areas in the mansion, and a quite frankly terrifying addition to the original story (no spoilers!) and you are left with not only one of the finest remakes ever, but one of the finest (and scariest) games of all time. We really can’t recommend this one enough, and as it’s available for almost every system you could care to mention, there’s no excuse not to give it a go!

based games and the first interactive movie game on the Sega CD, Night Trap was highly technologically advanced and groundbreaking for the time. Players choose which CCTV cameras to view as a real life B-movie plays out before them. Set in a house full of teen girls in the midst of a slumber party, players must protect these helpless teens by arming and setting traps for the uninvited vampire-like guests (known as ‘Augers’). If enough Augers evade your traps, then it’s game over and back to the start of the movie. Looking back with hindsight, it’s almost hilarious how much of a stir Night Trap caused at the time. There’s barely any blood or gore to speak of, and the Augers are more comedic than terrifying. Aside from all the controversy, the biggest criticism against Night Trap was the gameplay (or lack thereof). It essentially comes down to single button presses as you flick between cameras desperately searching for those pesky Augers, inevitably missing the vast majority of the FMV scenes as you go. If you’re looking for super in-depth playability and replay value, you’re not going to get it here. If, however, you’re looking for a ridiculous, camp, kitsch and over the top B-movie that you get to interact with, then you won’t find anything better than this. Night Trap is like the ham and pineapple pizza of video games - it really shouldn’t work and it’s not for everyone, but if you can get your head around it, you’ll want slice after slice! If you’re itching to give it a try, it’s quite literally never been easier, as a fancy remake of Night Trap has just been released for the PS4 and Windows, with an Xbox One release just around the corner.

GAMES

RESIDENT EVIL: REMAKE Known in Japan simply as ‘Biohazard’, REmake was developed and published by Capcom for Nintendo’s little GameCube back in 2002. Although originally an exclusive GC release, it was subsequently ported to the Wii with a later HD version coming out on most seventh and eighth generation systems. The project came about when original Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami decided his horror masterpiece hadn’t stood

the test of time as well as he had hoped. Mikami felt that the advanced processing power of the GameCube would allow him to create a game closer to his original vision and one that would be remembered more favourably by future gaming generations. The same principle of using 3D character models over pre-rendered backgrounds is employed here, but to far greater effect. The detail and texturing is vastly superior to the original, and the effect created by mixing high-res polygons with high-res fixed backgrounds was stunning at the time. Graphical innovation and making the absolute most of the tools available mean that REmake remains one the finest looking games across all the sixth gen platforms. Of course, none of this would really mean anything if the gameplay wasn’t there, but thankfully, REmake more than delivers in that department, too. Tank controls are still employed, but the characters are now so much more responsive and some control tweaks mean they are much easier to manoeuvre. Pretty much all the criticisms put on the original game have been acknowledged and rectified here, from dialogue to pacing and control - REmake is

DOOM 3 Unfortunately, id Software’s highly anticipated sequel to Doom (Doom 2 was more a series of add-ons than a sequel) was released to home computers in 2004 with an Xbox release coming the following year. Although you might not traditionally associate Doom’s frantic first-person run and gun style with Halloween and horror games (despite the fact they’re set in Hell), Doom 3 is actually far closer to the survival horror genre than your typical FPS. Playing through Doom 3 today, you can clearly see the influence it has had on modern games such as Dead Space, Alien Isolation, and Outlast. The cinematic style and horror movie-esque pacing were extremely original at the time and the pioneering set-pieceladen gameplay was hugely influential on so many titles that followed. Many games had tried to give the feel of a playable movie before Doom 3, but none had done it quite as successfully. It really does feel like you’re wandering around a completely realised world, with a huge amount of interactivity and a staggering level of detail. You might have to stop every now and then to remind yourself that this game came out all the way back in 2004. Frightening, engaging, intense and landing just on the right side of challenging, Doom 3 is a gaming experience that everyone should try. You can pick up a copy extremely cheaply today and we highly recommend that you do! We hope you’ve enjoyed our look back at some of our personal favourite horror titles. If you’re brave enough, perhaps you’ll be turning the lights off, drawing the curtains and playing some of them this Halloween? Just keep reminding yourself... it’s only a game... it’s only a game...

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DAMAGE

GAMES

egular table top gamers are as prone to trends and bandwagon jumping as any other form of media. The countless zombie, Shakespeare, and Cthulhu-themed games available at your friendly local gaming shop will confirm this. Currently, the hot new idea is games set on the planet Mars. It makes sense; gamers tend to be dreamers and with various people announcing that we will colonise Mars sometime this century, interest in the Red Planet is high. Which brings us to one of the hottest games out there today - Terraforming Mars. In case you’ve missed it, Terraforming Mars is a two-to-five-player game that allegedly takes ninety minutes to two hours to play (although we find it usually takes at least three hours). The aim of the game, as you might guess, is to terraform Mars. You do this by playing cards, and these are crammed with some of the more interesting ‘space age’ ideas. Want to raise the surface temperature of Mars? Drop some nukes on the poles. Not got enough iron? Drop a whole moon onto the surface and also raise the planet’s atmosphere. Still short of heat? Build a nuclear reactor on an asteroid made of Thorium and construct a huge freaking space laser. Need to increase trade? Build a space elevator. Or a huge space catapult. Animal life having difficulty breathing on Mars? Genetically tinker with it. And so on. Though at the start of the game, you won’t be able to do any of that and you’ll be gluing moss to rocks, if the right cards come up. Each player takes the role of a corporation bent on turning Mars into a second Earth. Various corps have different powers; some are good at mining, others are rich in terms of resources, others have political connections and so on. My personal favourites are the ‘Not

really the Illuminati - honest guv’nor’ faction, who seem to always run out of money, and the reality TV company. The latter seem to think that stranding countless humans on an inhospitable planet for decades would make for good TV. I’m pretty sure most of us would watch ‘I’m a Celebrity, please exile me to Mars’ and frankly, I’m broadly in favour of any concept that involves putting various Z-list idiots on a highly dangerous rocket and forgetting about them. The game board is a map of Mars with

ED FORTUNE GUIDES YOU THROUGH THE REALM OF TABLE TOP GAMING

three major ‘tracks’. These are temperature, atmosphere and a stack of ‘water’ tiles. Bits of the board are reserved for water tiles, meaning that they’re deep valleys vital for the terraforming effort. Once you run out of water tiles, that’s a third of the game over. Complete the temperature and atmosphere tracks and it’s time to count up victory points. Of course, the journey is the point here. You’ll spend a lot of time not only placing water tiles but also placing underground cities, secluded ‘experimental’ zones and even irradiated hellholes (if you’ve been a bit keen with the nukes, that is). You also need to place forested areas; these raise atmosphere and score plenty of points. Putting life on Mars is one of the easiest ways to win, though get it wrong and the other players will reap the rewards of your green fingers. Also on the board are the ‘awards’, a nifty victory point mechanic that, rather than just handing out points at the end of the game, requires you to ‘buy in’. Leave it too long and someone else will get the advantage, but jump in too soon and you can badly estimate exactly how influential you are in certain key areas. Rounds are divided into ‘generations’, so in-game decades pass as you draw new cards, pull fresh resources and come up with a new plan. The length and the intensity of the game have made this pretty much the game of 2017. It’s being played by a lot of people and it’s very much the game that regular board gamers will bring up as an example of ‘serious’ gaming, whatever that means. And on that subject, some caveats.

125 have different experiences and there are different dialogue trees and potential outcomes depending on exactly which heroes you pick at the start of the scenario. This really does feel like the start of some sort of digital DM and though the melding of smart device and board game isn’t as seamless as it needs to be, the game does benefit from the app. Both are well worth the couple of hours of time they’ll consume and are actually more enjoyable than the core scenarios from the main box. FFG has finally started to work out how to make the app more integral to the game and not feel like some weird digital interloper. Speaking of Fantasy Flight Games, they’ve announced the beta testing for Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game. L5R (as it’s nicknamed) has always been a bit of a curate’s egg. It’s a pseudo-Oriental fantasy setting blending feudal Japanese history and influences of other East Asian cultures. It’s famous for not having ninjas (except it sort of does), but boasting overly complicated social rules, complex in-game politics, and ongoing storylines. In terms of blood, sex, magic, and monsters, it rivals A Game of Thrones in terms of scale, though being a game rather than a series of books, it is unlikely HBO will ever pick it up, which is a bit of shame as we won’t get to see a guy in massive, crab-themed Samurai armour punch Ogres and Oni on the TV screen. Ed Fortune is currently enjoying watching Dael Kingsmill’s YouTube series on Warhammer 40K lore more than he really should. If you’ve got a games-related thing you want to see in these pages, let him know. You can find him on Twitter @ed_fortune or via email on ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com.

GAMES

Firstly, Terraforming Mars isn’t a game to introduce to casual gamers, unless you really want to put them off. The combination of length and complexity may discourage some, but it also lacks any real interactivity. I know of no group that plays this game regularly that don’t employ several of the game’s more optional rules, and everyone who enjoys it all use drafting mechanics in each round. Basically, you all draw cards, pick one and pass the rest of your pile to your opponents. That way you’ve more strategic elements. This sort of solitude is fine for regular gamers, but it will put off newer players. Secondly, the component design is sort of ‘meh’. The art doesn’t really grab you and it’s pretty bland and generic, which is a real shame because the actual ideas on each card tend to be really exciting. Space fleets and stellar mirrors should look exciting. You also use a lot of ‘blocks’ of various types and colours to denote resource management and the like. Most modern games have little stencils to hold these blocks in case something gets nudged, or in the case of the STARBURST’s gaming table, when Jaxx the cat decides to pounce on the shiny cubes. You can get third-party accessories to do this for you, but that’s not really the point. These flaws aside, Terraforming Mars has captured many imaginations, kicked off a whole new subgenre of gaming and already has a pile of exciting new expansions on the way. Serious gamers will have it on their shelves by the end of the year as it becomes the must-buy Christmas gift, but be forewarned: it’s a good game, and one that once you get into, you’ll become fascinated with, but it’s not for everyone and it’s certainly not family board gaming. This is the peak of the nerdier, sharper side of gaming. Expect The Big Bang Theory to totally misunderstand its appeal in some show or other soon, and forget the hype. It’s good, but it’s not as good as your excitable space-obsessed fan says it is. Apart from Terraforming Mars, the other game that’s getting quite a bit of play at the Secret STARBURST Gaming Thunderdome is Mansions of Madness. Imagine, if you will, a miniatures-based board game where the aim of the game isn’t to simply slay the monsters, but to deal the existential terror that lurks in the heart of man. Whilst at the same time blowing up horrible creatures with dynamite, of course.

The second edition of the popular Fantasy Flight Game is an app-driven affair; basically, a handy device does all the bookkeeping and faffing for you. This is a bit divisive; some gamers feel the app does too much and others don’t think the app goes far enough. The middle ground really depends on your players. The game is very scenario-driven, and this can be a bit of a bother if you run out of adventures. FFG provide fresh packs (and you can use the scenarios from the first edition), but the latest add-on to the game increases stories and mystery. Mansions of Madness: Beyond the Threshold contains new tiles, figures and two additional scenarios. It also introduces two new characters to the game. Wilson Richards is a tough-as-old-boots handyman who’s quite good at smacking things and Akachi Onyele is a smart and resilient type who can solve problems and resist the mental torture that is part and parcel of any Cthulhu Mythos game. The heroes have their own models and the sculpts are okay; not as brilliant as something you may get in Zombicide or a miniatures wargame, but okay. We also get a new threat: four Thrall models. These are a little wobbly, but then this isn’t a minis game, it’s a mystery adventure. This is made pretty obvious with one of the scenarios, Vengeful Impulses. It’s a proper parlour room murder mystery with all the twists you’d expect from a horror story. The other adventure is called The Gates of Silverwood Manor and is pretty much core Mansions of Madness fodder; haunted house, monsters, mistrust and things going bump. Both showcase the game’s abilities quite well. The app works quite hard to build atmosphere and engagement, and the story is also quite replayable. Various characters will

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WATTO’S EMPORIUM

Stuff we liked from around the web thiS month with JaCk bottomleY

we would be fools to ignore a sweet social media trend which has emerged from seemingly nowhere; in case you missed it, people have been saying that the unexpected gay icon Mister Babadook (yes, that Mister Babadook!) has found a new partner in Pennywise. We are not sure how these figures of dread became figures for LGBT but we welcome this news! If this fantastic pumpkaboo-designed shirt from redbubble. com is anything to go by, they look very happy indeed and we wish both of them well in their forthcoming dates and romantic dinners… just whatever you do, don’t get their order wrong! KIDROBOT MADBALLS (JASON VOORHEES, LEATHERFACE, FREDDY KRUEGER, PREDATOR, XENOMORPH AND FACEHUGGER) - $9.99 USD EACH ALL AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT BESTBUY.COM ALIEN TOY - £306.92 AVAILABLE AT ETSY.COM PENNYWISE SHIRT - $19.95 USD AVAILABLE AT ITEE.SHOP

Haven of Horror

MERCH

2017 has been a great year for big studio backed horror; not only was Annabelle: Creation one of the summer’s most profitable films, Get Out enjoyed breakout success and critical acclaim and It has been breaking horror box office records. It’s enough to fill the darkest heart with glee, which can also be said for some really unique and excellent horror merch finds this month. We’ll start off with these gloriously designed Kidrobot Madballs, exclusively available from bestbuy.com and magnificently modelled on an array of big screen horror icons, from Leatherface to the Xenomorph. Speaking of which, the marvelous minds of Etsy.com

have struck again, as you can now adopt your very own Xeno-pet, with this well made Xenomorph toy by Abalaba - just be ready to get a few funny looks from (secretly jealous) onlookers should you walk your expensive extraterrestrial companion in public. We also found a few goodies pertaining to our old friend Pennywise, who continues to smile and terrify 27 years (appropriately) later. Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal in the new feature film adaptation was animalistic and gruesome but if you still love Tim Curry’s 1990 miniseries portrayal, then try this neat shirt from itee.shop, which features Curry’s growling killer clown/entity as the centerpiece of a cool ‘circus in town’ poster design. And finally,

PENNYWISE/BABADOOK PRIDE SHIRT £14.50 AVAILABLE FROM REDBUBBLE.COM

Assemble the Merch!

By now, hopefully, you have a taste of what to expect with the latest DCEU offering, as Justice League hopes to keep the ball of positivity rolling after this year’s critical and financial DC hit Wonder Woman. So, with this said, we punched in the data on our STARBURST supercomputer (found in our cosy and not at all dark and moody cave) and searched for some early League-related merchandise. Undoubtedly there will be a

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boom in JL gear soon but over at merchoid. com, this range of Justice League shirts are a great start. Each shirt is based on one of the League members - our personal favourite is ‘Testing the Waters’ (who’d have thought the muchmocked Aquaman would, in 2017, be a possible badass show-stealer?) - and these great-looking shirts are perfect for assigning positions in your very own League of mates that will be braving the crowds come the movie’s release. Also online, at smythstoys. com to be specific, we found this ace little collection of Mystery Minis figures. There is an impressive roster of characters to collect too, from the A-listers like Batman and Superman to the faces that will be making their big screen début in the forthcoming film, like Steppenwolf! JUSTICE LEAGUE: TO THE BATCOMPUTER!, SAVIOUR OF THE GALAXY, ONE EYE OPEN, HEART OF GOLD, BACK IN A FLASH, TESTING THE WATERS - £15.99 EACH ALL AVAILABLE AT MERCHOID.COM MYSTERY MINIS: JUSTICE LEAGUE - £5.99 EACH AVAILABLE AT SMYTHSTOYS.COM

Booze Runner

And finally, as the hotly anticipated Blade Runner 2049 is upon us, we are enjoying Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to Ridley Scott’s landmark sci-fi. So much hope and expectations have meant that we have had to calm our tentative feelings and our geeky nerves with a little drink, and it seems that Johnnie Walker has realised this problem and solved it, with this Blade Runner ‘Directors Cut’ Limited Edition Whisky from their website. Presented in the classy style you would expect of a beverage influenced by a film so visually stunning, this is an inspired creation and one that will look great in your alcohol cabinet (wait, people other than us do have those, right?).

Captain Scarlet Stands Tall

These days we are spoilt for choice when deciding what collectables and memorabilia to buy for our displays at home. So how do

Recently previewed at the UK Fanderson Convention, long-time fans of Supermarionation will be delighted to know that BIG Chief has specially commissioned original art by Lee Sullivan for their retro Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet packaging. Many of the original voice artists, puppeteers and technical members of the crew were on hand at the event and gave their approval of BIG Chief’s work. Mary Turner, the designer and maker of the original Captain Scarlet puppets, was there to compare the figures for likeness. Shane Rimmer, the original voice of Scott Tracy, brought BIG Chief’s figure to life once more by adding his own voice to the occasion. Rimmer, who also starred in a number of the Bond movies, also cast his eye on the upcoming Goldfinger, Oddjob, and Sean Connery 007 line-up, noting that Bond will return in Live and Let Die with Solitaire, Baron Samedi and, of course, Roger Moore. Whether you’re a fan who likes to recreate iconic scenes or just simply display them at home, BIG Chief’s attention to create accurate representations makes their figures a must have. Check out these great new additions to BIG Chief’s line on their web site bigchief. shop or ask at your usual participating collector store. FIGURES RANGE FROM RRP £169.99 TO £249.99

MERCH

JOHNNIE WALKER BLADE RUNNER ‘DIRECTORS CUT’ LIMITED EDITION WHISKY, 70 CL - £99.99 AVAILABLE AT JOHNNIEWALKER.COM (OR AMAZON.CO.UK)

you choose from the countless items available from that far, far away Star Wars galaxy, the streets of the cities inhabited by DC’s heroes and villains, or indeed from Marvel’s ever expanding universe? The answer could well be to buy something older; that is to say, new collectables from a bygone age. Britain’s very own BIG Chief Studios has a strong portfolio of classic brands that celebrate Great British Characters from shows including Doctor Who, Sherlock, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet. Want more? Well they even have James Bond - the whole film franchise! Beginning with the ever popular Goldfinger (1964), the range is starting out with retro favourites and is set to expand with the other Bonds, girls, henchmen and the infamous villains that make 007 the world’s most beloved spy series. Place BIG Chief’s figures next to the actual actors, and apart from their size, you’d hardly notice the difference! Standing approximately 12 inches tall, every figure is hand-finished from delicately painted portraits through to their hand-tailored clothing. They all come complete with their own display base as well as a host of accessories for alternate display options, and each comes beautifully packaged in a special collector box. Following on from their already successful Doctor Who line-up, BIG Chief is now embarking on FAB new ranges for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.

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We venture into THE MIST to find nothing of interest, boldly go deep into the first three episodes of a brand new STAR TREK and dare to sample the delights of BLOOD DRIVE. Business as unusual, then…

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return to you laden not with exotic sweetmeats, mouth-watering sugardusted Turkish Delights and other exotic delicacies from far-off lands (I’ve not ventured far from TV Zone Towers these last two months for various dreary reasons) nor can I engage you with enthusiastic recommendations hewn from the jagged rock face of the exciting, pulsating world of modern television. As I struggle with the stresses and strains of uprooting TV Zone Towers and relocating (still pending at the time of writing), I’ve found precious little worthwhile sustenance in the TV Zone itself. It’s all been a bit pants, to be honest. Turgid movie-to-TV adaptations, the umpteenth reboot of an ancient sci-fi franchise, doomed-to-die post-apoc Mad Max cash-ins; fortunately, I’ve started my Game of Thrones marathon (see the TV Zone Plus Podcast for further details!) to find out what all the fuss is about and it’s helped keep my head above water when it was beginning to look as if TV was in danger of drowning in a sea of warmed-over mediocrity. So I’m back - and thanks to Sir Andrew of Pollard for keeping things ticking over in my absence and keeping the place relatively cape ‘n’ cowl free - but now it’s time to take the gloves off and get stuck in. THE MIST I bow to no-one - no-one, do you understand? - in my devotion to Frank Darabont’s cruelly ignored 2002 Stephen King movie adaptation The Mist. It’s a stone cold 21st-century horror classic and I can’t help feeling ever so slightly superior because I found it and loved it where so many others let it pass them by or, more worryingly, might even be utterly unaware of its existence. The Mist - the story of a town in Maine (where else, this

is Stephen King?) suddenly and quietly engulfed by a mysterious fog in which lurk various assorted giant monsters, carnivorous insects and slimy things with lots of tentacles - gives a new meaning to the word bleak. Not only does it neatly demonstrate how quickly the veneer of civilisation and society can be stripped away in times of extreme crisis, it also features possibly the most downbeat ending of a feature film since the original

THE MIST

version of The Wicker Man. I recall seeing the film for the first time at home on DVD (yep, I skipped it at the cinema, too) and sitting gobsmacked, stunned, paralysed and scarcely able to quite take in what I’d seen in the film’s dying (literally) moments. It’s a gut punch of an ending, and it secured the film its place in the annals of the horror movie greats, even if didn’t exactly rake in the moolah at the box office. I wasn’t, as you might imagine, best pleased to hear that some ideas-strapped US TV Network (something called Spike, as it turns out) had nabbed the rights to King’s novella and decided to make it into a ten-part TV series. What on Earth could be brought to a short, punchy, terrifying story by dragging it out into the best part of ten hours of telly? Nothing of any note, as it turns out; the series has just been given the chop following declining viewer interest. Having been able to tolerate only six episodes of The Mist, I can’t say I’m remotely surprised and I have to say I feel simultaneously annoyed that Spike even thought there was a point in trying to revisit a story already told perfectly well elsewhere and slightly smug that, if I’d been given the chance, I would have told them they were wasting their time and onto pretty much a dead-cert loser. The Mist squanders a brilliant dramatic conceit; it rips away all the thrills and tension and genuine bloody horror of the movie and replaces it with tedious human relationship conflict and dull, inert characters whose behaviours twist and turn according to the creaks and groans of the plot. This is in some ways inevitable; where The Mist was a horror film about actual monsters turning us into monsters, the TV series is a psychological horror story concerned almost exclusively with the disintegration of the human condition in extreme crisis. When the mysterious ‘mist’ drapes itself over the town of Bridgeville (in Maine, of course), the show’s characters are scattered across various locations - some are trapped in a shopping mall, which stands in for

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STAR TREK DISCOVERY

the grocery store of the film (and they generally don’t seem too bothered about their predicament), others are trapped in a church, while some make their way to a local hospital. This inevitably dissipates the sense of threat and mounting dread that was so fundamental to the power of the film version; constantly leaping between locations to focus on a different bunch of people means we can’t really invest in their plight because we’re not there with them long enough or often enough. It also doesn’t help that none of these characters are remotely likeable so it’s hard to give much of a damn what happens to them. The demands of an ongoing narrative have forced the show’s producers to graft dreary domestic dramas (a sexual assault arc is handled horribly clumsily) and tedious backstories onto glum people who we are only really interested in because we want to see what terrible things might befall them. On a TV budget, we’re not going to get the assortment of horrors we saw in the film, so we probably shouldn’t expect them. The best the TV series has to offer (at least in the episodes I could tolerate) were a few bugs and creepycrawlies and a decent bit of business with a character consumed by locust creatures in Episode Five. Most of the time, we’re just left with the impression that there are nasties hiding in the mist, but they’re clearly a shy bunch as they don’t seem too keen to pop out and wave a tentacle or two just to brighten things up a bit. Of course, it would be foolish - and magnificently pointless - for any TV series based on a film to just slavishly tell the same story without offering up anything new for its domesticated audience. But in moving the story’s imperative away from the monsters and trying to focus more on its characters and their flaws, foibles, and failings, it becomes something entirely different. As the episodes roll by, it becomes apparent that the format requires too many characters to do too many ridiculous things and to change their personalities and even their motivations in

an attempt to pep up the show’s sagging and meandering dramatic urgency. The limp, insipid cast struggle to inject much life into anaemic scripts and when even the effortlessly magnificent Frances (Six Feet Under, American Horror Story) Conroy fails to make much of an impact (she’s luminously mad here as a typically fruity environmentalist-cum-conspiracy nut) then there’s really not much hope for a show that quickly sinks under the weight of its own lack of proper creative vision. The Mist has been blown away after just one season, and I can’t imagine there will be too many who’ll lament its passing. Time to watch the movie again; just to take away the rancid TV flavour, you know…

AMERICAN GODS

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY So Star Trek is back on the TV where it belongs (well, sort of… my column word count won’t allow me to delve into the machinations of the CBS All Access business that brings it to US screens it’s simpler over here, we’re getting it on Netflix). J. J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek movie series seems to have run aground after just three films, so perhaps it’s right that the franchise has made its way back to its ancestral home. Now I’m absolutely not a Star Trek superfan (I’ll not insult you by calling you Trekkies); give me an episode of The Original Series and I’ll wallow in nostalgia for fifty minutes or so and then move on. Anything post-

STAR TREK DISCOVERY

130 Next Generation is a closed book to me (although I recall dipping into a few early episodes of Enterprise and finding them less than required viewing) so I can watch Star Trek Discovery without worrying about its place in the franchise timeline, agonising over slight continuity glitches or getting worked up about the fact that the Klingons don’t look like they used to. It’s actually quite liberating to not give a damn about how it all fits in with what’s gone before (or what’s to come if it really is a prequel to The Original Series). But certainly, on the basis of its first three episodes, Star Trek Discovery looks, with some reservations, as if it’s on course to be a bit of a winner. My initial fears that we’d be in for just another variation on the familiar Star Trek template - boldly going in a big spaceship, etc. - have been somewhat subverted by a series that is approaching the whole Star Trek myth from a slightly different angle. This is very recognisably Trek, and yet it’s also something new, something a little bit more wilful, which is happy to play with the show’s conventions and our expectations of them without ever giving us quite what we might have anticipated. Early scenes aboard the USS Shenzhou with The Walking Dead’s Sonequa MartinGreen as First Officer Michael Burnham (no, nor me…) alongside her old friend and mentor Captain Philippa Georgiou

THE WORLD OF CULT TV

ALSO SCREENING

TIMEWASTERS

British comedy series in which a struggling four-piece London jazz band finds itself flung back to the 1920s after entering a urine-soaked lift in a clappedout block of flats. Oh, my sides. ITV2 airing now

SUPERGIRL

Melissa Benoist returns as Superman’s kid cousin in a third run of colourful superheroics from The CW Network. Have no fear, The Flash, Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are all back this month too. Sky 1 airing now

STAR WARS REBELS

Star Wars fans counting down the days until the release of The Last Jedi can occupy their time with the fourth season of CGI animated adventures in which a motley group of rebels aboard a spaceship called the Ghost conduct covert operations against Imperial forces. Disney XD from October 28th

BLOOD DRIVE

(Michelle Yeoh) lead us into a false sense of familiarity, and this looks as if it’s going to be Trek-by-numbers. But we quickly find out that this isn’t the case as Burnham plunges the Federation (rather rashly and stupidly, it has to be said) into war with its old enemies the Klingons and she finds herself incarcerated for mutiny. By Episode Three, set some six months later, the Shenzhou is out of the picture and Burnham, now a convict, is brought aboard the USS Discovery when her prison shuttle is attacked by an energy-eating organism. Here, Burnham meets the ship’s moody Captain Gabriel Lorca (hello to Jason Isaacs) and discovers that all is not as it appears aboard what at first presents as a science vessel but quickly becomes established as a warship. The first two episodes are a little clunky in places and subtitled sequences with the heavily redesigned Klingons seem to go on forever and nearly bring the whole thing to a dead halt, but Episode Three is a bit of a belter, introducing new characters and settings and, on an expedition to a wrecked Federation starship, throwing in some nice body horror and a decent Alien vibe as the exploratory group are attacked by a slavering alien creature. Much to recommend, then, in Star Trek’s return to TV screens. Purists may find it hard to adjust to its super-slick production values, its clear focus on one main character (at the moment) rather than presenting as a proper ensemble piece, and what appears to be a continuous, developing story arc rather than individual five-year-mission adventure stories. What’s most interesting about the series is that it looks as if it’s genuinely found a way to reinvent the Trek wheel and make a fiftyodd-year-old franchise suddenly seem fresh and vital again. It’s good enough to keep a non-Trekkie (dammit!) like me along for the ride, and I’m keen to find out where the rest of this fifteen-episode first season run is going to take us. I’ll be revisiting the show in future columns and, indeed (shameless plug) on the TV Zone Plus Podcast.

attraction. Here I am, back in harness and Blood Drive has been and gone, cancelled by Syfy a few weeks back due to dwindling ratings. I took the opportunity to take a quick look at the show and whilst it’s not quite to my taste - this is Grindhouse TV with all the grit, grime, blood, sex, and gore that the label entails - there’s certainly never been anything like it on TV before, and it’s quite entertaining in a deeply guilty pleasure kind of way. It’s a shame it couldn’t find an audience willing to go along for its wild ride. Blood Drive is (was?) set in ‘the distant future’ of 1999 where America has been driven apart by ‘the great fracking quakes’ and Heart Enterprises has stepped into the chaos to take control of the economy and everything else besides. Water and petrol are scarce, and humans are routinely recycled as foodstuff or else forced into the gaping mechanical maws of bloodand-guts-powered cars participating in a cross-country ‘blood drive’. LAPD cop Arthur Bailey (Alan Ritchson) finds himself separated from his partner and forced to team up with voluptuous blood-driver Grace D’Argento (Christina Ochoa). During the course of their bloody, high-octane exploits, they come to realise that their involvement with Heart Enterprises runs deeper than they ever realised. Gloriously, unashamedly trashy, Blood Drive is noholds-barred stuff and, if nothing else, it’s certainly a bold new direction and a brave commission for Syfy. Rivers of blood run through every episode; the violence is operatic, the sleaze factor is sky-high. It’s fun for a few episodes, but it quickly becomes wearing and repetitive - which perhaps explains its audience fall-off. But it’s unpretentious and knows exactly what it is, what it wants, and even who it’s aimed at. It’s done and dusted now, though, but possibly worth hunting down if sweaty, bloody, relentless action peppered with dialogue like “I’m so hungry I could eat a dick” floats your boat. Me, I’m off for a shower; I suddenly feel a bit grubby…

BLOOD DRIVE TV moves so quickly these days. In my last column before my summer break, I flagged up Syfy’s Blood Drive as a forthcoming

Email me at paul.mount@starburstmagazine.com or do the Twitter thang @PMount. Catch up with the latest news, reviews, gossip and general geek idiocy in the brand new TV Zone Plus Podcast on iTunes.

THE WORLD OF CULT TV