SB issue 434 march 2017

ISSUE

434

CONTENTS 12

FEATURES THE MIGHTY DON’T KNEEL 12 STARBURST looks forward to the new incarnation of the teen heroes.

GO GO - THE HISTORY OF THE POWER RANGERS 18 With the new film in cinemas soon, we take a look at the history of the small screen multi-coloured champions.

MORPHIN TIME! 22 The first RANGERS movie really captured the imagination as we find out in our look at the 1995 film.

BUFFY AT 20 24 We celebrate JOSS WHEDON’s ground-breaking series with twenty reasons why we still love the BUFFYVERSE. OUTLANDISH KID’S TV IMPORTS Hop it in our time machine to remember those odd shows we were traumatised by as children.

34

MEMORY CANNOT BE DEFINED 34 Check out our preview of the live-action version of GHOST IN THE SHELL. HORROR OBSCURA 49 This month, we take a look at the 2010 update of AND SOON THE DARKNESS. INTO THE WOODS: ON THE SET OF REDWOOD 54 In the middle of a forest in Poland, we get behind the scenes of a new horror movie from the makers of PANDORICA.

BE OUR GUEST… 58 Find out all about DISNEY’s new version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. MIRACLE MISTREATMENT 62 Book your place for a relaxing treatment and get A CURE FOR WELLNESS. INDEPENDENTS DAY Filmmaker JASON MILLS tells all about his work.

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GENTLY DOES IT: A LOOK AT THE CAREER OF SAMUEL BARNETT SO FAR 70 The star of the Douglas Adams-penned series and BIG FINISH audios comes under our spotlight.

LLOYD KAUFMAN 84 With the release of ESSEX SPACEBIN, we chat to the head honcho of TROMA Entertainment about the quirky British film.

Regulars THINGS TO COME

8

BLUE BOX SECTION

38

SAUCER SECTION

46

CINEMA

72

DVD & BLU-RAY

77

AUDIO

86

Outside The Box Watching Doctor Who Power (Rangers) Of The Daleks Blue Box Reviews

Subspace Relay Trekologist

Cinema Reviews

DVD & Blu-ray Reviews Interview

Audiostatic Audio Reviews OST

34

BOOKS

94

COMICS

101

ANIME

107

COSPLAY

110

GAMES

112

MERCHANDISE

124

TV ZONE

126

IT’S ONLY A MOVIE

129

Brave New Words Coming Soon Book Wormhole Book Reviews

View From The Watchtower Comic Reviews Comic Strip

Anime-Nation

Cosplay Catwalk

Pixel Juice Games Reviews Retro Bytes Retro Fights - Brian Cage Roll for Damage

Watto’s Emporium

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www.starburstmagazine.com ISSUE

434 MARCH 2017

EDITORIAL

ART

Editor

Collectors’ Edition Cover Artist

jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com

markreihill.com

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

MARK REIHILL

Art Director

Assistant Editor

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

MARTIN UNSWORTH

martin.unsworth@starburstmagazine.com

jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com

Assistant Art Director

Honorary Editor-in-Chief

SHAUNA ASKEW

DEZ SKINN

shauna.askew@starburstmagazine.com

Online Editor

Assistant Designer

ANDREW POLLARD

JON ROBERTS DAVID CHESTERS

andrew.pollard@starburstmagazine.com

Reviews Editor JACK BOTTOMLEY

PRESS

Literary Editor ED FORTUNE

Press Liaison

ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com

PHIL PERRY

Audio Drama Editor TONY JONES

phil.perry@starburstmagazine.com

antony.jones@starburstmagazine.com

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

Editorial Assistants KIERON MOORE TOM ACTON

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

THE GREATEST WRITING TEAM IN THE UNIVERSE Head Writer

PAUL MOUNT

paul.mount@starburstmagazine.com

Lead Writers

LIVVY BOOTE, 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

Contributors

TOM ACTON, JONATHAN ANDERSON, SOPHIE ATHERTON, JENNIE BAILEY, BILLY BARNELL, VANESSA BERBEN, PHIL BERESFORD, SIMON BESSON, NICK BLACKSHAW, CHRISTIAN BONE, FORD MADDOX BROWN, LARA BROWN, COURTNEY BUTTON, LUKE CHANNELL, SCOTT CLARK, TONY COWIN, DAVID CRAIG, ANNE DAVIES, ALISTER DAVISON, SPLEENY DOTSON, JENNIFER DREWETT, JAMES EVANS, KIERAN FISHER, JD GILLAM, JOHN HIGGINS, TOMMY JAMES, ANIMAL JOHNS, BEN K, ROBERT KEELING, CLAIRE LIM, JAYNE LUTWYCHE, ROBERT MARTIN, ROD MCCANCE, NEIL MCNALLY, FRED MCNAMARA, HAYDEN MEARS, CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, STUART MULRAIN, ANDREW MUSK, DOC CHARLIE OUGHTON, 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

AND TETSUO... THE FEARLESS REPTILE GUARDIAN OF STARBURST HQ!

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starburst@inter-media.co.uk - 01293 312175 Starburst Magazine is published monthly by Starburst Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine can be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Whilst every effort is made to ensure all information in the magazine is correct, prices and details may be subject to change.

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STARBURST PUBLISHING 23 Nicholas Street, Manchester M1 4EN 0161 228 2332

EDITORIAL Welcome to STARBURST Issue 434!

In the early nineties, Saban Entertainment pulled a blinder, and merged footage from a Japanese children’s TV show, Super Sentai, with some new footage featuring a bunch of US teens, and created the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Superhero shows are fairly run of the mill these days, but when the Power Rangers aired on Sky in the UK, kids had not seen anything quite like it. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only a few years prior, the Power Rangers captured the zeitgeist of the youth market.

It was an eccentric blending of Japanese Mecha, and the more American superhero market. It was more ground-breaking than anyone realised at the time with its outlandish visuals, and multiepisodic story arcs. Initially, a floating head called Zordon recruited five teenagers with attitude to combat the threat of screech queen, Rita Repulsa. The teenagers were quickly transformed into a bunch of colourful super heroes, who would call upon their giant Zords (robots to us), to outwit their menopausal enemy. It was a formula that not only spanned three seasons, but led to a movie, and a mind-bending number of sequel series. Just keep on reading this issue, there are way too many to mention here!

In this age of rebooting and pseudo-sequels, it was only a matter of time before those pesky teenagers returned with a 21st-century makeover. This issue, we invite you to check out the upcoming Morphinless movie, known simply as Power Rangers, and give you the background on this feisty bunch of ‘90s icons.

In order to make you feel even closer to the grave we help you celebrate the 20th anniversary of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The show that brought fame to Joss Whedon, and raised the bar on US fantasy television.

We also take a look at the upcoming Disney live action interpretation (see how I avoided the word reboot) of Beauty and the Beast, and take a peek through our fingers at horror flick, A Cure for Wellness. We also manage to cram in all your regular columns. In TV Zone, Paul Mount reaches a conclusion on Sherlock, whilst yours truly performs an autopsy on the mess that is the DC Extended Universe in It’s Only a Movie.

Before I sign off, I need to let you know that this is the last issue of STARBURST in its current format. Don’t panic, it’s not a complete revamp, and everything you like about the mag will pretty much remain the same, but this is the beginning of the celebration of 40 years of STARBURST Magazine so it’s a perfect time for a few changes.

40 years, eh? In November, we will be publishing Issue 443 on the month that back in 1977, Dez Skinn introduced the world to a magazine that would indoctrinate generations of readers to the joys of the fantasy genre, and cult entertainment in general. 1977 – 2017 and we are still here – that calls for a celebration. A celebration that would not be the same without you guys. It has been a privilege being Editor of STARBURST, and heading towards this landmark issue, me and the gang are getting proper excited!

So do me a favour and tell everyone you know, and help spread the word. It’s a great time for new readers to get on board.

Until next time, Keep watching the weird and wonderful,

Jordan Royce

POWER RANGERS

POWER RANGERS

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SHERLOCK STAR TREK DOCTOR WHO GHOST IN THE SHELL A CURE FOR WELLNESS BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 434

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FEED BACK You can write to STARBURST via snail mail: STARBURST MAGAZINE, PO Box 4508, Manchester, M61 0GY or email: letters@starburstmagazine.com

still HErE I am amazed to discover that STARBURST is still in print after all these years. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you haven’t changed. You’re still the dense read, filled with cool stuff that I remember from back in the day when STAR WARS was just called STAR WARS and not A NEW HOPE. Been a fan for a very long time; I even had the sweatshirt!

Oh sure, you’ve gotten extra stuff like video games, cosplay, and board games (how very hipster), but it’s still as I remember it all; brilliant and packed with excellent stuff that I would never have found out about otherwise. Loving the old and new columns. And

talking of modern stuff, loving the podcasts. They are all very different. Heard the new TV Zone one and it was very rambly but very welcome on a long car trip back from Peterborough. I like all the odd people you get on the Brave New Words; where did you dig Stephen Volk up from?

The STARBURST Podcast is great as well; one day I’ll hear it live, but I’m always in bed by the time it airs.

All the old cool stuff is coming back. I reckon it’s high time we had a BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS reboot.

And BARBARELLA (but please not with Scarlett Johansson in it). What do you all reckon?

A reboot with a synthespian Jane Fonda?

Later Gators, Andrew H, via EMAIL Great to have you on board again and really pleased you like the podcasts. We’re getting a little rebooted out here though. There was a BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS remake last year, wasn’t there?

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN! We’re quite happy watching the classic BARBARELLA, too.

Can you imagine how they’d mess that up? Our worst nightmare would be them casting Lady Gaga!

CarriE I was shocked and saddened by the death of Carrie Fisher.

She was Princess Leia to so many, and as such represented a strong and independent character. The gasps in the audience at the end of ROGUE ONE, before her death, showed how fondly her character is thought of, and that comes from Carrie’s wonderful performance throughout the STAR WARS franchise. She will be mourned and missed.

Keith Tudor, from ROMSEY We were all very upset about Carrie’s death, too. It’s still really not really sunk in.

Let’s hope THE LAST JEDI is a fitting tribute to a muchloved actor and character.

Leia (and Carrie herself) will live on through the movies forever, at least. roGuE oNE Dear Jordan, You made some very astute points in your review of ROGUE ONE. Let’s face it, even THE FORCE AWAKENS was nowhere near as good as RETURN OF THE JEDI. It may be impossible to recapture the old STAR WARS magic but the makers of ROGUE ONE give it a damned good try in the movie’s stunning finale.

With Darth Vader kicking rebel arse like never before, it almost felt as if A NEW HOPE had been re-made with added verve. And the final image of Princess Leia had an extra poignancy in the

light of Carrie Fisher’s recent passing. It was a masterstroke to have Vader’s base on Mustafar although it seems an obvious choice in hindsight.

The problem with ROGUE ONE is its focus on minor characters who, frankly, are not that interesting. What indeed is next? An entire movie about the bloke who makes Vader’s morning cuppa?

The jury is still out on CGI Tarkin but it does represent a quantum leap forward in visual effects, can we expect a similar resurrection for Christopher Lee in the near future?

In summation then, ROGUE ONE is a good STAR WARS movie but not quite right.

And thanks for mentioning the ‘positive aspects’ of the prequels. A lot of the political machinations therein are now more relevant than ever. For the Separatist movement, read: Brexit and for the rise of Palpatine, read: The rise of Trump and the far right.

George Lucas was a lot cannier than he has been given the credit for.

Edward O’ Reilly, from, DUBLIN It certainly does appear that the saga prophesised a lot of the horrendous things we’re having to put up with politically at the moment.

We’re just waiting for the executive orders to begin the building of the Death Star! As for the CGI characters, let’s hope they see sense and let sleeping actor’s lie.

ST

NTE ON CO CAPTI

“There’s no point grovelling. You know you’re not allowed on the sofa!”

Winner: Ian Tyreman. Head over to www.starburstmagazine.com to enter this month’s caption contest.

NExt issuE: 435 oN salE from marCH 17tH

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THINGS TO COME

THINGS TO COME

MARVEL

Where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is concerned, one of the biggest stories of the past month is that Peter Dinklage is in talks to join Avengers: Infinity War. There are no details on just what role the Game of Thrones actor is up for in Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming outing for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but it’s believed to be a major role that would also see the actor return for the Infinity War follow-up, which is shooting back-to-back with its predecessor.

Dinklage is no stranger to the world of comic book movies, having played Bolivar Trask in Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. If Dinklage does indeed sign up to join the MCU, he’ll join the newly announced duo of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Pom Klementieff’s Mantis (to début later this year in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) in a film that already boasts Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Winter Soldier, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, the entire Guardians of the Galaxy, and a whole host of other familiar Marvel heroes. Avengers: Infinity War is currently set for a May 4th, 2018 release, with the to-be-titled sequel to follow on May 3rd, 2019.

Remember the animated Spider-Man movie that Sony has been developing? Well, now comes word that the film will actually feature Miles Morales under the Spidey mask rather than Peter Parker. Sony Pictures Animation confirmed the news, complete with some brief footage that saw a suit that’s actually more in line with the classic Parker suit rather than the slightly different one associated with Morales. The film will be using a style that’s a mixture of classic comic book illustrations combined with CGI, and it certainly has our interest. For those unfamiliar with Miles Morales, he was created

by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli for the Ultimate Marvel world. Taking over the Spider-Man mantle following the tragic death of Peter Parker (seriously, we’re still not sure we’ve recovered from that even now!), Miles Morales as ol’ Web-head was a great read and made the Ultimate Spider-Man books of the time fresh as it piqued the interest of many comic book fans. In more recent years, Morales has transitioned from just being an Ultimate character and has been involved in the standard 616 comic book universe. With The LEGO Movie’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller serving as writers and producers on the film, which will be directed by The Little Prince’s Bob Persichetti and Rise of the Guardians’ Peter Ramsey, this currently untitled animated adventure will be swinging to cinemas on December 21st, 2018.

While we’ll be getting a new Spider-Man when Sony’s animated movie hits the big screen, there’s been some news on new faces to the Marvel small screen world this past month as Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger has found its headliners. Run All Night’s Aubrey Joseph will be playing Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, while the

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

Disney Channel’s Olivia Holt has nabbed the Tandy Bowen/Dagger gig. The show is already confirmed for a full series rather than having to go the usual pilot route, and it will reportedly be set in the backdrop of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe – a trick used by Marvel’s Netflix shows and by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Set for a Winter 2018 premiere on the Freeform network in the US, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger is being described as a ‘coming-of-age series’ that will see two youngsters from different backgrounds come together to share their unique abilities.

Finally, another new Marvel-based show that’s on the way is FOX’s to-be-titled live-action X-Men series. With that show now in production, it’s been revealed that Bryan Singer will be directing the pilot episode. Singer, of course, is the director of X-Men, X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: Apocalypse. It was previously known that Singer would be involved in a producing capacity, but he now appears to be taking a more hands-on role – for the first episode, at least. The series, which will exist in the same world as the big screen X-Men franchise, will focus on two ordinary parents whose children have mutant powers. Going on the run from the government, the family join up with an underground group of mutants as they look to survive in a hostile world. AP

RATS OF NIMH

Have fond memories of the 1982 Don Bluth animation The Secret of NIMH? A nostalgic twang for the award-winning book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? Well, you’ll be overjoyed/horrified (delete as appropriate) that the Robert C. O’Brien story is being remade for a modern audience using a mix of live-action and animation.

VFX supervisor James Madigan (Iron Man 2, The Da Vinci Code) is making his directorial début with the project, with Ice Age 5’s Michael Berg on script duties. No release schedule is known as of yet, but producers Daniel Bobker and Ehren Kruger will be hoping for franchise potential.

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS Things are heating up for the giant lizard as Trick ‘r Treat’s Michael Dougherty has been confirmed as the sequel’s director.

Legendary has also announced that Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown has signed on for the follow-up to Gareth Edwards’ 2014 movie. The young actor made huge waves last year as Eleven, and she’s recently been rightly nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a People’s Choice Award.

This marks the first official cast announcement for the Godzilla sequel, so it remains to be seen who’ll be joining the talented youngster in the film.

No major plot details are known at this early stage, although it’s been previously reported that the sequel will feature a whole bunch of other beasties, such as Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mothra.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is set for a March 22nd, 2019 release, and it will exist in the same world as Kong: Skull Island as both franchises head towards May 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong. AP

DC Well, this is certainly a blow to Warner Brothers’ DCEU: Ben Affleck is no longer directing the upcoming solo outing for his Caped Crusader, currently titled The Batman. Affleck has decided that sitting in the director’s chair was just one too many hats to be wearing, so instead he’ll just be starring in the picture, producing it, and penning the screenplay with DC’s Geoff Johns. This, of course,

9 such a shocking move was to happen. Given how Armie Hammer has long been speculated for the gig – not to mention that he has some superhero shenanigans in his past, having been cast as Batman in George Miller’s scrapped Justice League: Mortal – we’d put him as the current favourite for the Hal Jordan role right now.

Then again, certain reports have it pinned that Jordan will be used as more of a mentor in Green Lantern Corps., meaning an older head like Cruise could be a good shout. Either way, expect to be hearing plenty more on the Emerald Knights over the coming few months as they get set to make their mark on the DCEU. And in even further DCEU news this month, it’s been confirmed that Dwayne Johnson’s villainous Black Adam is getting his own solo movie. A meeting between Johnson and DC’s Geoff Johns saw plans change and the multi-time WWE Champion get his own DC picture. The already-announced Shazam! will still go ahead, but it will be developed separately from what’s being tentatively titled simply Black Adam. Interestingly, Shazam! will now not feature Black Adam as its main villain, although it’s expected that the rogue will still be featured in some form or other when young Billy Batson gets to utter his famed “Shazam!” If you remember back to last month’s TTC, you’ll remember that Johnson got tongues wagging by snapping a picture of himself with the DCEU’s Superman, Henry Cavill, which was interestingly captioned #DCWorldsWillCollide.

Could it be that the Man of Steel will be going up against Black Adam when the villain’s solo film arrives? And more importantly, do we actually even need a Black Adam film? Considering that the character has been depicted as an antihero at times throughout the decades, and with such a huge name like Dwayne Johnson playing the character, it really wouldn’t surprise us to see Black Adam showing a more layered, sympathetic side to the rogue. As for Shazam!, that’s still to find its Billy Batson, its Shazam, or a director.

With that film penciled in for April 2019, it could be that Black Adam instead nabs that release date.

Taking things down to the DC small screen realm, and Supergirl has brought in yet another familiar Super-face in the form of Teri Hatcher. Hatcher, of course, famously played Lois Lane in Lois and Clark back in the ‘90s. In the Melissa Benoistheadlined Supergirl, she’ll be playing a to-be-confirmed villain who will have a recurring presence throughout the rest of the show’s current second season. To date, The CW’s Supergirl has already featured Hatcher’s Lois and Clark co-star, former Man of Steel Dean Cain, and the star of 1984’s Supergirl movie, Helen Slater, not to mention Linda Carter of Wonder Woman fame.

One other villain who’ll be facing Benoist’s Girl of Steel later this year is Music Meister, who will be the key component to the upcoming musical crossover adventure between Kara Zor-El and Grant Gustin’s Flash. Now confirmed to be playing the rogue is Glee’s Darren Criss, meaning that he’ll be singing, dancing and punching against former Glee stars Benoist and Gustin when the team-up effort begins its two-episode arc on March 20th in the US, and shortly after in the UK. The Music Meister character débuted in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, where he was voiced

by Neil Patrick Harris, and his main power is simply that he can control people by forcing them to break out into song and dance.

And sticking with Supergirl and The Flash, the pair are amongst four DC shows that The CW has already renewed for new seasons. As confirmed by the network, Supergirl will be getting a third season, The Flash will be getting a fourth season, Arrow will be getting a sixth season, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will be back for a third year as well. Those new seasons will start in the second half of 2017.

Whilst those DC-driven shows have been renewed for new seasons, one other familiar fella who’s set to get his own series is John Constantine. Now, we were all sad to see the Matt Ryanstarring Constantine show axed after just one season, but Ryan will now be back to voice Hellblazer in an animated show for CW Seed. Initially planned as five or six 10-minute episodes, the series is set to début next year. Since Constantine was canned, Ryan’s version of the loveable rascal has appeared in Arrow and also already in animated form in the Justice League Dark movie that’s released in March. Already announced as being involved on a writing and producing level is David S. Goyer, and Greg Berlanti is attached as executive producer. We may still have to wait a while to see Matt Ryan’s John Constantine back in a live-action setting, but at least this is better than nothing. AP

THINGS TO COME

is on the back of Affleck previously stating that he’d only make The Batman if it was “great”. Given how the actor-cum-director has wowed audiences with the likes of Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo, many were hugely looking forward to seeing what Affleck, himself a longtime Batman fanboy, would bring to the table for the first solo effort for this latest incarnation of the Dark Knight.

Sadly, we won’t be getting to see him direct this upcoming feature, though. Current word as we’re going to print is that Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the impending War for the Planet of the Apes’ Matt Reeves is one of the frontrunners being looked at to replace Affleck in the director’s chair. Up next for the World’s Greatest Detective is Zack Snyder’s Justice League, due in cinemas this coming November.

Joining Affleck in Snyder’s superhero ensemble effort, obviously, will be Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. On that topic, the King of Atlantis’ solo movie is lining up another villain to swim its oceans as The Get Down’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is in talks to play the nefarious Black Manta in the James Wan-helmed movie. Manta is a huge deal in the comic book world and is one of the Marine Marvel’s most infamous and notable villains. What makes him so appealing to fans is, not only does he look totally badass, but he’s a figure so often shrouded in mystery, including the fact that nobody even really knows who he is under his imposing supervillain getup.

Even his origin story has been foggy-at-best over the years, with him initially having a grudge against the ocean due to having been abused by the crew of a ship, which saw him seek vengeance on Aquaman as he saw him as a symbol of the sea; more recent times have seen Black Manta’s origin being the age-old tale of him merely blaming Aquaman for the death of his father. But it’s not just Abdul-Mateen who’s in negotiations for Aquaman, for this past month has also seen Nicole Kidman in talks to play Atlanna, the mother of Momoa’s King of the Seven Seas. This isn’t the first time that the Oscar winner has been linked to the DCEU, with her previously having been rumoured to be playing Hippolyta in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, a role that ultimately went to Connie Nielsen. Already signed up to join Momoa’s titular hero are Amber Heard as Mera, the Queen of Atlantis, Willem Dafoe as Atlantean advisor Vulko, and Patrick Wilson as the Marine Marvel’s jealous half-brother, Orm, aka the villainous Ocean Master. At present, Aquaman is set for an October 2018 release.

Now while all may be smooth sailing on Aquaman, the same can’t be said for The Flash. Having already seen two directors – Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa – depart the project over creative issues, now comes word that the Ezra Miller-starrer has gone back to the drawing board yet again with its screenplay.

Warner Brothers have brought in Joby Harold, who recently penned the scripts for the upcoming King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Robin Hood, to work on a ‘page-one rewrite’ of The Flash, essentially meaning that the screenplay is starting from scratch once more. Given that the Sultan of Speed’s solo adventure was initially pegged for an early 2018 release, you can scrap those plans altogether. Still signed on to join Miller’s Scarlet Speedster are Kiersey Clemons as Iris West and Billy Crudup as Barry’s father, Henry Allen. With the regular moving of the goalposts, though, you have to question how long Clemons and Crudup are willing to wait around for this picture to speed into life. Again, you can expect to see Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen as another who’ll be present and accounted for when Affleck’s Dark Knight assembles the Justice League later this year.

Now whilst the DCEU has its Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and even its Cyborg, notable by their at this stage of the game absence are any and all Green Lanterns.

But with Green Lantern Corps. set for a July 2020 release, it’s heading towards the time when Warners need to pull their finger out and start casting some of their Emerald Knights. As of this past month, WB has put together a shortlist of people that they’re considering for the role of the most famous Green Lantern of them all, Hal Jordan. Believed to be in contention are Tom Cruise, Joel McHale, Armie Hammer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bradley Cooper, and one Ryan Reynolds – yes, as in that Ryan Reynolds, the star of 2011’s doomed Green Lantern movie. Seeing as how Reynolds has gone on to headline Deadpool and actually poke fun at his GL stint, could it be that he now returns to the fold and dons the hopefully-not-CGI’d Lantern uniform once more? Crazier things have happened, but we’re pretty sure reality would cease to exist if

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

FEBRUARY 17TH - QUARANTINE (2008) American re-do of the fantastic Spanish ‘found footage’ hit [Rec].

While not in the same league, it’s a solid remake that’s well worth your time. It follows a TV reporter and her cameraman as they are shut in a building full of infected tenants. +++ MARCH 1ST - THE TWO FACES OF DR JEKYLL (1960) Rarely seen Hammer horror starring Paul Massie and Christopher Lee. This was the studio’s first serious attempt (they had made a comedy film, The Ugly Duckling starring Bernard Bresslaw and Jon Pertwee) at the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story and benefits from Terence Fisher’s masterful direction. +++ MARCH 3RD - THE COTTAGE (2008) Reece Shearsmith (Inside No 9) and Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) kidnap Jennifer Ellison (umm.. Brookside) and hope her father will pay the ransom that will set them up for life.

Unfortunately, they are completely inept and things get worse when a psychotic farmer threatens them all. A decent entry to the British horror-comedy canon. +++ MARCH 7TH - CAPTAIN AMERICA (1979) Long before Chris Evans took up the shield to become the First Avenger, there was this made-for-TV effort. With a souped-up motorbike and winged crash helmet, our ‘70s Steve Rogers is less the Sentinel of Liberty and more Evil Knievel. It’s still rollicking good fun, though. +++ MARCH 10TH - SHROOMS (2007) When someone tells you not to do drugs - believe them! Not that you’d be guaranteed to suffer the same fate of the group of American students that we have here, who go hunting for magic mushrooms in Ireland and instead become victims of something much more terrifying. +++ For small-screen offerings, there’s a chance to see classic episodes of Star Trek and Deep Space Nine, while for those who prefer something a little more sinister, there’s Tales from the Darkside.

THINGS TO COME

Horror Channel is available on SKY 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138 and TalkTalk 487.

STAR WARS

We finally have a title for the upcoming Episode VIII - The Last Jedi.

Which, of course, sent the entire Internet into a meltdown of theories and speculation. Even the colour of the logo seemed to have fans losing their minds. Other than what we already know, there’s little in the way of information about what we can expect or who indeed the titular last Jedi is (bearing in mind it could even be plural). However, we have had confirmation that we won’t be subjected to Carrie Fisher’s CGI’d visage in the final chapter of the new trilogy, due in 2019.

Could Bad Robot’s OVERLORD Be CLOVERFIELD 4?

J. J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot has announced what they describe as a ‘supernatural World War II film’, prompting speculation that it could actually be a fourth trip to the Cloverfield universe.

Currently entitled Overlord, it follows a pair of paratroopers tasked with sabotaging a German radio tower during D-Day. Unfortunately, they find a supernatural force (which is the result of a secret Nazi experiment) fighting them, as well as Hitler’s SS. Julius Avery (Son of a Gun) will direct the Bad Robot/ Paramount co-production. Given the secrecy behind the release of 10 Cloverfield Lane, the 2016 ‘spiritual successor’ to the 2008 found footage monster flick, and the announcement that Abrams’ company isn’t finished with that world yet, it certainly fits.

But what of Cloverfield 3, you might ask? Well, that happens to be Julius Onah’s God Particle (at least, that’s what it’s being called at the moment), in which a team of astronauts have their reality altered and have to fight for survival. It was originally slated for a February release but has been pushed back to October 27th in the US and November 3rd in the UK.

AND FINALLY...

Even though filming is complete, we’re only just getting dips of information about Saw: Legacy, the eighth instalment of the franchise, which is due on October 27th. No plot details have been announced, but we do know that the cast includes Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl), Hannah Anderson (Shoot the Messenger), Brittany Allen (Defiance), and Mandela Van Peebles (son of Mario and star of Roots). The film is directed

by Peter and Michael Spierig (Daybreakers). +++ After a few months of speculation, it’s been confirmed that Arrival’s Denis Villeneuve will be helming a remake of Frank Herbert’s Dune for Legendary Pictures. While that project might be a number of years away from release, we can look forward to the director’s Blade Runner 2049, which hits cinemas on October 6th. +++ Corin Hardy (The Hallow) has signed on to direct the spin-off from The Conjuring 2, The Nun. The film will focus on that demonic holy sister who tormented Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren. Before this, we have David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle 2 to look forward to, which is released on August 11th. +++ Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the TV, The Asylum and Syfy have announced Sharknado 5… Earth 0. This time around, the shark-infested storms will be going global, as hinted at in the title and in the climax of Sharknado: The 4th Awakens. Anthony C. Ferrante directs once more (well, who else would take on these projects?) from a script by Scotty Mullen, with Ian Ziering and Tara Reid making their regular appearances.

TTC 434 stories by Martin Unsworth, Andrew Pollard. Edited by Martin Unsworth

18-19 MARCH 2017 NEC - BIRMINGHAM

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

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They have been popular at the cinema and on the small screen, but are we ready for another incarnation of ?

THE MIGHTY DON’T KNEEL L

ong before Man of Steel probed the idea of superbeings and their epic fights causing mass destruction and death, it was a simpler time. To be precise, it was the 1990s. Repurposing the Super Sentai series for a western audience, Power Rangers brought regular doses of big monsters and a giant robot duking it out in city sets that the Godzilla franchise would have thought had a whimsical charm but weren’t quite up to scratch. As the studio-led hunger for ever-increasing bombast and scale meets a prevailing trend for rebooting and reimagining, it’s not surprising that this cheesy, fun kid’s show would be in line for a cinematic rebirth. Footage suggests the film will be going for a more mature, grounded tone to compete with the big franchises.

Audiences still vote with their money, however, and there’s no guarantee of success from just putting shiny tech and explosions on screen. Guillermo

by James Evans

del Toro’s uneven Pacific Rim didn’t pull in the expected audiences in America (though it was a smash in China). And even familiar properties like Fantastic Four show that if you botch the execution, no amount of advertising or name recognition is going to convince people to place their derrières in cinema seats.

So how did this new version of Power Rangers come about and what are its chances of hitting it big at the box office?

Saban Entertainment was an independent entertainment company responsible for the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series in the 1990s. Headed up by Haim Saban, they had worldwide success with that show, which would continue through various incarnations. As with many companies, convoluted buy-outs by other media giants meant Power Ranges (and its many different titles) changed hands over and over. In 2010, Saban set up a new private equity investment firm and resumed

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his connection with the franchise. In partnership with Lionsgate, Saban Films announced in 2014 that a new film version of the series was being developed. Star Trek producer Roberto Orci was brought on board to produce. The film went through various writers before settling on John Gatins, who was nominated for an Oscar for his script for Flight, the Denzel Washington-starring drama about a drug and booze-addled airline pilot in 2012. Orci soon departed back to the Trek franchise, and director Dean Israelite was selected to helm the film.

With the creative and production team in place, it was time to think about the direction of the new movie. Like the series, it keeps the central premise of five outsider teens coming together and discovering the Power Coins that give them power as the Rangers. Israelite’s dÊbut film Project Almanac also involved teens discovering something amazing, in this case, time travel. That

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underperforming found footage film allegedly had Israelite in the running for a Marvel film, but ultimately, he landed with Saban’s production. In some ways for the director, themes from his first film continue into his second. Since coming on as director, Israelite (apparently a fan of the franchise) started talking about the need for the film to be fun and humorous, but also grounded and with an edge. He also spoke about wanting to update the film from the light tone of the TV series, bring in more realistic characters and set it in a recognisable world.

Next, the hunt was on for the actors who would bring the Rangers to life.

With the team members and Ranger colours changing from series to series, the film hasn’t had to think too much about honouring a canon of characters and has been free to create a totally new group. Mindful of the need to represent a diverse world (and appeal to a worldwide audience), the new team is a cultural mix

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of relative unknowns in Naomi Scott, Ludi Lin, Becky G., RJ Cyler, and Dacre Montgomery. With the Rangers themselves in place, it was time to bring in some bigger names to fill the other important roles. First up was Elizabeth Banks, who has featured in The Hunger Games and turned successfully to directing with Pitch Perfect 2. Banks was cast as chief villain Rita Repulsa. A few months later, Breaking Bad lead Bryan Cranston announced he had been cast as Zordon, the Power Rangers’ mentor and leader of a previous Rangers team.

Prior to the announcement of Banks and Cranston joining, there hadn’t been much excitement about the reboot, but actors of their calibre getting involved started to suggest there could be something more to it. With Bill Hader joining up to voice Alpha 5, Zordon’s robot assistant, and classic villain Goldar confirmed to be involved, filming was well underway. As 2016 continued, the

production started to release photos of Banks in costume as Repulsa and the new Rangers together.

The first major reveal came with the release of an image of the new suits. Gone was the spandex of the series, replaced by sleek metallic outfits. Designed as alien suits that grow around the team members, it further suggested a maturing tone was being pursued.

When the first trailer hit in October 2016, it finally allowed a look at what this new kind of direction was going to be. And mostly, according to Max Landis, it looked a lot like Chronicle, the 2012 found footage superhero teens film he had written. It wasn’t the first controversy either, after a poster for the yellow ranger had been released and perhaps not tactfully tagged ‘driver’s ed not required’ (the original series’ first yellow ranger had passed away in an automobile accident).

Landis, meanwhile, claimed he had been

16 attached earlier in the development of the Power Rangers movie and had submitted a treatment and script before being ‘fired’.

It’s worth considering that Israelite’s Project Almanac had similarities with Chronicle in presentation but was in production at the same time, so it’s arguably more of an influence for the director than Landis’ film.

With all the pieces in place and the film completed, audiences will soon be able to judge whether it was worthwhile bringing the Power Rangers up to date and back onto a big screen. Israelite talked about the need to update the tone of the show and ground it in reality, and that’s certainly been a common theme in recent big scale sci-fi movies. The Marvel franchises have sought to set their characters’ stories in the same world we recognise. This went to the extent that the upcoming Iron Fist TV series on Netflix was rumoured to be considered a risk over the question of whether audiences would buy into the fantastical nature of Rand’s Iron Fist power as compared to the other Defenders. It might seem preposterous when we’re given stories of men building iron suits, Norse gods from other dimensions and a certain fella with an anger problem who turns green, but it does flag up that studios focus on trying to ground even the most outlandish premise.

Perhaps it’s understandable that there have been changes in how superheroes and giant robots and science fiction and the fantastical are represented on cinema screens. This century thus far has been a world seemingly filled with grim acts and the darkest of human impulses. No wonder then that culture and, in this case, cinema have chosen to reflect that world back at us through entertainment.

Perhaps there is the feeling that audiences won’t accept a lightness in tone, or can’t suspend their disbelief if

there isn’t a recognisable reference point for them. That doesn’t always make for an excellent time at the movies.

A common assertion (and it is certainly an accusation for anyone who’s suffered through Trank’s misguided effort) from reaction to footage released so far is that it feels familiar to 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot. That film similarly took a bright, colourful and hopeful premise but then sucked all the life and joy out of it, leaving us with a movie that was dour, grim and hopeless, all in the pursuit of grounding in reality. So the question is: will this Power Rangers film have moved too far away from the tone of the series into too-dark territory?

Cranston has compared the differences in the series and film to the differences between the 1966 Batman TV series and Christopher Nolan’s significantly less chipper The Dark Knight.

However, It’s worth remembering that Adam West’s incarnation as Batman came at a time of huge unrest. Wars were raging (Vietnam, for one), people were fighting for civil rights, corruption was rife, society seemed completely polarised and unable to agree on anything. Not that different from now in many ways, or from the 1990s for that matter. And yet, for a brief period, both Batman and the original Power Rangers (at the height of their popularity here, anyway) provided a blast of colourful escapism, and that’s often what it needed most in times like this.

So it will be when the world discovers whether the new Power Rangers has managed a probably impossible sweet spot between being grounded in reality but still bringing a sense of wonder, discovery, and fun to this new version. Let’s hope it’s fantastic, but not Fantastic Four.

POWER RANGERS opens in cinemas on March 24th.

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GO GO

With the reboot hitting cinemas soon, STARBURST takes a chronological look at the series in all its guises‌

The History of the

Power Rangers

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Background (1983-1993)

I

by Tommy Hickman

n 1983, Egyptian-born Israeli American businessman Haim Saban founded Saban Entertainment with friend and well-known television composer Shuki Levy. Together they collaborated with Marvel throughout the ‘90s to produce many well-received cartoon series including X-Men and Spider-Man. Saban sought inspiration from Japanese series Super Sentai and adapted it for American audiences. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers starred Austin St. John, Walter Jones, Thuy Trang, David Yost, and Amy Jo Johnson as five ‘teenagers with attitude’ recruited by the wizard Zordon to save the world from evil sorceress Rita Repulsa, who had escaped after 10,000 years of imprisonment.

To fight Rita and her increasing band of monsters, Zordon gives the teens the ability to morph into the Power Rangers, a colourcoded team of ass-kicking superheroes.

When Rita’s monsters grow to Godzilla-size proportions, the Rangers retaliate by calling upon their dinosaur-influenced arsenal of heavy-duty artillery machines known as the Zords, which, in turn, can combine to form the mighty Megazord.

Expectations for a series that heavily relied on stock footage from Japanese television were not high, but the burgeoning Fox Kids Network ordered the series to pilot, unaware that they were on the cusp of launching a cultural phenomenon.

DEbut, Instant Success, and Controversy (1993) On August 28th, 1993, the first episode, Day of the Dumpster, premiered on television. It was an instant hit with the lucrative pre-teen audience. The series was rapidly distributed in over forty major markets worldwide and Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy, and Kimberly became household names.

The storyline formula was simple and often involved a Ranger’s struggle to overcome an obstacle in their personal life (read: self-doubt, not kicking meth). For example, in A Pressing Engagement, Jason’s confidence is rocked after he fails to break a weightlifting record set by Bulk, a bully who continually targets the teenagers without knowing their secret identities. This causes Jason to question whether he is suited to the role of leader. Repulsa promptly capitalises on this and sends the Golden Sphinx to split Jason from the group.

Only when Jason manages to fight off the Sphinx long enough for the other Rangers to arrive and work as a team does he regain confidence in his abilities, defeating the Sphinx and sending Rita into a fury, vowing to ‘get them next time’.

Despite these positive life messages, initial reception to the series was surprisingly controversial. Upon the start of the first season, the FCC (United States Federal Communications Commission) received complaints from various parent groups concerned with the use of violence in a programme aimed at young children.

In Canada, the series was pulled before the end of the first season, and wouldn’t return again until 2011’s Power Rangers: Samurai.

Broadcasters in New Zealand quickly followed suit; although later Power Rangers series Mystic Force and Jungle Fury would ultimately be filmed in the country, these too would not air until 2011.

Enter Green Ranger (1993-94) The show’s first season was extended to an impressive sixty episodes and Saban cast Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver for the first multi-arc storyline Green With Evil.

Tommy arrives in Angel Grove as a competitor in a Karate Tournament, beating golden boy Jason in a closely fought contest. Impressed with his athleticism, Rita promptly kidnaps and brainwashes Tommy, bestowing on him a lost Power Coin that allows him to morph into the evil Green Ranger.

The Green Ranger wastes little time in making a bad impression. He trashes the Command Centre, disables Zordon and Alpha, and hands the bewildered heroes their first real ass-whooping. Back in the non-hero world, Tommy breaks Kimberly’s heart by standing her up for a date, which was the first romantic subplot between the main characters. Eventually, the Rangers uncover Tommy’s identity (which takes a little longer than expected considering Tommy’s clothing is exclusively green during all of their interactions with him), but not before Tommy’s Dragonzord destroys the Megazord, sending it down to the earth’s core in flames.

Ultimately, Jason neutralises Tommy and frees him from Rita’s spell. Mortified by his actions, Tommy immediately accepts an offer from Zordon to join the Rangers and earn redemption.

Tommy’s power is linked with a green candle that remains in Rita’s possession.

As it burns, Tommy’s powers weaken considerably. Despite this, Tommy continues to assist the team wherever possible, rekindling his relationship with Kimberly and forging a strong bond with Jason. However,

by The Green Candle, Tommy is on the verge of losing his powers. Jason makes a last ditch effort to recapture the candle but is forced to abandon his mission in order to save Tommy’s life, and the candle burns away. In order to prevent Rita from reclaiming his power, Tommy hands his

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Power Coin to Jason before bidding the group a sad farewell. He is absent for several episodes, only making a last-minute cameo in the epic Doomsday storyline.

In Return of an Old Friend, Rita kidnaps the parents of the Power Rangers-declaring she will only release them in exchange for the team’s Power Coins. Zordon finds a way to re-energise Tommy, and the Green Ranger returns to the fold, freeing their parents and joining the team once more.

Saban upped the ante for the second series, replacing Repulsa with fearsome Lord Zedd, adding tougher putties and introducing a more emotive element to its storytelling. Standout double bill Green No More was Tommy’s final appearance as the Green Ranger, and Jason’s guilt at his failure to capture the green candle is displayed for several episodes after (Missing Green, White Light).

Internal Disputes and Cast Changes (1994) There was also trouble behind the scenes.

St. John, Trang, and Jones quit the show twenty episodes into Season Two, citing disputes over salary as their cause of departure (Trang tragically died following a car accident in 2001).

Their final appearance occurs in The Power Transfer story arc. Jason, Trini, and Zack are selected to represent Angel Grove in the World Peace Conference, and their Ranger superpowers are transferred to newcomers Rocky, Adam, and Aisha, a trio of martial artists who

had discovered the Rangers’ secret identities in The Ninja Encounter.

In spite of these changes, the popularity of the series remained intact. Two months after Rocky and co. suited up, Power Rangers merchandise topped the Christmas bestsellers list.

With recasting complete, the series had survived its first real test, but there was still one step left on the path to world domination.

Movie and Backlash (1995-96) Following the wrap of Season Two, production relocated to Australia to begin shooting the first live action movie. Simply entitled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, the film was shot on a $15 million budget and set between the second and third seasons.

Lord Zedd and a returning Rita Repulsa unleash Ivan Ooze, a prisoner of Zordon who promptly seeks revenge on his former captor by neutralising him, destroying the Command Centre and stealing the Rangers’ powers. Alpha 5 helps the Rangers escape to the planet Phaedos where they must overcome a series of challenges to awaken and harness the powers of their inner spirit animal (Tommy gets a falcon, Adam’s lumbered with a frog). Armed with their new Ninja Zords, the Rangers return to Earth to find that Ivan has hypnotised all of the parents in Angel Grove to dig up his buried army and once they have done so, he intends to order them to commit mass suicide.

Luckily (particularly for the film’s PG rating), the Rangers arrive in time to prevent Ivan from pulling a Rev. Jim Jones and save the day, luring Ivan into the path of a conveniently passing comet.

The movie grossed just over $65 million, but critically was a disappointment, seemingly having lost the fun dynamic between the characters that fans relished just as much as the highkicking action sequences.

Much of the negative feeling bled into Season Three. Fans were frustrated by the decision to rehash the plot of the film in the Ninja Quest story arc. Original Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson departed the series in A Different Shade of Pink and was replaced

by Catherine Sutherland. In Rangers in Reverse, Rita and Zedd reverse time, turning the team into children who, whilst retaining their memories, are unable to morph, and the season ends with the bad guys victorious.

Later Years (1996-2002) Set directly after the events of the third season, Alien Rangers finds Billy frantically working on a device to turn the child versions of the Rangers back to their normal age, while Zordon enlists the Alien Rangers of Aquitar to fight in their place. Featuring child actors and some dodgy time travel, the series only lasted ten episodes, and is best known for bridging Mighty Morphin to the next instalment, Zeo. Finally restored to their original ages, the Power Rangers must deal with the

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ramifications their time travel exploits had on Billy, who is unable to withstand taking on the powers of the Gold Ranger.

Tommy seeks out Jason (St. John) who returns in A Golden Homecoming to assume the mantle of the Gold Ranger, putting him at odds with Rocky, who feels he is being pushed out by the friend he originally replaced (Mondo’s Last Stand).

The two ultimately make peace, but by final episode Good as Gold, Jason finds himself unable to continue as the Gold Ranger, and departs the series once more.

Saban produced a second feature film Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, which reunited St. John with a briefly returning Amy Jo Johnson. The film quietly fizzled at the box office grossing a meagre $9.6 million.

In Space followed the Turbo television series, which is notable for the episode Always a Chance. The story focuses on former Black Ranger Adam, providing a rare insight into the difficult transition experienced by Rangers when they return to their old lives. By this point, the cast had changed dramatically and would continue to do so, with new Rangers joining at the start of each series. Lost Galaxy (1999) featured a series first when Pink Ranger Kendrix sacrifices herself to save fellow Ranger Cassie (The Power of Pink). Three further series followed: Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, and Wild Force. The latter was notable for the episode Forever Red, which reunited all the former incarnations of the Red Power Rangers (sans Rocky) for the series’ tenth

anniversary. It was a fitting way for Saban to bid a temporary goodbye to the series.

The Disney Era (2003-09) Disney bought out Fox in 2002 and acquired the rights to the Power Rangers empire. Though by no means the juggernaut it once was, Disney continued production of the series.

Ninja Storm (2003) lived up to its name; drawing on themes from the first series, it reassured fans that new leadership wouldn’t change the core elements of the show. Dino Thunder (2004) was widely considered a series comeback, partly thanks to Tommy’s expanded role as mentor to the new team.

Space Patrol Delta (2005) featured one of the strongest pilot episodes to date (Beginnings), with three cadets promoted to the rank of Power Ranger in a new move for the show.

SPD failed to sustain the momentum of its promising start, and follow-up, Mystic Force (2006), gave the Rangers magical powers in what was perceived as an attempt to score some fans off the back of the successful Harry Potter franchise.

Operation Overdrive saw a new team of Rangers tasked with seeking out lost magical stones, which was about as entertaining as it sounds, but it did feature the fifteenth anniversary episode Once a Ranger, which featured many former cast members. In the midst of the writers’ strike, Jungle Fury (2008) was essentially a rehash of Wild Force, but RPM (2009) succeeded where its predecessors failed

and is often credited with rescuing the franchise from cancellation. Set postapocalypse, the Rangers channel their inner Dustin Hoffman by defending the last surviving city on Earth from a deadly virus.

Return to Saban (2010-present)

By 2010, Saban had regained the rights to their most enduring property, and promptly re-released a digitally remastered version of the original series. Fuelled by nostalgia, the first two new series under the Saban banner (Samurai and Megaforce) were illadvised throwbacks to original child-friendly storylines that demonstrate Saban’s failure to appreciate how the series had matured under Disney’s wing. Fortunately, Dino Charge and Dino Super Charge redressed this balance. Featuring complex, multi-layered characters with compelling backstories and a clear mission, both Dino series rank highly as some of Saban’s best work to date.

Future and Legacy In January 2017, Ninja Steel premiered on television, and March will see the release of the first Power Rangers film in twenty years. The plot has been kept under wraps, but if publicity stills are anything to go by the movie will take on a darker tone that should propel it to the ranks of Marvel and DC productions. Spanning twenty-four years and producing over eight-hundred episodes of television, the Powers Rangers is responsible for a $5 billion dollar empire that shows absolutely no signs of becoming extinct.

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An affectionate look at the first POWER RANGERS movie…

BY SCOTT CLARK

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W

hile nostalgic twentysomethings and a potential new audience think about going to see the new Power Rangers film, it’s important to note that this isn’t the Rangers’ first time at the cinematic rodeo.

TV movies aside, Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers enjoyed a big screen outing in 1995 directed by Bryan Spicer and written by Zathura scribe Arne Olsen.

If you thought the reboot film due this year was a weird prospect, we promise you that this one takes the biscuit.

Power Rangers is an odd entity, anyway. The American show was merely a version of an original Japanese work, and even then it used the combat sequences from the original. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers many of us grew up with was a weird Frankenstein monster built of Japanese ingenuity American teen soap. The Mighty Morphin Movie marked not just the Rangers’ first big outing, but also the first time an American Power Rangers project was comprised of entirely original material.

The story begins with the unleashing of Ivan Ooze, an ancient evil buried deep in the Earth, by regular series villains Lord Zed and Rita Repulsa, at their wits’ end with the eternally successful Power Rangers. Although the fights were originally intended to be like a bumper episode, the movie evolved into something

distinctly different from the show.

The combat sequences, an omnipresent staple of the TV show, were bigger, longer, and showed off more special moves. The film also dabbled in a bit of planet hopping (even if the planet looks suspiciously native), some top-notch villainy, and a revamp of the Rangers’ powers, Zords, and suits.

But maybe the biggest difference was in the villains.

Power Rangers always had bother with villains. Rita Repulsa (to be played

by Elizabeth Banks in the new movie) sent woefully inadequate jumbo-sized pests to cause minor trouble, but they were time and time again trumped. Lord Zed popped up mid-way through series one with a novel idea to take down the colourful love-loving dweebs. The result was a story arc which ended up being one of the best in the series. But soon he too went the way of Rita, becoming ineffective and just plain silly. In steps Ivan Ooze.

Ooze is a particularly nasty type of villain, especially for a show like Power Rangers, and the brand of villainy he unleashed on the Rangers set the bar high for many a young fan. After interring Rita and Zed in a snow globe for their stupidity, Ooze continues a centuries-old plan to revive his own giant Ectomorphicons: a couple of hi-tech insects capable of

destroying the planet. But first, of course, he has to destroy the Rangers.

Aside from being the only villain to use the word ‘kill’ in the Power Rangers universe, he was also the first one to show up at the Command Centre and trash the place, attacking Alpha 5 and just about killing Zordon. For kids, it’s a drastic move, worthy of the big screen.

Played by Paul Freeman, perhaps most famous as Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ooze is a camp-as-Butlins tour de force of childhood villainy, trashy one-liners et al. Freeman is superb and spits his child-friendly menace with all the zeal of an evil wizard who has taken wardrobe advice from Prince. And yet he still couldn’t beat them, getting his arse handed to him by a comet that swatted him like a bug.

The reason Power Rangers has survived so long is in part down to the constant regeneration of the show for each new generation of fans, but there’s another more basic reason. Power Rangers answers the seemingly neverending need for otherworldly saviours.

In times of need, who do we call? The Doctor? The Avengers? The Guardians of the Galaxy? Or maybe a group of ordinary American teenagers who believe in friendship, love, and the kick-ass powers of their extraterrestrial fighting gear? Maybe.

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To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, we take a look at why we think it’s still the most important show ever…

by Robert Martin

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I

nto every generation a TV show is born, one show in all the world – a chosen one.

It’s hard to believe, but one of the most defining TV shows of any generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is twenty years old this March. It ran for seven seasons, garnered critical and commercial success, spawned the hugely popular spinoff Angel, and established Joss Whedon on a career that would lead him to the dizzy Avengertype heights he today commands.

For some, it’s the most important TV show of their lives, inciting a passionate devotion that still exists to this day, a full fourteen years since the final (exquisite) double episode aired. For other people, it’s ‘no biggee’ – surely just a TV show for teenage girls about a blond bimbo chasing vampires. Like, DUH! How wrong could they be?

So, to mark its anniversary, STARBURST presents twenty reasons why this ground-breaking show remains the finest example of what a mainstream TV show can do.

Even if you’re not a seventeen-year-old girl, it’s a great show What was Buffy actually about? Was it a show about a girl who ran around with her friends killing vampires? Well, yes it was. But it was about so much more.

The genius of the show, and a huge part of its popularity, lay in the ability of the writers to ensure that almost everything that happens is metaphorical, taking the monstrous things about being a teenager and making them literal. In its seven years, Buffy dealt with issues of identity, rape, addiction (Dark Willow, grieving the death of Tara, is basically a drug addict), poverty (even slayers need to get a job to pay their way through high school), sexuality and, notably, death; particularly

in one of several standout episodes, Season Five’s Whedon-directed The Body, more of which later.

It’s funny Oh, is it funny! Rarely have horror and humour been as seamlessly blended as they were on Buffy. Renowned for his brilliant ability with dialogue, Whedon and his writers filtered enough laughs throughout the show to almost allow it to be categorised as a comedy as well.

Often the laughter would be perfectly placed to relieve moments of tension, with characters such as Andrew and Anya providing some cracking lines and situations. There’s some great physical comedy, too. Need an example? Head to fright-fest episode Hush and see Buffy, unable to talk, trying to mime that she’s been staking vamps all night. It looks like she’s miming something else entirely...

All hail, Joss Whedon!

We have Buffy to thanks for making a star out of Joss Whedon. Thanks to Buffy we have Firefly, Serenity, Avengers Assemble... Enough said.

Let’s talk about sex

Whilst it’s no surprise that stories dealing with vampires are steeped in themes of sexuality, never before had a TV show about monsters dealt with the subject with such honesty and sophistication.

Take Buffy’s true love, Angelus, a vampire who has a soul and is, therefore, constantly filled with guilt at his past evil deeds. And the one thing that will rid him of it? Having sex with Buffy, the consequence of which is to return him to evil. Talk about sexual tension!

Her other love, Spike, also a vampire,

offered a fascinating take on our attraction to all that is forbidden, these natural enemies finding each other irresistible. It even led to Spike’s near rape of Buffy, a subject you don’t see dealt with too often in fantasy shows.

But one of the most trailblazing episodes of Buffy, The Body, is extraordinary for reasons other than its portrayal of death.

In that episode, Willow, stressed about what to wear for Joyce’s funeral, is calmed by girlfriend Tara. They hold each other and kiss, their first in a series which had seen their relationship as a couple work its way into the hearts of fans. Whedon and the team of writers had been careful not to sensationalise their first kiss, as other TV shows with gay characters had done in the past, and to place it within an everyday context. Whedon had wanted it to go unnoticed and, in doing so, normalise it.

And yes, that IS Willow enjoying cunnilingus from Tara in Once More with Feeling...

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THE STAnd oUT EPISodES #1 Hush By the time of the fourth season, Whedon and the show had been inundated in praise for the quality and wit displayed in the dialogue so, not wanting to rest on his laurels, Whedon set about creating a near-silent episode, whilst dealing with another of the show’s themes, communication. It also gave us the Gentlemen, creepy-ass demons stealing voices so that their victims couldn’t scream as they ripped out their hearts.

The Scooby gang

Many Buffy fans can relate to ‘the outsider’, the kids who don’t belong to the cool crowd, which made Ms Summers, Willow, Xander, and Giles THE television gang you longed to be part of. This bunch of high school misfits (plus their grown up Watcher, a far from cool librarian), looked out for each other, loved each other and

saved the world – a lot. But they weren’t exclusive, expanding to include the likes of Cordelia, Oz, Tara and, of course, Dawn.

Hell, they even let Spike in. The Scoobies became the gang we wanted to be in (as long as we didn’t have to fight off deadly demons every night, of course).

The music

As is the case for any teen angst drama, music is vital and Buffy had a soundtrack as enjoyable as the show itself. Not only is Nerf Herder’s theme iconic, the use of music throughout the show provided the soundtrack to the lives of the characters; in particular, during frequent visits to The Bronze nightclub. Best of all was the episode Sleeper when Aimee Mann and her band played in the club, only for the star to say as an aside as the band are leaving ‘I hate playing vampire towns.’

THE STAnd oUT EPISodES #2 The Body

True story. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is this writer’s favourite ever TV series. How did that happen? Because one night, as a grown man who had dismissed the idea of the show as something for teenage girls, arriving home from work and putting on the TV, I slumped on the sofa and on came The Body. Despite not really knowing much about the show, let alone who most of the characters were, I sat astonished at the depiction of grief being portrayed, as Buffy arrives home to find that her mother, Joyce, has died of natural causes.

No music. Disorientating shots.

Brilliant performances. Hardly any supernatural content. It was extremely emotional and absolutely stunning. And to top it off, that lesbian kiss was presented

in the least exploitative way imaginable. By the end of the next day, all of the box sets were next to my TV. I was hooked.

The bad guys

Not only did Buffy deliver some great ‘monster of the week’ episodes (has there ever been anything scarier than the Gentlemen in a TV show?), each season provided some brilliant villains with their own arcs designed to keep the Scooby Gang busy for longer, creating some very Big Bads indeed. And boy, did we love to hate them. From Darla to Drusilla, the Master to the Mayor, the Trio to the First Evil, Glory to Caleb, Buffy gave great villain.

And when they became allies, like Spike and Faith, well that was even better.

Surprise, surprise!

As the show developed and the writers played more and more with our expectations, they threw quite a few surprises at us. Not least of these was the introduction of Buffy’s younger sister Dawn in the first episode of Season Five.

Where did she come from? Long lost? No. Adopted? No. She was just, well, there!

Everyone in the show accepted her as Buffy’s little sister, leaving only us, the audience, to wonder what the Hellmouth was going on. But what was so joyous about the situation was the time that it took for Dawn’s sudden appearance to find an explanation. Other writers might have been tempted to answer what was happening sooner but this lot, brilliantly, continued to keep us in the dark.

It has influenced popular media culture

The popularity of Buffy led to a surge in supernatural themed TV, film, and fiction.

Some are better than others, but would

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The Buffyverse

there be a Charmed, a True Blood, a Vampire Diaries, even a Twilight or Hunger Games without Buffy? In fact...

Buffy studies

OK class, pay attention. Did you know that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the most studied TV shows of all time? Not only has it had more academic papers written about that than almost any other show, the range of study is wider than that of other programmes, too. From issues of feminism and identity to studies of social issues examined within the form of fantasy, Buffy leads the way. There’s even a regular academic journal and conference, Slayage, dedicated to it. Buffy was perhaps the first TV show of its kind to legitimise the study of popular culture.

Homework: learn all of the words to the Once More with Feeling soundtrack.

There’ll be a test on Monday...

nearly left out Buffyisms – my bad!

Joss Whedon went one better than capturing the language of the era in Buffy – he created it. And the way was simple.

Realising that using contemporary slang quickly dates a show, Whedon and his fellow writers simply followed the rules of slang and created their own. So, even twenty years on, the Buffyisms we knew and loved from the start still feel fresh. Impressed much?

THE STAnd oUT EPISodES #3 once More with Feeling

The musical episode that did more than show off some fine song and dance routines. Buffy wasn’t the first show to present itself in musical form, amongst others, Moonlighting had famously

rejoiced in a musical episode. But in Once More with Feeling, all of the songs served a purpose other than to entertain (with the possible exception of the mustard song), each one revealing what’s really been going on with the characters in this, the sixth season, where secrets and lies had started to pull the Scoobies apart.

It’s also the medium through which Buffy reveals that no, her friends hadn’t resurrected her from Hell, but dragged her out of Heaven. No wonder she’s been pissed off with them... This is a perfect example of form and function serving the narrative, and it’s a work of genius.

Angel

As a character, Angel is a brilliant creation.

A vampire who was once infamous for his cruelty and viscous nature has his soul restored by an angry gypsy clan, meaning that he is constantly tormented by his former evil deeds. Only an act of pure happiness will rid him of his torment.

That moment of happiness comes when he and Buffy finally make love, turning him back into a monster. Their romance is one of TV’s great ones – if their dance to The Sunday’s cover of the Rolling Stones song Wild Horses during The Prom doesn’t melt your heart, you’re probably a vampire yourself. As a spinoff series, Angel often achieved higher ratings than Buffy, and this expansion of the Buffyverse turned into a great show in its own right.

Feminism in the guise of a blonde cheerleader

Of course, one of the biggest themes was the show’s reflection of feminism, Buffy’s struggle to balance her duties as the Slayer with her education and family responsibility echoing the situation of many women. Buffy differed from other

The fictional universe created

by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and expanded by Angel is one of the most comprehensive in TV fiction, both as a result of the shows themselves and through the continued devotion of fans.

In the Buffyverse, magic, demons, vampires, werewolves, slayers, and watchers all exist, as does resurrection, alternative dimensions and the gateway to Hell. Of course, within that universe, such things are rarely acknowledged as unusual, although there was a great moment in The Prom from Season Three, in which the handing out of student awards sees Buffy getting an unexpected one as ‘class protector’ having reduced the mortality rate of her year!

Outside of the TV show, the Buffyverse has been expanded in different forms. There are comics and novels, even a video game, and much of this fiction serves to keep the insatiable appetite for and love of the Scoobies satiated. Much like a vampire needs blood, Buffy fans need, well, Buffy.

Long may the Buffyverse continue to expand.

28 show. But the emergence of Dark Willow, following Tara’s death, made Willow Season Six’s big bad in a storyline in which magic became a metaphor for addiction. Only here, the addiction could have led to the end of the world. And yet, through the love of her friends, it’s good Willow who unlocks the power to save the world, bringing about one of the most satisfying finales of a TV show ever...

The end

female heroes like Wonder Woman in that she was never overtly sexualised in that role. She never had to run around in a revealing outfit to ward off her foes, and her relationships with men, whilst complex, did not define her. And it showed that feminism comes in many guises, including blonde cheerleaders.

Bad Willow – best character arc ever?

One of the things that TV can do better than film is in giving characters an arc that can last for years rather than the twohour confines of a movie. And has there ever been one more satisfying than that of Willow Rosenberg? She starts off as a shy nerd; a girl with some magical ability.

This ability grows stronger through hard work and study, through passion and need. She’s intelligent and kind. She falls in love with a werewolf, Oz, and then a witch, Tara, making them one of the first lesbian couples on primetime US TV and one of the most warmly cherished partnerships in the

And in that double episode, where the biggest threat the series had ever presented killed off beloved characters (many still haven’t recovered from Anya’s death), whilst still making us laugh (Anya and Andrew’s fight), a single idea of utter genius closed this seven-year masterpiece. Using Willow’s incredible magic powers to unlock the potential slayer in ALL girls and women all over the world, the Hellmouth is destroyed along with all of Sunnydale. But what makes the idea so great is that it reflects the very theme of the programme, the empowerment of young women having been central to the show all along. And, at the same time, in that long shot slowly coming closer to Buffy’s face as her surviving friends stand around her, Dawn’s final line of dialogue, “What are we going to do now?” unlocks a smile in Buffy we have never seen before. She is, finally, free.

It’s over.

Legacy Shows that came about because of Buffy aside, Buffy the Vampire Slayer really should have changed the world. Well, at least the world of TV. But it didn’t. As one of the best written characters in any TV show, Buffy represents the first time that

a female heroine was shown as strong BECAUSE and not IN SPITE of her doubts and vulnerabilities. She was surrounded by other strong women, and they weren’t defined by their relationships with men.

They had them, but they weren’t defined by them. Even the dynamic of the central trio - two girls and a boy - was hugely unusual but hasn’t become the norm. It’s still Harry, Ron, and Hermione. We still don’t have a female Doctor Who. Buffy should have started a cultural shift in the way programme makers presented women. But those creative types dropped Whedon’s baton. At least we still say ‘My bad’, so it’s not all terrible news...

And finally…

We cared. Oh lord, did we care. Of course, there had been plenty of other TV shows before Buffy in which we loved the characters, and there have been plenty since (Battlestar Galactica, anyone?), but did any have the depth and impact in our lives of Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Spike, Anya, Buffy and the rest? Did any show make us care so hard we cried, we laughed, we stayed up far too late to watch back-toback episodes on the box set, we grieved when we lost beloved friends (again, some of us are still not over Anya), and our hearts melted when love shone - sometimes straight, sometimes gay, sometimes human and demon - whatever! The overriding message of Buffy - love, friendship, support, cooperation and never going anywhere without a wooden stake - became life lessons for us all.

So there you have it. It may be twenty years since we first fell in love with Buffy, but the affair continues thanks to the passion of fans and the various tie ins which keep the Scoobies with us so that hopefully Buffy and pals will continue to save the world – a lot.

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By Michael Coldwell

These days, we’re bombarded with television from all around the world, and the varied styles are commonplace.

However, back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, foreign shows were often a little bit… strange, shall we say…

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W

hy do impoverished students submit themselves to medical experiments? The cash might come in handy to keep the party flowing on a Saturday night, but what if things go wrong? Do you really want total strangers messing about in your head without a safety net? Well (drumroll) think again, because if you grew up watching UK children’s TV in the 1970s and 1980s, that’s exactly the experience you had.

With no Internet and just three TV channels to ‘choose’ from, we absorbed anything thrown our way to fill up the schedules. But it was a game of two halves; with home-grown shows, our young minds were relatively protected by familiarity - we could relate to the works of Oliver Postgate or Gerry Anderson; we instinctively understood the playbook for BBC serials or ITV adventure series.

As we grew into our teens, nothing really blindsided us anymore. But when it came to the imported material that plugged the holes our own broadcasters couldn’t fill, it was a very different story. Come with us now as we as lower ourselves, Altered States-style, into the mind-tank of remembrance to sample some of the more outlandish kid’s TV shows from that analogue age.

Once upon a time, the BBC got well and truly stuck into the business of unsettling younger viewers thanks to Peggy Miller, an enterprising stalwart of the Children’s Department who oversaw the purchase and re-dubbing

of a smorgasbord of filmed European serials. This was a period, not unlike today, when budgets for original kid’s TV programming were being cut to the bone but, like an alchemist from one of her own imports, Miller turned financial necessity into television gold. Most of the shows she and her successors presented dated from the 1960s or even earlier but, re-edited and re-dubbed, they found immortality in the summer holiday schedules of the 1970s; series like French Musketeers-on-speed saga The Flashing Blade with its pulsating opening titles chant (all together now: “You’ve got to fight for what you want and all that you believe…”), French Alpine doggy classic Belle and Sebastian and White Horses, a sort of Slavic Follyfoot with a hypnotic, simpering theme song you really wanted to get out of your head, but couldn’t.

Strangely enjoyable as these serials were, the Brothers Grimm-styled East German serial The Singing Ringing Tree was genuinely spellbinding. Adapted into three parts from a 1957 feature film and shown repeatedly by the Beeb until 1980, it told the story of a spoilt Princess who demands a wealthy Prince bring her an enchanted tree if he wants her hand in marriage. Little does the Prince realise that this simple task will pitch him lederhosen-first into a quagmire of animal metamorphosis, spooky enchanted forests and an evil dwarf. David Lynch and Tim Burton were definitely taking notes; this was proper strange, particularly as

you could still hear the original German dialogue fading in and out under a strident British voiceover that told us what was apparently going on. We just had to take his word for it.

If that didn’t satisfy your appetite for Euro-bizarro, Czechoslovakian SF serial The Secret of Steel City (also adapted from a feature film, this time from 1979) certainly took some beating. Panel beating, to be precise, because it was the frequent industrial clang of metal-onmetal that stayed in the mind long after the frankly bamboozling specifics of its Cold War allegory had melted away. Based on a Jules Verne tale, the tone was so darkly oppressive for the children’s slot that some parents wondered what the BBC were playing at. Oh well, at least that nice John Craven was up next to tell us about the famine in Ethiopia.

What all these beautifully mounted imported serials had in common, aside from unnervingly memorable theme tunes and a constant supply of glassy-eyed child performers playing truant from the Village of the Damned, was a heroic disinterest in synching the re-dubbed dialogue with the on-screen mouth movements. This just made the whole enterprise even better as far as we were concerned, enfeebled as our minds were by a constant diet of penny chews and space dust.

If Peggy Miller’s serials caused a certain brain fog to descend, the BBC always seemed to have a remedy standing

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by on fast-repeat. Hanna-Barbera’s The Banana Splits was a typhoon of joyfully American wackiness we Brits could only stare upon in awed wonder. Nothing made us want to visit the USA more than The Banana Splits - how come we didn’t have this level of fun here? A breakneck combination of live-action and animated segments, it starred an animal pop quartet comprised of a beagle, a gorilla, a lion and an elephant (Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snork!). The distinctive psychedelic costumes and sets came courtesy of puppeteering dynamos Sid and Marty Krofft, who would soon be branching out to create some of the most downright surreal kids’ shows of that or any era.

Not all of the Krofft’s output reached the UK, but we certainly got their foremost creation, H.R. Pufnstuf, a show that attempted to cram the entire plot of its pilot script into the lyrics of its theme song. Featuring the UK’s Jack ‘Artful Dodger’ Wild as lead human, it was a frankly dangerous cocktail of rubber monsters, groovy music, exploding colours and terrible fashion choices. The Krofft ship had well and truly set sail. The only problem was that it was heading for the entertainment equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. Once they’d produced a further flurry of costumed fantasy animals-meet-groovy-‘70s kids’ shows like The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the Kroffts decided it would be a good idea to move their rather scary aesthetic into the field of

music and comedy variety bonanzas. So it was they made shows starring Scottish group The Bay City Rollers, the notoriously terminal Brady Bunch Variety Hour and The Donny and Marie Show. Still with the giant rubber monsters, mind. The game was up: this was glutinous cheese on an unprecedented level. Finally, the wellworn accusation that Sid and Marty had conceived their formats on really bad acid started to make perfect sense. We were not in Kansas anymore.

In the 1970s, all we wanted was some space. Whether it was to escape those cheaply constructed, rat-infested, damp sodden high-rise flats we lived in back then or simply to flee the horrific sounds of Gary Glitter or Donny Osmond coming from the tranny (fortunately, the former isn’t a problem anymore), any show with spaceships and aliens was fine by us.

Good job, too, because Anglo-German space opera Star Maidens really took the Viennese Whirl. In thirteen handsomely filmed episodes, it told the tale of Medusa, a planet ruled by beautiful, richly-attired women who kept men as slaves. When a pair of these oppressed menfolk escape in a slug-shaped spaceship, they are pursued to Earth by their comely female dominatrices (yes, we looked that word up). ITV schedulers had no idea what they had on their hands with this playfully provocative battle-ofthe-sexes allegory so they dismissed it as kiddie slot ‘filler’. Oh, how we chuckled. As well as some highly photogenic Germans,

the cast sported UK talent such as the wonderfully regal Dawn Addams, genre favourite Judy Geeson and soon-to-be Blake Gareth Thomas, with a silver streak in his perm. The undercurrent of Eurokinkiness was never far from boiling point, propelled by wink-wink performances and a mega-funky soundtrack. The music was the work of Teutonic easy listening overlord Berry Lipman, who was also responsible for scoring the 1978 porn parody of Westworld called, not unreasonably, Sex World. You won’t hear that nugget on Pointless.

By the early 1980s, fans of Gerry Anderson were getting more than a tad restless waiting for the great man’s next sermon from the mount. Luckily, those bonkers Japanese were ready to fill the void with Star Fleet, an import that ticked all the Supermarionation boxes plus an extra dose of anime, a sprinkle of Star Wars and - to really confound us - a fantastic theme song that became a chart hit for Brian May out of Queen (with Eddie Van Halen providing extra guitar licks - the original theme was performed by Japanese rockers Bow Wow). Adapted for UK audiences from an original Japanese series called X-Bomber, Star Fleet was a zingy treat amid the Saturday morning badlands of ITV’s 1982 kids schedule, which largely consisted of decrepit public information films (“Do you know where your lad’s going tonight?”– SMASH! ) and an ultra-naff Tiswas replacement called The Saturday Show, hosted by the

33

fearful duo of Tommy Boyd and Isla St Clair. Star Fleet’s most exotic attraction was Dai-X, a massive robotic behemoth that split Transformers-style (not that we’d seen Transformers yet) into three cool vehicles in which our puppet heroes would face off against super villainess Commander Makara. It was brilliant stuff, unlike anything we’d seen before unless our parents had taken us to Japan for a holiday. We’d suggest it was ripe for a remake, but the slim possibility of Michael Bay reading this magazine forbids us from doing so. Sorry, Star Fleet.

If your local ITV region decided not to screen an imported show you liked the sound of, you were stuffed. One show that received only limited UK exposure in the late ‘70s was the American series Jason of Star Command. What was this, we wondered to ourselves when we saw it listed in Look-In magazine (‘the junior TV Times’). Some people reasonably assumed it was the next stage in the evolution of flamboyant ITC crime-fighting bon vivant Jason King and looked forward to seeing Peter Wyngarde attempting to smoke a Sobranie Cocktail Kingsize while wearing a space helmet and balancing a bowl of strawberries on his oxygen tank.

But despite not quite living up to this heady promise, Jason of Star Command still turned out to be a decidedly camp beast. Starring Craig Littler as Jason, it was a mixture of Flash Gordon high adventure, Lost in Space silliness and Studio 54 fashions. The effects and design

were very decent but, at a time when Star Trek was being constantly repeated on BBC 1, the most distracting element was a regular turn from James ‘Scotty’ Doohan, who probably thought his Enterprise days were over at that point. Nowadays, it’s the appearance of Sid Haig that may draw the attention. Anyone wanting a double-fix of this stuff could find it in Space Academy, the series Jason of Star Command was spun off from. But you’d have needed to travel from one end of the UK to the other to see it and that level of nerdish behaviour would’ve have had you locked up in the 1980s.

The cartoonish quality to Jason probably had a lot to do with it being produced by Filmation, best known for their animated versions of Tarzan – Lord of the Jungle (“This is my domain, and I project those who come here!”), Flash Gordon, and Star Trek. Filmation’s distinctive logo always guaranteed a peculiarly addictive twenty-two minutes of low frame-rate pleasure. The company’s most unhinged gifts to the children of planet Earth were the triple 1980s whammy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra, and BraveStarr, super-charged shenanigans that need no introduction around these parts. Riding in on a cosmic wave of mythmaking bravado, these shows’ feats were legion, not least a magical ability to recycle the same sequences over and over again in order to limit the actual amount of animation required. We weren’t fooled

and we weren’t bothered; with Tommy Boyd and Isla St Clair still on the loose and Terrahawks, Gerry Anderson’s 1983 comeback series, turning out to be an experience akin to bereavement, Filmation administered soothing escapist balm to the seeping wound of UK kid’s TV. The future was unclear, but we somehow knew it would be heroic.

Time to re-emerge from the retro mind-tank, towel ourselves down and collect a brown envelope each from the nice lady in the white lab coat over by the exit. We trust you haven’t experienced any unplanned cerebral events. As the late great Bill Hicks once said: “Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye”. Definitely an observation for the ages, but Bill obviously never saw Star Maidens. That paint was flourescent orange.

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H

atched from the mind of Masamune Shirow in 1989, Ghost in the Shell surprised the world with its beautiful design and thematic complexity. It presented to us a dystopian future where both the web and cybernetics have become one, encompassing all to the point where humanity had migrated into machines; as the streets shimmered and shone, the population was locked in their own virtual world. It offered a sombre, detached approach to the concept of transhumanism, what we might gain from it, and what could be taken away from us as a result. The way in which a body that we can inhabit can be so easily repaired, upgraded, or replaced has clear echoes of how human-related problems such as sickness, diseases, and even death could be abolished altogether forever. However, as presented within the complexity of Ghost in the Shell, it comes at the cost of becoming disconnected from everyone else, showing how even a transhuman future is not at all perfect.

Those were the central themes behind the iconic manga, and it was brilliantly translated into the legendary 1995 anime, which is widely considered as one the greatest of all time and served as a major influence for sci-fi films to come, such as the Wachowskis’ movies, in particular, The Matrix. Along the way, it spawned a 2004 sequel, Innocence, a highly-popular TV series in Stand Alone Complex, and a

reimagined universe series known as Arise.

For the past ten years, there have been talks about a live-action version being in development. This kept being pushed back, but now, we finally get a live-action movie helmed by filmmaker Rupert Sanders, of Snow White and the Huntsman fame.

The plot involves The Major (Scarlett Johansson), who is a unique humancyborg hybrid, the field commander of the elite counter-cyberterrorist task force Section 9, and is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists who roam the streets.

However, The Major is forced into conflict with Kuze (Michael Pitt), a criminal mastermind who apparently has a long past with her, and is intent on wiping out advancements in cyber technology.

If you find the plot to be different from the original anime movie, despite featuring some iconic moments, from the opening shelling sequence to The Major’s ‘naked’ swan dive from a tall tower, that’s because the film is actually far from being a straight remake. Rupert Sanders has explained that the movie will be something of a mash-up of some of the most iconic stories told within the Ghost in the Shell franchise. Sanders reasoned saying that the first film “… is a hard story to tell cinematically. The original presentation I made to the studio included elements from the first film, but also from Innocence and Stand Alone Complex. I made a graphic novel

and wrote a story that went beside the images, and went back to the studio and said, ‘this is what I think it should be.’”

That is none more evident than in the representation and characterisation of the main villain, Kuze, who in this movie is an amalgamation of three characters from the franchise. The first is Hideo Kuze, an anti-hero sharing a past with The Major, who was a principal foe for Section 9 in Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG. The second is the Laughing Man, the primary antagonist of Stand Alone Complex’s first season, who was a corporate terrorist hacker who could conceal his presence by deleting himself from video feeds and cybernetic eyes, alter his appearance to keep his identity a secret, and hijack cybernetic brains altogether - and all in real-time.

The third and last is the Puppet Master, the reluctant antagonist of the original film/manga, an advanced AI that went rogue so it could seek asylum after seeing itself as being no different to any living being. Producer Avi Arad (Spider-Man) explained: “The big thing we are doing here is that we’re not necessarily doing an origins backstory, but we are addressing [The Major’s] sense of self and resolving how she defines herself in terms of memories.

That’s one of the main thrusts in the story. Inspired by that episode of ‘Affection’ in 2nd GIG. It’s bits and pieces of those mixed together.”

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As far as The Major herself is concerned within the story, Scarlett Johansson herself explained that the character would be going through something of an ‘existential crisis’ throughout the film.

She goes on to say that she’s “asking herself the questions of ‘Who was I? Who am I now? And what will become of me?’

And to stay in that state for this length of time in production has been uniquely challenging. But it’s really rewarding. I like this job; I like doing it. It’s good to be challenged like that.” When talking about the difficulties of adapting the source material from page to screen and trying to appeal to the target audience Johansson noted, “One thing that will be very different probably is we’re not making the Frank Miller world where those graphic novels come to life. We have kind of the iconic iconography of the manga and stuff, but I think people will be surprised at the gritty kind of realness of this. For a person that doesn’t have a heart, it has a lot of heart.”

With this adaptation having been made in Hollywood and with Johansson in the leading role, the film has notoriously faced enormous controversy, with accusations of whitewashing being churned out left and right. Despite this, everyone in the production is unaffected and supportive of its casting, especially Sanders, who said, “I think whenever you cast anyone, someone’s going to be critical about it. I stand by my decision:

she’s the best actress of her generation, and I was flattered and honoured that she agreed to be in this film. She comes from such edgy films, from Lost in Translation to Under the Skin: she’s got an incredible body of work and the attitude and toughness of her, to me, really is The Major. A lot of people around the original anime have been vehemently in support of her. I cast very much from the gut, and I was very lucky to get an amazing international cast of people I wanted to work with.”

Despite the controversy, it’s worth keeping in mind that outside of both Johansson and Pitt, the film boasts an impressive international cast that includes Takeshi Kitano and Yutaka Izumihara, who are both Japanese, Pilou Asbæk, who’s Danish, Juliette Binoche is French, Chin Han is from Singapore, Lasarus Ratuere is Australian, and Tawanda Manyimo is of Zimbabwean descent. Even Johansson herself is half-Danish, and it’s worth noting that The Major deliberately chooses to look like someone of European ancestry, as is made explicit on several occasions in the franchise.

Mamoru Oshii, the director of the 1995 original, has showed his support of the new film, and of Johansson as The Major, yet the author of the original manga, Masamune Shirow, has made no comment as of yet. This could potentially be a warning sign for the film,

yet Shirow is known to be something of a recluse who rarely talks to the media.

Ghost in the Shell is shaping up to be something of a complicated story that’s happening in the world of Section 9 and The Major, as well as being something of an origin story for The Major at the same time. This is a story about her awakening, yet it’s also a film that questions the logics of what it means to be human, of how far we can go before losing our humanity, and how so easily we can become detached from who we are within a technologically advanced future. It explores a society that has been overwhelmed by technology, yet has a population apart than ever. Hopefully, like the original manga, this film will be about the nature of one’s true identity in a world where the physical form has become more and more adaptable and upgradable as time has gone on, and to an extent, become more and more obsolete. Now is the perfect time for a great Ghost in the Shell movie, and hopefully, Rupert Sanders and Scarlett Johansson are the ones who will bring that multifaceted, weird, and fascinating world to the big screen and do it justice.

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

ALL THE NEWS FROM THE WORLDS OF DOCTOR WHO WITH KIERON MOORE

New S10 Tie-in Novels

Amazon listings have appeared for three novels set to be released on the April 20th, presumably as tie-ins to Series Ten. These are Plague City by Jonathan Morris, Diamond Dogs by Mike Tucker, and The Shining Man by Cavan Scott. All three authors have considerable experience writing for the Doctor Who franchise, and we’re glad to see BBC Books return to the ‘three books at a time’ range of New Series Adventures that has accompanied TV Doctor Who since 2005.

Sir John Hurt, 1940 - 2017

Capaldi to Leave DOCTOR WHO

Peter Capaldi has announced that he is to step down from the role of the Doctor at the end of this year, making way for a new lead to take over in 2018.

By the end of his run, Capaldi will have starred in three series, with his regeneration episode airing four years to the day after his introduction at the end of The Time of the Doctor; this is a run similar in length to those of his immediate predecessors Smith and David Tennant.

Capaldi will be fondly remembered by Who fans as an actor who not only added gravitas and class to the role of the Doctor, but acted as an excellent ambassador to the show; having been a childhood fan himself, he has always been willing and enthusiastic to embrace the Doctor Who community.

Nevertheless, this is a good time for him to leave, as the 2018 series will also see Chris Chibnall replace Steven Moffat as showrunner; introducing a new Doctor allows Chibnall to have a completely clean slate and to tell the version of Doctor Who he wants to tell. The search is now on for Capaldi’s replacement, and it’s rumoured that the BBC are looking for a younger Doctor to replicate the success of Tennant and Smith.

We wish Capaldi all the best for whatever steps he takes next in his career, and look forward to his final Who episodes – the Twelfth Doctor will next be seen in Series 10, which begins on Saturday, April 15th, before making his final bow this Christmas.

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Series 10 Update: Ice Warriors, Missy, and Memory Police It’s now only a few months before the next series of Doctor Who begins, and the production team are progressing fast with shooting the twelve new episodes.

Episodes Six and Seven, by Steven Moffat and Peter Harness, were completed in January, a shoot that included overseas filming in Tenerife and the return of Michelle Gomez as Missy.

The crew have now moved on to episodes written by Who regulars Toby Whithouse and Mark Gatiss, and directed by Wayne Yip, who also helmed some of Class.

Gatiss’ episode has been confirmed to bring back some old villains – the Ice Warriors, last seen in 2013’s Cold War and before that in four classic series stories. Gatiss described his story as ‘a Jules Verne/Edgar Rice Burroughs story of derringdo’ featuring ‘a new kind of Ice Warrior’. Meanwhile, set photos from a different episode, most likely Whithouse’s, show soldiers decked out in red and driving a vehicle marked ‘Memory Police’, implying it’s set in a 1984-esque dystopian Earth (or perhaps America a few months from now).

Sir John Hurt, known to fans of TV and audio Doctor Who as the War Doctor, has died at the age of 77.

Over a career that lasted over half a century, Hurt became one of the most respected actors of his generation. One of his early breakthrough roles, for which he won the first of four BAFTAs, was as Quentin Crisp in ITV’s The Naked Civil Servant, produced by Doctor Who creator Verity Lambert. Hurt’s later roles included the films 1984, The Elephant Man, Midnight Express and, of course, Alien.

But it was in 2013 that, unable to convince Christopher Eccleston to return for the Fiftieth Anniversary special, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat had the idea of creating a ‘lost’ incarnation of the Doctor, who had fought in the Time War. It was a contentious idea that changed Who continuity dramatically, and so the casting had to be perfect for the War Doctor to earn his place in the line-up.

Thankfully, Hurt accepted the role immediately. He gave a performance no other actor could have matched, full of darkness and world-weariness but also with a lightness of touch that hinted the Time Lord we know and love was still there. His character may have rejected the name Doctor, but John Hurt was part of Doctor Who history.

Hurt returned to the role of the War Doctor for a series of audio box sets from Big Finish, the fourth and final of which will be released this month. He is survived by his wife of twelve years and his two sons – our condolences go to them.

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RHYS AND HIS MAM ARE IN FOR A N I G H T T H E Y ’ L L N E V E R F O R G E T. . .

OUT MARCH ON CD AND DOWNLOAD

W W W. B I G F I N I S H . C O M

@BIGFINISH

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BBC and TORCHWOOD (word marks, logos and devices) are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo © BBC 1996. TORCHWOOD logo © 2006.

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WATCHING DOCTOR WHO

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T

he least surprising, but for many people the saddest, news in the run-in to Series Ten of Doctor Who has finally emerged; the forthcoming run of episodes, beginning as we all knew it would on April 15th, will be Peter Capaldi’s last as the Doctor – though he’ll be regenerating in the 2017 Christmas Special, Steven Moffat’s last as showrunner on the programme.

It’s not like we hadn’t guessed as much, but it’s still a shame to hear it.

Capaldi was always likely to step aside – and Pearl Mackie too perhaps, who may well be under contract for just a single series – to make way for Chris Chibnall to begin his run with a brand new team in the TARDIS. Production on Chibnall’s episodes will likely begin in around July of this year, and it’s unlikely he would have wanted to begin his showrunnership by inheriting an acting team already in situ, regardless of any offers that may have been made to the incumbent Doctor. It simply makes sense that the BBC wouldn’t want to add ‘and here’s some more of who you’ve already

been watching’, when the time comes to try and appeal to viewers to hop on board with a new beginning. The precedent set when Steven Moffat took over from Russell T Davies, and began with a completely clean slate, is more than likely how any future showrunner would want to begin work on the series too. Chibnall will want to create a relationship between his Doctor and companion, rather than inheriting one – and judging by Moffat’s recent comments about the BBC’s five-year plan for the programme, given as it turns out with Chibnall’s appointment in mind, it looks like Chibnall’s engagement was made with a view to him taking over for a period of, initially at least, three years. Three years; that’s the normal lifespan of a Doctor, right?

But what a three years Peter Capaldi has had; there have been ups and downs of course (no era of the programme is free of those), but with the likes of Listen, Heaven Sent, and Hell Bent, Capaldi’s Doctor has been on a journey the likes of which none of his predecessors ever undertook. He’s

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE WHONIVERSE

BY JR SOUTHALL

managed to play a very old-school Doctor through some very modern storytelling, with a great deal of success.

Speculation is already rife about who Capaldi’s replacement might be – in fact, it’s been pretty rife since just about the day his appointment was announced – and if his successor hasn’t been named by the time Series Ten rolls around, such conjecture might threaten to overshadow Capaldi’s final series. There’s a good chance, then, that the incoming actor will be named within weeks of you reading this – if not before.

The big question is, now that Capaldi is going, whether his replacement will be a woman?

Fans might suggest, speaking on behalf of the regular viewers who make up the lion’s share of the programme’s audience, that for the Doctor to suddenly after all this time become a woman would be incredibly jarring. But the mainstream audience is used to programmes - Doctor Foster, Unforgiven, No Offence, Cuffs, the list goes on - in which the cast is headed

by a woman; in 2017, it is not remotely unusual - and certainly not undesirable.

For most viewers, the change might be a talking point for a couple of episodes, and thereafter they would simply regard it as The Way Things Are. Fans themselves might have a problem with the in-continuity aspect of a thirteenth or fourteenth Doctor being of a different gender, but fortunately, Steven Moffat has, over the course of his time in charge, surreptitiously solved that problem before it’s even arisen; the General in Hell Bent is a precedent for a single gender change after many incarnations of a particular gender, and the Master/Missy is an example of how a new regeneration cycle might prompt such gender-swapping to commence. There’s no particular reason for the next Doctor not to be a woman.

And to suggest that a female Doctor could only be written by a woman writer is to ignore centuries of men writing women and women writing men. Chibnall’s Broadchurch is a prime example of a male writer giving the women in his production the more influential and more emotionally responsible roles.

There isn’t even any particular reason why the gender change need be addressed; the Doctor has always been largely gender-neutral in terms of character and small-p politics, and given the companion would change at the same time as the regeneration, there wouldn’t be anyone onscreen to highlight the fact that a change has happened; as far as ‘Johnny Newboy’ is concerned, the Doctor is a woman, end of story. Even the dialogue given to the Doctor would remain relatively unaltered.

But is there a reason why the next Doctor should be a woman? After all, the Doctor is currently one of the major figures in television promoting the idea to watching boys that force or violence aren’t necessarily the only solutions to a problem - and the female companion is an excellent example for watching girls that being brave and funny and independent are traits worth attaining. Why mess with that?

Simply put, switching the genders of the Doctor and companion wouldn’t mess

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with that. The Doctor would still be a brave, funny and independent role model for girls, and a male companion would still be able to demonstrate that force and violence aren’t generally attractive things; in fact, better yet, that is perhaps something he could learn from the Doctor as we watch.

It’s the ‘independent’ part that is the key: currently, the female companion expresses the idea that you can engage with the bigger world without losing your sense of self, but crucially, this happens at the male protagonist’s behest. There’s a hierarchy in the TARDIS; the Doctor is the pilot and the companion is his guest. The only way to change this, to change a situation whereby the female character always needs to defer to the male one, is to switch the two characters’ genders.

Who might play a new, female Doctor then? Olivia Colman is the obvious suggestion commentators have been making, but Chris Chibnall won’t necessarily want to do two programmes in a row with the same actor in the leading role – even RTD didn’t quite do that, despite having worked with both of his Doctors before. But

ARTWORK BY SIMON BRETT

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it needs to be someone with a commanding presence above all else; somebody who will instantly make the viewer forget that anybody else was here before. Yet somebody who doesn’t lose the humour and the idiosyncrasy that the part requires.

I’d like to nominate Tricia Helfer. She might currently be rather busy in Lucifer, and this might simply be wishful thinking, but in Battlestar Galactica, her relationship with Gaius Baltar (James Callis) demonstrated a playfulness and gift for dark comedy, while at the same time requiring an assertive screen persona and a complete dominance over the characters and material. In other words, she has the bearing required to make an audience instantly forget any comparisons with previous Doctors they might have considered making. She might not be as ‘light’ or as eccentric as some of her predecessors would have been, although I’ve no doubt she could play that too, but that would be a small but necessary sacrifice that would maybe need to be made in order to consolidate her presence.

One of the important things in introducing a change of gender in the Doctor is to misdirect the comparison-making that would be taking place. Rather than introducing the actor as ‘the next Doctor’, she should be presented simply as ‘the Doctor’; and Helfer has the poise necessary to make that happen. We are also now ten years on from Battlestar Galactica, and so her sexuality would be less at the forefront and therefore less of an issue.

It won’t be her, of course, though if it was, it might be interesting to see if the majority of complaints were about the actor’s gender – or about her accent. But there’s a very good chance we’ll be having a similar conversation about whomsoever is chosen to replace Peter Capaldi… whether it’s a woman this time around, or at some indeterminate point in the future.

It’ll need a little bit of bravery on both the production team and the BBC’s behalf, but Doctor Who should never be a series that’s about making conservative choices.

Bring her on!

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Power (Rangers) of the daleks ou might wonder what could possibly link the Power Rangers - ordinary American teenagers handed superpowers - with the Daleks - mutants bent on universal conquest nestled inside their travel machines. The answer is simple - Victory of the Daleks. As well as giving us a glimpse of a lovely khaki soldier boy model, this episode offers a splash of colour with the New Dalek Paradigm! Red, yellow, and blue all have their part to play for both, denoting Jason, Trini, and Billy within the Rangers as well as the Drone, Eternal, and Strategist in terms of colour co-ordination for the Daleks. It also makes a nice homage to the original dictatorial residents of Skaro as first seen in the two non-canonical Peter Cushing Dr Who films of the sixties.

Early into Matt Smith’s maiden series as the Eleventh Doctor, these newest versions emerge as the result of the activation of a Progenitor device aboard a ship hovering on the dark side of the moon, having laid plans in wartime London. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (he of the new plastic £5 note) is initially taken in by the ruse that the Union Jacksporting and allegedly patriotic-to-thecore Ironsides are the creation of science whizz Professor Edwin Bracewell.

In offering his old friend a demonstration of their firepower as part of his bid to beat off the Nazis, he sets off something, though...

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Y

CHURCHILL: Ready, Bracewell?

BRACEWELL: Aye aye, sir. On my order, fire!

AMY: What was that?

DOCTOR: That wasn’t human. That was never human technology. That sounded like… Show me. Show me. Show me what that was!

BRACEWELL: Advance.

CHURCHILL: Our new secret weapon. Ha!

What do you think? Quite something, eh?

DOCTOR: What are you doing here?

DALEK: I am your soldier.

DOCTOR: What?

Having expected to see their final end as far back as his second incarnation (see The Evil of the Daleks), the man he’s become, replete with similar rather fetching bow tie, is understandably

horrified. He’d heard an earlier model refer to itself as a servant of humanity not long after his first regeneration, and we all know how that turned out. A similar plot now thickens, and there’s even time for tea made by one of the apparently nice and helpful creations of the good Professor.

Milk, two sugars, please!

It’s not long, though, until it all goes a bit Where Eagles Dare, mind. Having identified the Doctor as their enemy though how they know he’s still the same man is anyone’s guess, they threaten to render London a sitting duck for the Luftwaffe’s finest to get in a little target practice. Although, arguably their real genius lies in exposing Bracewell as their own creation! Not to mention the Oblivion Continuum - meaning dirty great big bomb - nestling in his cybernetic tummy.

The Doctor had earlier stuffed a Jammy Dodger in his own considerablymore-flesh-and-blood belly as part of a bluff, allowing the Daleks to believe it’s a self-destruct mechanism linked to the TARDIS before their scans ruin the plan.

And he’s not even offered tea to go with it, for shame!

Perhaps to make up for that, he’s offered the best seat in the house for a show of the New Paradigm’s strength and indeed odd resemblance to fattened biscuit tins. Go go Power Daleks...

DALEK: Stalemate, Doctor. Leave us and return to Earth.

DOCTOR: Oh, that’s it. That’s your great victory? You leave?

DALEK: Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again.

DOCTOR: No, no, no. I won’t let you get away this time. I won’t.

DALEK: We have succeeded. DNA reconstruction is complete. Observe, Doctor, a new Dalek paradigm. The Progenitor has fulfilled our new destiny.

Behold, the restoration of the Daleks. The resurrection of the master race.

Master race, of course, being how Hitler

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and his Aryan kin saw themselves, as part of Adolf’s obsession with Norse mythology; blonde hair and blue eyes were seen as desirable in his vision for a new Germany while those who didn’t fit the brief went to the concentration camps, never to return. Indeed, many still see parallels between them and the wheelie bin lookalikes created by Terry Nation as a response to his experiences of the era.

The uniform sported by Nyder, second-in-command to Davros at the outset of Genesis of the Daleks, even features a genuine Iron Cross, a great honour bestowed upon deserving soldiers of the Third Reich. His sharp heel-clacking salute also appears to be a borrowing from their ranks, with Davros himself a distillation of the Führer given his fanatical devotion to the genocide of the Kaled race in favour of his own emotionless creations.

Of course, in a neat reversal of what happens in Bracewell’s story, he’s eventually killed by his own ideological children. The android, though, retains his

humanity and uses the knowledge they give him to aid in what everyone but the Doctor sees as a successful mission against them.

Cue the obligatory outing of a Spitfire, here sent into space against the Daleks - its plucky pilot given voice by Victory writer Mark Gatiss himself, albeit uncredited. He will return, though, when A Good Man Goes To War...

“Loud and clear, Danny Boy. Big dish, side of the ship. Blow it up. Over.”

And so the New Paradigm vanish, never to be seen again bar a brief cameo in Asylum of the Daleks before being shoved aside in favour of a return to the Russell T Daviesera design. To quote Edwin Starr: war, what is it good for?

Absolutely nothing, being the right answer. Is Ian McNeice’s Churchill much better, though, willing to use those Ironsides to win the day at almost any cost? To say nothing of attempting to pinch the TARDIS upon his reacquaintance with the Doctor, even though they’re presented as old friends.

But then the Doctor has indeed seen variants on the venerable craft used for such ends - take a look at the War Chief’s crude SIDRATS as first seen in the Second Doctor’s swan song, The War Games.

Upon his final end, no more war pigs had the power (to paraphrase Black Sabbath) and the hand of God had indeed struck the hour as he prepared for court martial by the Time Lords.

Remember, war is hell...

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

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DOCTOR: Ah, every time.

AMY: What’s he after?

DOCTOR: TARDIS key, of course.

CHURCHILL: Think of what I could achieve with your remarkable machine, Doctor.

The lives that could be saved.

DOCTOR: Ah, doesn’t work like that.

CHURCHILL: Must I take it by force?

DOCTOR: I’d like to see you try.

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REVIEWS

DOCTOR WHO: THE PIRATE PLANET

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HARDBACK / AUTHOR: DOUGLAS ADAMS / JAMES GOSS / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

DOCTOR WHO: THE EIGHTH DOCTOR VOLUME 1: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH HARDBACK / WRITER: GEORGE MANN / ART: EMMA VIECELLI / PUBLISHER: TITAN COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE LATEST DOCTOR WHO RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

Following the success of his adaptation of the Douglas Adams Doctor Who story The City of Death, James Goss is back with an adaptation of another Douglas Adams story, The Pirate Planet.

At first glance, now seems an odd time to bring out an version of the second story of The Key to Time season, but that ignores just how good a job James did bring City of Death to a new generation of readers. Can he repeat that success with The Pirate Planet? You bet!

From before the first page, the astute reader will spot this is no simple adaptation of a TV script. As James warns on one of the title pages, this is based on the first draft scripts by Douglas Adams, so probably isn’t what you are expecting. Even warned, the reader is quickly swept away on a breathtaking swirl of imagination and rich prose, suitably informed by knowledge of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. Descriptions are vivid and bold, even the shortest scene gives a look behind the eyes of the main characters, and the book is a joy from

start to finish.

Not only is there a quest, but this is early days for the fourth Doctor and Romana; the story dwells on the growing relationship of these two Time Lords in amongst the quest for the second segment of the Key to Time. The various inhabitants of this story read like Dickensian characters, from the Captain himself to the superbly realised Mr Fibuli. And of course, nobody can forget the robot parrot!

At just over 400 pages, the story still manages to whizz by, and the book also includes details of how James did the adaptation, snips of early drafts and some insight into the creative brain that was Douglas Adams.

There are many, many Doctor Who products in a busy market, but we have no hesitation in recommending this be the first one any fan purchases in 2017. Until then there’s just time for a cup of tea!

Since Titan comics gained the comic book rights to Doctor Who it has published multiple series, each one following the adventures of a different incarnation of the titular character.

Doctor Who; The Eighth Doctor Volume 1: A Matter of Life and Death collects all five issues of Titan’s series dedicated to the Eighth Doctor. One thing that should be noted is that despite the inclusion of ‘Volume 1’ in the title, this is a miniseries and these five issues are all that have been published so far.

These stories are largely unconnected (save for one or two details that serve as the reveal towards the end) which gives this volume the feel of an anthology. Rather than a single story, the readers get five separate stories which serve to establish the dynamic between the Doctor and the new companion that has been created for the comic book. 22 pages isn’t a lot to tell a story with but each of the issues in the volume manages it by cutting straight to the heart of the story and avoiding any lengthy digressions.

The Doctor’s companion in this collection, Josie, is what you would expect from a companion in Doctor Who. She is thoughtful of the world around her, asks questions of it, and speaks out

when she sees something she thinks is wrong. She doesn’t stand out as much as other companions, but that feels more like it is due to the fact that by this point Doctor Who has been running for over 50 years (so there have been countless companions to measure her against) than because of any flaw with the way she has been written. As with a lot of companions lately there is more to her than first meets the eye but examining that aspect of her in any detail would spoil one of the few twists this collection has.

Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Volume 1: A Matter of Life and Death is a decent example of what Doctor Who can be in comic book form. All of the stories feel like they could quite easily have been written for the show (albeit in a less condensed form), the Doctor shares good chemistry with his companion, and the threats the two meet in this collection all avoid the feeling they are treading over well-worn ground (thanks to a decision not to use more commonly appearing villains from the show). This collection is worth reading for fans looking to enjoy some good Doctor Who stories.

TONY JONES

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GARETH EVANS

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RUNNING THROUGH CORRIDORS 2: ROB AND TOBY’S MARATHON WATCH OF DOCTOR WHO (THE 70S) PAPERBACK / AUTHOR: TOBY HADOKE, ROBERT SHEARMAN / PUBLISHER: MAD NORWEGIAN PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Back in 2009, two classic Doctor Who fans, the writer Robert Shearman and the comedian Toby Hadoke, set themselves an intimidating but admirable task: spend that year, when modern Who was only around in the form of a few specials, keeping a diary and commenting on every episode of the series. 2010 saw the release of the first volume of Running Through Corridors that went from the opening episode of An Unearthly Child up to The War Games, covering the 1960s. Now, some years later, comes this belated second volume that covers all of Pertwee’s run and the first six

PAPERBACK / WRITER: CAVAN SCOTT / ARTISTS: ADRIANA MELO, CHRIS BOLSON / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW It’s always been a big regret for fans that Christopher Eccleston made just twelve episodes as the ninth

incarnation of the Doctor.

Thanks to the folks at Titan Comics, however, the Ninth Doctor now lives once again in his own ongoing series of timeline-hopping comic strip adventures.

This second volume picks up from where the first volume left off, with the Doctor, Rose and Jack travelling the universe – with the vague mission of locating any artefacts left over from the Time War and to find Jack’s missing memories (as mentioned in his début TV story The Empty Child). As that synopsis suggests, these comics are not afraid to dabble with continuity – in fact, they are positively doused in it. In the two story arcs that comprise this collection, one sees the return of an old enemy - the Slitheen - and the other the return of an old friend (or several).

If this all sounds like the comics disappear up their own casual nexus then, don’t worry, writer Cavan Scott keeps things breezy and fun, with his fast-paced plotting and Russel T Davies-esque dialogue. This trio of TARDIS travellers was always a delight on the show, and their camaraderie is well replicated here.

Another nice touch is that the phrase ‘Bad Wolf’ is hidden throughout, just like it was in Eccleston’s tenure on TV. Both story arcs (as well as the oneoff special that kicks off the collection) are well worth your time. Doctormania,

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JAMES EVANS

9 in particular, has a great set-up; the TARDIS lands on a planet where the Doctor – or rather his mysterious double – is the star of his own TV show called ‘Doctor Who?’ As could be expected, there is a hefty dollop of fourth-wall breaking going on here with an affectionate swipe at the Doctor Who fandom to boot.

The Transformed takes the TARDIS to San Francisco where the population are developing superpowers, in a story that makes use of the unlimited SFX budget of a comic. Meanwhile, a postTennant-era Mickey Smith needs the Doctor’s help. Pairing the Ninth Doctor up with the older action-hero Mickey is a terrific idea, though Scott does have to jump through hoops to keep the timeline intact. Plus, it ends on an exciting tease for the third volume, with an unexpected appearance from some beloved classic series characters…

Brought to life with some great artwork from Adriana Melo and Cris Bolson, Titan’s The Ninth Doctor Volume 2 is a must-read for any fan of one of the shortest-lived Doctors ever. Simply put, it’s – dare we say it – fantastic.

CHRISTIAN BONE

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DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR VOL. 2

series of Baker’s Doctor.

Let’s start with the caveat that this book is for fans of Doctor Who. Maybe not as committed as Shearman and Hadoke, but still fans nevertheless and not those with a casual interest. This isn’t an episode guide in the traditional sense of relating plots and programme details.

So, if you are a fan what do you get? They start out the book by stating their mission is to look for the best in each story, even if it’s one they don’t remember fondly. This is no sarcastic review of Who’s history, but rather two friends with grown-up lives and

responsibilities attempting to reconnect with what made them fans in the first place.

Equally, it’s no rose-tinted retconning of times where Who was in difficulties. But a good example of how this approach works is when dealing with the uneven season eight. At the same time as acknowledging that year’s difficulties it also concludes with their take on The Daemons, and even though they agree the ending doesn’t quite land their joyous celebration of the serial as a whole makes you want to go and revisit the DVDs straight after (this happens often).

We get considered takes on Pertwee’s innovative opener in Spearhead from Space and Baker’s crashing début in Robot and commentary on a lot of truly classic Doctor Who, across two sometimes uneven but ultimately remarkable periods for the series.

Even for every slightly (or occasionally very) dodgy story they find the best in it (say Delgado’s Master in The Claws of Axos for one). When Baker gets bored and indulgent later into his run, they acknowledge it but still remain positive, usually always finding something good (be it a performance, a sequence or an idea) to remark upon.

You could imagine it’s just two lifelong fans trading thoughts via email, how much fun could that be for a wider audience? Well with these two a lot, as it happens, reminding you of why you love Doctor Who too. Warm, witty, funny and unapologetically enthusiastic, for fans it’s highly recommended.

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SUBSPACE RELAY

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

Frain is probably best known to genre fans for Gotham, where he was the main villain in Season Two (spoiler alert: he turned out to be Azrael) and Tron: Legacy. He also played Thomas Cromwell in medieval bonkfest The Tudors, and has cropped up on the likes of 24, True Blood, Grimm, and Agent Carter.

STAR TREK BEYOND Nominated for Oscar

Sarek to appear on DISCOVERY One of classic Trek’s most enduring characters is set to appear on Discovery.

Sarek, the father of a certain half-Vulcan science officer will be portrayed by James Frain once the show eventually débuts. He’s the first recurring character to be confirmed for Discovery, which is set a decade before the adventures of Kirk and co.

The character, originally played by the late Mark Lenard, first appeared in the second season episode Journey to Babel. Lenard then reprised the character in the animated series’ best episode, Yesteryear, as well as three of the movies and two episodes of the Next Generation. A younger version of the character, played by a different actor appeared in Star Trek V, but the less said about that the better. The character was last seen in 2009’s Star Trek, portrayed

by Ben Cross.

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DISCOVERY delayed again

It’s been obvious for a while now that Discovery was going to struggle to meet its May launch date. And now CBS has bowed to the inevitable and announced that the show will début at an unspecified time this year.

Originally scheduled for January, the show was bumped to a May launch at the request of creators Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller. Then following behind the scenes shake ups - not least the departure of Fuller - and delays in casting, the show finally went into production at the end of January.

A mere four months between the start of production and broadcast for a show as ambitious as Discovery was always going to be tight, and CBS now finally seem to have come to the same conclusion that many fans had already reached.

“We love the cast, the scripts and are excited about the world the producers have created,” CBS said in a statement.

“This is an ambitious project; we will be flexible on a launch date if it’s best for the show. We’ve said from the beginning it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast. There is also added flexibility presenting on CBS All Access, which isn’t beholden to seasonal premieres or launch windows.”

In the meantime, we can keep ourselves (semi) satisfied by endlessly re-watching the start of production teaser trailer, which gives brief glimpses of some of the sets, uniforms, and aliens we can expect to see at some point this year. Probably.

Duo Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo have been nominated for an Academy Award in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for their work on Star Trek Beyond.

Harlow, who was responsible for special makeup effects and Alonzo, the makeup effects artist will compete for the award against Suicide Squad (yes, Suicide Squad is Oscar-nominated!) and Swedish comedy, A Man Called Ove (which we’re sure is very good if you like that sort of thing).

Harlow was previously the co-recipient of Trek’s only Oscar to date (despite 16 nominations for seven different movies) for his work on J. J. Abrams’ 2009 movie.

Some other, non-Trek movies are also nominated for lesser awards at the ceremony, which takes place Sunday February 26th.

Cruising with TREK

Much as we love Star Trek conventions, we’ve always thought they’d be better if they moved around a bit, the floor constantly swayed, and a significant percentage of the attendees constantly looked a bit green (and not just the ones dressed as Orions).

Fortunately, we’re not the only one who think this, and in January, Star Trek: The Cruise saw a couple of thousand lucky buggers spend seven days cruising around the Bahamas. Even worse, they took along assorted Trek stars, including William Shatner, Terry Farrell, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, and Robert Picardo.

We’re not going to go into too much detail as they forgot to invite us along, but highlights included Picardo performing cabaret, Farrell giving poolside yoga classes (she’s a qualified instructor) and a Risa-themed beach party.

Star Trek: The Cruise returns next year, with amongst other guests, George Takei and if anyone wants to take us along we’ll be eternally grateful.

AXANAR Lawsuit Settled

Back in issue 426, we reported on the lawsuit Paramount had brought against the makers of fan film Axanar. The suit had been ongoing for several months, and was due to head to trial soon.

Fortunately, both sides have now reached an agreement and the case has been settled.

It’s the first time that a Trek fan film has got into legal trouble of this kind.

Alec Peters, creator of the film, said that both Axanar and its prequel Prelude to Axanar, “were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating to copyright law.”

The film, budgeted at more than $1 million was set to be a professional standard fan film, focusing on Starfleet captain Garth of Izar, who appeared in the Original Series episode Whom Gods Destroy.

Axanar Productions has now agreed to make substantial changes and adhere to the guidelines set out by CBS for fan films last year. These include restrictions on budget, length and use of former Trek cast and crew.

Patrick Stewart’s Next Role Is a Big Pile of Shit We don’t usually comment on the upcoming roles of various Trek alumni (we don’t have the time, space, and besides, it’s usually quite depressing), but this deserves mention. Plus, it allows us to paraphrase Spaced in the headline.

Sir Patrick Stewart will appear in the upcoming The Emoji Movie (yes, that’s really a thing) as the poo emoji.

We were going to explain the plot, but we read it and it sounds depressing. Anyway, there’s various actors voicing assorted emoji, (that’s the smiley faces on your phone to anyone of a certain age), including T. J. Miller, James Corden, Steven Wright and, yeah, respected Shakespearean actor, captain of the Enterprise and knight of the realm Patrick Stewart as a talking pile of poo. Well, we suppose it’s a step-up from a couple of the X-Men movies.

SAUCER SECTION

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From the desk of the STARBURST Trekologist B. JONES

A Vulcan Named T’pol or How Enterprise Broke the Vulcan Civilisation

SAUCER SECTION

O

nce upon a time, a writer called Gene Roddenberry wanted to write a show that reflected human nature and told oldfashioned morality tales. He decided to wrap it all up in a sci-fi background with aliens and starships and travels beyond belief.

To help see how man had changed and how man could learn, Roddenberry invented a way of looking at him through a special mirror. This mirror was the alien Vulcan character Spock. Since he wasn’t human, Spock would encounter all sorts of human idiosyncrasies and be able to shine a light on what we take for granted.

Vulcans were born in the guise of Leonard Nimoy. They were seen to have mastery of their emotions, think logically, possess green blood, be vastly stronger and be indifferent to the frailties of humans. With this mould set, layers were added with the introduction of Sarek, T’Pau, T’Pring, Stonn, and Tuvok.

Then along came Enterprise, a brand new show that harked back to the original series and featured a crew embarking on space exploration in a time before Captain Kirk and the United Federation of Planets.

Part of the new crew was T’Pol, a Vulcan science officer. Brilliant, we Trekkies thought, a character we already know who

will help us understand this new universe.

However, T’Pol was different. She didn’t quite look like a Vulcan we knew. She didn’t dress like any Vulcan we had seen and she didn’t seem to have any of the powers we had come to associate with the race.

This meant she would be a breath of fresh air, right? A new and shinier mirror.

However, this mirror seemed a little fogged.

T’Pol turned out to be the Vulcan who wasn’t quite Vulcan enough.

As the show’s female lead, it seems

that poor old T’Pol was forced to be not just a developing character but the sex appeal of the show to that all important 12-15 teenage boy market. Wait! What?

You’re saying that the character who should be the most straight-laced (almost Victorian) in dress would be the sexpot?

Oh dear - paradox!

We started getting stories featuring her experiencing emotions, her costumes got more revealing and when the ratings began to fall, even a couple of nude scenes! “What we need is more naked Vulcan backside”, someone must have decided, and we got two episodes worth in Season Three episodes Impulse and Harbinger, although most US networks cropped the shot and avoided the fully nude image. Talk about double standards!

When we didn’t see her physically naked we got to see her suffer emotionally.

In the episodes Harbinger, Azati Prime, and Damage, after exposure to Trellium-D, she was haunted by nightmares and residual instability, occasionally becoming emotional and even violent. Even after the cure was administered, she was left crippled and unable to now control her emotions fully. Do we really need whiny Vulcans?

Even the strange magic of the mind-meld was changed for T’Pol. Instead of it being a mystic way to seek truth and communicate, it became perverted and seen as a way to contract mental illness.

Jolene Blalock, a self-confessed Trekkie, really got short shrift with creating a character in T’Pol. We had never seen a full Vulcan female working side by side with humans over a period of starship duty. This could have been a golden opportunity to use Roddenberry’s humanity mirror. The character backflipped and got knotted up within the stories.T’Pol should have been up there with Spock and Data and instead she became ratings bait.

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This month, the kidnapping John Townsend examines a recent remake of an often overlooked seventies classic...

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T

he theme of abduction is an enduring one for filmmakers. Over the years, numerous movies have dealt with this basic human fear, from William Wyler’s 1965 thriller The Collector, through the Liam Neeson action series Taken to Eli Roth’s Hostel - a franchise that spawned the awful ‘horror porn’ moniker.

There are many variations on the theme but the most common involves overseas travellers falling victim to a bunch of those nasty foreigners. And Soon the Darkness is one such film.

Originally a 1970 release, and a largely unknown one at that, Robert Fuest’s third feature follows two young women on a cycle holiday in rural France. From the same production team that had worked on television series The Avengers, and writers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation (creator of the Daleks), it starred a young Michele Dotrice, prior to her most famous role as the long-suffering Betty in the classic TV comedy Some Mothers Do Have ‘Em. The film was a moderate success; a stylish director, Fuest’s handling of the chilling subject matter won him many admirers and he would go on to direct the Vincent Price vehicle The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

In later years, the film received criticism for an apparent air of pretension leading to it disappearing from many latterly conceived recommended lists, but with an interesting, albeit simple, central premise, a remake was always likely. And in 2010, Argentinian filmmaker Marcus Efron did so for his début feature.

Efron’s version retains the essence of the original but makes some interesting changes to the plot. Stephanie (Amber Heard – who also co-produces) and Ellie (Odette Annable) are enjoying a rather pleasant time cycling around Argentina, or at least the part of it with little civilisation. Having abandoned the

51 ‘dull’ organised tour they had signed up for in search of adventure and excitement, they happen across a small, rural town.

As they are catching the bus the following morning and heading home, they decide to have one last night out. Being a small town, there is just the one bar; it’s a bar populated with exactly the sort of ‘local’ clientele you would expect, and quite understandably, two young American women attract a fair amount of attention.

As is necessary for plot advancement, the pair make some fundamental horror film errors. First and foremost, they intentionally cause something of a stir.

Stephanie is the sensible one of the two – recently single and reluctant to partake in a shot-drinking contest or in any excessive partying with an early start to come the following day. Ellie, on the other hand, is not so sensible. Overly flirtatious, bold and cavalier, she invites trouble and, predictably, trouble accepts. Immediately catching the eye of the sleazy Chucho (Michel Noher) before dancing with a rather young-looking regular, she then decides her friend needs a little warming up. Following the brooding Michael (Star Trek/Dredd star Karl Urban), a man with secrets etched all over his chiselled visage, into the gents, she propositions him on Stephanie’s behalf, only to be bluntly rebuffed. Unfazed, Ellie joins Chucho’s table and before you can shout ‘Tequila, it makes me happy’ she has disappeared along with her new friend.

As clichéd as these characters may seem, they are the building blocks of a horror movie, and of an abduction thriller. If everyone acted with reserved, contemplative refrain, then nothing bad would hardly ever happen. In this case, however, Ellie just happens to have wandered outside with the horny Chucho and Stephanie quickly rumbles them

52 before lecturing her friend and stomping off back to the hotel. When Ellie does return later with Chucho in tow, a scuffle ensues as the latter struggles to understand the translation of ‘no means no’ and Michael is forced to intervene. Could there be some history here between the two men? You betcha! And Chucho hurls a few Latin insults before striding away.

The following day, the girls commit fundamental horror film error number two.

After a little sunbathing, they get into a tiff and split up. Stephanie, upon receiving some sage advice from a wizened local warning her of the dangers that face young women in Argentina, returns to find Ellie, and wouldn’t you know it – she’s disappeared again, only this time for good.

The original 1970 film was very much a slow burner, with Fuest’s direction building tension through a plot that, while slightly formulaic, was handled with subtle precision. In many ways, the 2010 remake is a very different film; through the change in locale and modernised threat, Efron has drawn on the same techniques for his version. Ellie’s disappearance isn’t a clue-laden mystery, laid bare for Stephanie to solve. It is a natural telling of a young woman’s disappearance and suspected abduction. The police are neither helpful nor obstructive, just weary in their reluctance to pursue the matter given the lack of anything to go on. Local people are similar, neither offering any assistance to the desperate Stephanie, nor intentionally hindering her.

Her pleas for help are greeted with guarded wariness as the town’s residents choose discretion over valour. Reluctantly accepting the help of the still-mysterious Michael becomes her only option, but this creates as many problems as it solves.

The depiction of the moments following Ellie’s disappearance are the most

53 poignant and terrifying of the film. Alone and isolated, Heard conveys Stephanie’s terror and feeling of absolute futility with conviction. The more she tries to seek out the truth, the further she seems to get from it, as her situation appears to grow increasingly worse by the moment. If Efron could have maintained the uncomfortable atmosphere he generates during these scenes, And Soon the Darkness would have been an exceptional entry into the genre, but sadly, he seems to lose the courage of his convictions. The final act becomes a little too contrived and frustratingly casts a shadow over much of what had gone before. Twists come thick and fast without any of them being wholly surprising, and one wonders if Urban signed up for an entirely different film altogether. Much of this points to Efron’s inexperience as a feature director and it is interesting he hasn’t released a film since.

The cinematography does make great use of the Argentine scenery, and the climactic wasteland is suitably moody.

For her part, Heard has gone from strength to strength with several high profile credits to her name, including the upcoming Justice League as Mera.

While not at her best here, she does show glimpses of her talent and some tighter direction would have been much to her benefit.

That all said, Efron has produced an entertaining abduction thriller that remains fun throughout, with some truly frightening and uncomfortable moments, and is one well worth your time. Clichéd and formulaic at times? Absolutely, but then so much of the horror genre is.

You can catch AND SOON THE DARKNESS on HORROR CHANNEL on February 26th. Sky 319 Virgin 149 Freeview 70 Freesat 138.

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PANDORICA was one of STARBURST’S favourite low budget indie horror movies of 2016. The ultra-low-budget feature did an awful lot with very little, turning an airsoft range in the South of England into post-apocalyptic nightmare fuel. So when we heard that the film’s director, Tom Patton, was shooting another scary movie, this time with a cast that included BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER star NICHOLAS BRENDON, we had to get ourselves to the set to see the film being made…

by Ed Fortune

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e arrived on the set of Redwood one very cold and muddy evening in deepest Poland. The location itself has a rather heady history.

The overgrown forest was once all private land. According to locals, the land once belonged to Polish supporters of the Nazi party, just before the Second World War. Those same owners were hunted down by the Russians at the end of the war, and the forest itself left to go wild. The land has an oppressive, almost evil, feel to it; something that the entire crew from the director to the humble sound guy says they can feel. STARBURST was invited to a specific location: a rotting mausoleum, the final resting place of the doomed family who owned this ill-fated park. As a thick and fat full moon rises in the cloudless sky, the final scene of Tom Patton’s rather strange monster movie begins.

Redwood is a vampire movie inspired by these dark and spooky trees. The producers behind the project pitched the whole thing to Tom Patton and his

crew on the understanding that this particular place would be used. By then it was July, and when they flew Tom out to see the site, the director was inspired to rework the project into something unique, different and clever. The original plan was for a riff on Dracula, but when faced by the gnarled and twisted trees in this lost wood, something much more chilling was born.

Tom Patton elaborated, “I like the mythology of vampires, but I feel that it’s been so done. I really want to do something different. I admire Neil Marshall as a director, I love The Descent, I think it’s the best horror film of the last fifteen years and I want to do my iteration of that. We learned a lot on Pandorica and I feel that film showed a lot of potential. I want to come back and do it again. One of the things I was going for was one of these survival bear movies, but switched with something supernatural.”

The rough plot of Redwood can be described thus: a couple, Josh and Beth, go camping to heal their wounded relationship.

Josh (Mike Beckingham) is recovering from cancer and his partner Beth (Medici: Masters of Florence actor Tatjana Inez Nardone) is still helping him put together the pieces. The plan is for a nice relaxing trip in the woods. But these are the wrong sort of woods to go camping in. Set in North America, this Polish forest stands in for the titular redwoods in a way we doubt an actual US location could. Tom said, “I think camping is essentially scary, which is why it’s in so many horror films. I think camping in horror is cliché, and couples getting lost is a cliché, and if we can bring a real world, tangible thing like dealing with loss into the storyline, then it will give it a fresh dynamic.

The idea was if you took the vampires out of the drama then you’ve got a good drama with a likeable couple at the centre of it. Put the vampires in and you have a horror film with a scary ending.”

Pandorica is remarkable in many ways. One notable point is its incredibly immersive soundtrack that sucks the viewer in immediately. Looking at the

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imposing Polish landscape, we had to know how the director planned to soundscape Redwood. “The sound guy on the set loves me because I think he’s used to directors who always fix the sound in post. For me, sound is the priority. You can have an incredible image and shit sound, no one watches the movie. Or you can have something like Paranormal Activity.

Shot on a handheld camera. If the sound is impeccable, you buy the movie.”

Tom started out making music videos, and knows more than a few people in the music industry. “I’m a massive fan, I try to get musicians that I’m a fan of their work.

Step outside your comfort zone and work on a film score.”

The Polish film crew are incredibly skilled. The director has a clear vision and the crew know exactly how to deliver it.

It’s a very cold night, but fortunately for all involved there appears to be a neverending supply of tea. Fortified by a good brew, they had taken an already powerful and haunting location and added just

enough special effects to make the whole thing look truly other-worldly. Tom is laser-focused on the job at hand; this is the final scene of the movie (being shot, of course, in the middle of the production run). Time and time again, the scene is shot at every angle and the film crew know exactly what’s needed. The actors are also similarly energised. Lead actor Mike Beckingham is powerful and charismatic throughout, each take perfect. His co-star Tatjana Inez Nardone has a tough job to do and does it with the utmost grace, skill, energy and charm.

We caught up with the actors involved later on, including Nicholas Brendon, who was just recovering from the long flight from the US to Poland. Brendon, of course, is better known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Redwood is the first vampire movie he’s been involved with since that iconic TV series ended in 2003. Still young at 45, Brendon has lost much of his boyish charm, which has gradually become replaced with a ruggedly handsome look.

He has become seasoned and worldly wise and he’s quick to entertain the rest of the cast and crew with his many stories and occasional handstands.

Brendon is a keen fan of the indie movie scene, especially genre, and had already seen Pandorica when he was approached for Redwood, in which he plays a forest ranger. “I enjoyed Pandorica a lot. When they contacted me and I read the script, usually I just read the first 20 pages, but this one I read until I had to pee, and then I just had to keep reading until I finished.

I did a movie called Coherence and it was chronological in one night, and I like that kind of movie. Short and sweet with some twists and turns.” Horror, it seems, is Brendon’s first love when it comes to acting and he simply can’t stay away. “There’s something I like about it. My favourite type of movie is horror done properly, so I try and make movies that I would like to watch.” It’s clear that Brendon, experienced pro that he is, sees a lot in the director and the production, such is the strength of this

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humble, low budget horror film.

The movie’s main male protagonist is played by young actor Mike Beckingham, who exudes confidence and professionalism. In case you’re wondering, yes, he’s the little brother of Simon Beckingham (better known to the world as Spaced star and Star Trek actor Simon Pegg). Mike was also lured to the set of Redwood on the strength of Tom’s previous movie. “I went to see Pandorica and it was wonderful, it’s shot really well. I sat in the Q&A after and I just sat and listened to Tom and how he spoke about stuff, he’s just so in touch with the industry. He doesn’t try and fake anything. He’s just got a clear vision of what he wants to do, certainly on an independent film level.”

Much of the movie rests on the strength of Mike’s performance. His character, Josh, is complicated. “You have to immerse yourself in the environment. With an independent film you just have to get your head round the character pretty quickly.

With this, it’s a case that you can flesh out the character as you go. We’ve felt the character build over the course of the week; we’ve had many chats and discussions about it. The problem with Josh is that he tries to bottle it up. It was tough to research the Leukaemia element of things and it was tough to get that right; we don’t want to oversell it. It’s a silent killer, that’s the scary element of it. I found it difficult because it’s such a sensitive subject.”

Irish-Italian actor Tatjana Inez Nardone had perhaps the roughest role in Beth, the caring girlfriend of Josh. “The thing I really liked about Beth,” she told us, “apart from the fact that she’s a really strong woman is that she does go through a journey. She’s the strong one. When we talk about people and illness, we should ask ourselves what happens to those left behind, who stay behind and care.” The script drew her to the project: “Take out the horror element it just looks like an on the road story between a couple. There’s an element of growth.

Strength is shown behind those beside

them.” She is also a horror fan, “We are attracted to that which is extremely scary to us. There’s something that triggers that cocktail of emotions. It’s not splatter, it plays on suspense.”

It does seem that Tom Patton will prove with Redwood that he has the talent, vision, and skill to take a low budget set-up for a movie and create something rather special. “What I’m trying to encourage in filmmakers is that you have to remember one thing. It’s sucky, but it’s the truth. It’s called the film business, with business being the integral word. Find a way to find your voice in a commercial world. I don’t believe any filmmaker who says I make movies for me, you want people to see your movies. You want people to like what you’re doing. There’s integrity to that. Every movie I do, I’m moving closer to that.”

REDWOOD is expected to be released later in 2017. For more information, head over to redwoodmovieofficial.com.

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BE OUR GUEST… By chris haydon

I

n 1991, audiences across the globe were cordially invited to witness history unfold. The thirtieth entry in Walt Disney Pictures’ animated banquet, Beauty and the Beast was very much like a number of its predecessors in form - adapted from a traditional fairy tale, cloaked in majestic colour, and laden with stirring original music - but co-directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise’s offering is vastly different in cinematic practice and, ultimately, legacy. It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and is arguably the most significant production to use CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), a master digital software and hardware system developed and provided by Pixar.

So culturally, aesthetically, and historically significant is Beauty and the Beast, the film is now officially a preservation piece by order of the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, home to titles such as Citizen Kane, Double Indemnity, and Lawrence of Arabia. It is certainly no typical Disney movie, and consequently, any additional adaptations arrive with a considerable weight of expectation upon their shoulders.

Enter Bill Condon - the acclaimed American screenwriter and director behind such titles as Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters, and, well, the final instalments in the Twilight saga - who has been tasked with bringing the iconic tale to the silver screen in a live-action format. It’ll serve as one of the many forthcoming retellings

from the House of Mouse, who are ferociously tearing through their archives to locate the next possible project. We’ve already seen Kenneth Branagh’s fantastic Cinderella, as well as the Maleficent spin-off starring Angelina Jolie, and most recently Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (Favreau will be staying on to direct the upcoming remake of The Lion King, too). Condon’s Beauty and the Beast has promised a darker, more mature approach to the timeless narrative: the story of young Belle, who is taken prisoner by a Beast in his almighty castle, in exchange for the freedom of her father.

The idea of altering (well, modernising) a film’s tone is a common musing amongst Hollywood. The term ‘dark’ is thrown around so brazenly that it often becomes a cliché. Every superhero offering from DC Comics hails itself as ‘dark’, ‘gritty’, or ‘real’, but in the end, it’s just a bunch of dudes in silly clothes hitting each other, all located within horrible set designs, all rendered in terrible CGI. Darkness in popular multiplex filmmaking is now a stylistic choice, not a thematic one. With this in mind, the thought of a ‘darker’ version of Beauty and the Beast sounds a bit preposterous, but actually it makes complete sense, as it already belongs to a production house that perfectly understands the disciplines of its dramatic implementation.

Since 1931, Walt Disney has been releasing films heavy with profound themes,

The House of Mouse returns to another one of their phenomenally successful animated movies following the success of the live-action version of The Jungle Book. Will BEAUTY AND THE BEAST fare as well?

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characters, and subtexts. Sure, they might all seem rosy thanks to the charming assortment of songs and lyrics and the ravishing visual designs, but Disney has never shied away from menace and malice.

As previously mentioned, a significant percentage of their animated tales are adapted or influenced by folklore and fairy stories - from the Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen, and as we all know, these tales are rife with as much horror as hope. Fundamentally, Beauty and the Beast is about the right to freedom, the desire to own rather than share, the culture of scaremongering, and the poisonous nature of vanity. The Beast himself, a gargantuan, intimidating, and by all accounts dangerous creature, is a byproduct of punishment, cursed for his arrogant, selfish behaviour an overlord if you will.

But his biggest challenge is that of Gaston, the vain and handsome hunter who strives for Belle’s hand, and to kill her captor. Gaston can’t fathom how someone as beautiful and precious as Belle could ever care for something so ghastly like the Beast, for he is ‘ugly’ and therefore ‘bad’.

Things such as this might be softened by dancing clocks and candlesticks, but they

are always apparent, always brewing. You see, Beauty and the Beast - the 1991 film - was already ‘dark’, already ‘mature’; it’s just now the format has been transitioned to actors on-screen as opposed to voice artists, we can see a humanised rendition of the story, and we associate physical presence with a deeper sense of maturity as opposed to a ‘cartoon’.

So then, back to 2017, and Condon.

To take on the challenge of bringing a more grounded version of the animation to the cinema, Disney has appointed screenwriters Stephen Chbosky (author of acclaimed novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, for which he also penned the script for the 2012 film adaptation), and Evan Spiliotopoulos - the man behind last year’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War starring Chris Hemsworth and a large collection of Disney animated spin-offs. Walt Disney Pictures remain the most powerful company in blockbuster filmmaking, and consequently, frequently boast sprawling casts filled with high-profile names.

This movie is no different. Perfectly cast as the lead protagonist Belle is Emma Watson - the beautiful, talented, and most importantly, strong-minded performer who found fame at a young age thanks to her eloquent work as Hermione Granger in the

60 Harry Potter franchise. Watson, an activist and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, is a leading voice in gender equality, and would not approach a project unless she and her fellow female co-stars have a similar level of creative input and relevance as their male counterparts. Belle as a character is an extremely determined and independent woman, one who chooses of her own accord to submit her freedom in exchange for another’s - her father, Maurice. She makes important choices and sacrifices and understands how her actions influence and impact particular scenarios. From this approach alone, there could not be a finer casting choice than Watson - it is a role almost written entirely for her.

In a recent interview, Watson spoke of her attraction to the project, in particular the reflective themes it shares with some of the gloomier shades of modernised life such as body shaming, bullying, and the mob mentality. “I think we need stories like this more than ever,” she said. Talking about Gaston, she offered “…he’s a white male chauvinist. He’s like patriarchy in a man. I think audiences will have a lot of laughs at his expense, but also the scene where he’s inciting the villagers to go kill the Beast… it’s very familiar. I think it’s going to really freak people out, because it’ll really speak to fear-mongering, scapegoating. It’ll really draw very important and deep parallels to what’s happening now.”

Starring directly alongside Watson is Dan Stevens as the Beast; an actor initially best known for his recurring role in acclaimed ITV period drama Downton Abbey, Stevens since went on to defy expectation with work in Adam Wingard’s feverishly cool The Guest and Julian Assange biopic The Fifth Estate (also directed by Condon). It’s somewhat rare for a major studio picture to feature a female lead of significantly higher box-office clout than a male, but then again, Disney is no ordinary studio,

and they are admirably making waves for fellow competitors to follow creative suit. Other members in the impressive line-up include Kevin Kline as Belle’s father, Josh Gad of Frozen fame as Le Fou, Gaston’s moronic yet reliable sidekick, and Ewan McGregor as Lumière, the Beast’s kindhearted maître d’hôtel who too was cursed and transformed into a candelabra.

Meanwhile, Cogsworth - played by Sir Ian McKellen - suffers a similar fate and switches from loyal majordomo into a pendulum clock. It’s the same story for Emma Thompson’s Mrs. Potts, who trades kitchen duties for a life as a tea dispenser. Gaston himself is portrayed by Luke Evans, the charming and talented Welshman known best for roles in the Fast and Furious franchise, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, and most recently, The Girl on the Train alongside Emily Blunt.

The film will feature an original score by acclaimed Disney composer Alan Menken - who provided the Academy Award-winning music for the animated classic some 26 years ago - and will offer a selection of the famed songs written by him and Howard Ashman, too. We’ve already been treated to a rapturous tease of Watson performing Something There and Belle (Reprise), which showcase not only her delightful voice but also Condon and his crew’s desire to ensure the heritage of the original is accurately represented. However, to help modernise and indeed to breathe new life for a new audience, the classic titular track originally performed by Angela Lansbury - has been updated with new vocals from popular artists John Legend and Ariana Grande. Principal photography for the live-action reimagining took place during May of 2015 at London’s beloved Shepperton Studios - a familiar location for Watson, as the third and fourth Harry Potter titles utilised the shooting space.

The initial first footage from Condon’s movie was presented at Disney’s annual three-day fan event D23 Expo and has since founded a huge marketing campaign across all social spheres - with

the theatrical trailer rocketing to some 91.8 million views in just a mere 24 hours of its release. This figure broke the record for the number of views of a single trailer in history, smashing previous winners Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Age of Ultron - fellow Disney properties themselves.

Beauty and the Beast opens worldwide in Disney Digital 3D on March 17th, and the House of Mouse will be looking for the film to set a box-office record for the year in swift style. Their dominance at the multiplex in 2016 was unprecedented, with Zootropolis, The Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, Doctor Strange, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story all landing spots in the Top 10 for domestic and international growth.

With many other huge titles to come from the brand this year - not least Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi - the fantastical adaptation of a fantastical animation will need to earn its stripes financially, and given the immeasurable anticipation the film is generating, this seems like a foregone conclusion. As Belle and the Beast waltz in decadent harmony, they will win the hearts and spirits of a new generation bearing witness to a tale of much social and historical importance. The time has come to be their guest, so you’d better RSVP to ensure your reservation…

Catch BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in cinemas on March 17th.

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STARBURST is always up for an ambitious horror film, and we’ve certainly found that in A CURE FOR WELLNESS...

Miracle MisTreaTMenT By jack Bottomley

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here have been few other careers as off the wall as director Gore Verbinski’s. He cut his teeth in music videos, creating promos for groups like Monster Magnet and Bad Religion. He then progressed into commercials, most infamously creating the Budweiser frogs advert (y’know the one, don’t pretend you don’t, Bud-wise-errrr). From here on in, beginning with his zany feature film début in dark comedy Mousehunt (1997), followed by the likes of his well-received 2002 American remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu and most infamously the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Verbinski has continued to instil his work with an unshakeable whacked out edge. In recent years, this has only been amplified with his Oscar-winning (and in this writer’s opinion, his best film yet) 2011 animated animal western Rango and his unusual, much-derided but actually enjoyable, take on The Lone Ranger (2013). Indeed, you may say what you like about the Tennessee-born auteur, but as the tenth highest grossing director of all time, you cannot say that his filmmaking eccentricities have not resulted in some truly distinctive and fruitful works.

How many Disney adventures can you remember that feature a prostitute with

a gun in her false leg and cannibalistic desert rabbits?

However, in his next offering, A Cure for Wellness, Verbinski really seems to be going even darker, even deadlier and a lot more eerily mysterious.

A cross-cultural production between America and Germany, this psychological horror film immediately establishes itself as one to check out this year. The film sees a promising and eager young executive tasked by his company to travel to a remote location in the Swiss Alps, in order to retrieve the company’s CEO, who seems to be a tad mentally unstable judging by a recent letter he sent from a ‘wellness centre’ in which he is staying.

However, once this young executive arrives, he finds that all may not be as it seems, as this centre seems easy to enter but harder to leave. Aesthetically recalling recent films like John Carpenter’s The Ward and, more implicitly, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Verbinski’s feature also seems to draw tonal influence from the paranoid and institutionally oppressive trappings of the numerous mental hospital-set films over the years.

Partly filmed at the Castle Hohenzollern

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in the town of Hechingen, Germany, this film is clearly blessed with a setting that oozes dark, rather Gothic, atmosphere and gives the film a real feeling of throwback to Victorian-era productions.

Very few details have been revealed about the characters and the intricacies of the plot but going by the footage released by 20th Century Fox, this is one horror film that could well burrow beneath the skin and linger long in the memory. In recent days, big studio horror films have consisted of reboots, remakes, sequels and prequels and have consequently resulted in many proclaiming that the genre is ailing, nigh on perishing. Well, for one thing, this is a little overblown an opinion as horror is far from dead (just take a look at the searingly original independent and foreign feature works that have gained the attention of the masses of late). But even if it was, the prospect of a horror-cum-thriller-cumdrama helmed by a big name director that is neither adapted from anything nor a re-imagining of any existing property or material is tantalising. A Cure for Wellness could well be the cure (so to speak) to remake sequel mainstream horror syndrome.

From the poster that depicts actress Mia Goth in a steaming bathtub full of what appear to be snakes, to the constant array of breathtaking imagery in the trailer (which almost evokes the look of an American Horror Story episode with lashings of Frankenstein), this is clearly a film intended to reach into your head and mockingly poke at your brain.

BAFTA-nominated Justin Haythe, who wrote the Kate Winslet/Leonardo DiCaprio drama Revolutionary Road and was most recently one of the minds behind the script of Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, penned the screenplay. In this second collaboration with the director, it seems that Haythe and Verbinski (in spite of his appropriate first name) are approaching the horror from a purely psychological standpoint. Starring the talented Dane DeHaan (of Chronicle fame and to lesser success the over-gorged The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as Mr. Lockhart (the aforementioned ambitious executive), this is a film about someone going into a place of tranquillity only to be met with madness, depravity, and danger... or is he?

This is the thing from what we have seen thus far we can really assume nothing about this feature, as the mad scientist vibe that surrounds certain sequences of the footage we’ve seen and the almost Lovecraftian feeling behind some of the dark visuals could all be used to toy with us and twist our perceptions of who we

can really trust. The doctors assert the side effects of treatment, are they right or is there something going on in this place of ‘paradise’ that reeks of foul play?

As probably anchored by this point, this will be a visual experience, and one gets the feeling that Verbinski will use the visuals to tell as much of the story as Haythe’s screenplay. And if there is one thing that already has us enticed, it is the elegant mise-en-scène of this feature, as the cinematography of Bojan Bazelli (Pumpkinhead, The Ring, The Lone Ranger) powerfully reminds of the grasping effectiveness of bigger-budgeted fare like Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, as does the foreboding excerpts of music

by Benjamin Wallfisch (The Escapist, Pressure) that we have heard thus far. Not to mention the themes, as this ‘wellness centre’ is definitely not what it seems but we wonder just what this mystery could consist of? A cult? A viral thriller approach?

The breakdown of a young man with big ambitions? Is it all a dream (maybe best not go with that one)? Hell, as weird as this one looks, who’s to say there won’t be monsters, Nazi scientists or aliens involved? Probably not, but you see where we are coming from. In this day and age of campaigns revealing so much about a film that by the time the finished feature reaches screens, you have practically seen it all, it is refreshing to see a movie so potentially odd and psychologically ambiguous that even the information we have been privy to, does little to reveal the dark, chilling mystery within.

The comparisons to Shutter Island are strong from the standpoint of look or even certain potential themes, but there almost seems to be a weird, mad, experimental and dark cult element surrounding the film. As a scene shows, our lead is confined to this uneasy setting almost in Misery-like circumstances and is drawn deeper and deeper into all that isn’t well(ness) about this centre. To that point of all not being well, in addition to DeHaan’s mentally (and perhaps physically - we shall see) tortured lead, the film also co-stars Jason Isaacs as Volmer, the facility’s director. From what we have seen, he appears to be one heck of a sinister doctor at this place, and all the people relaxing in a pool with beach balls and awesome Swiss cinematography cannot distract us from assessing his intentions. Mia Goth appears as a young girl called Hannah who seems to be a patient (or is it inmate?) at this centre and likely is going to be a great help to DeHaan’s Mr. Lockhart (after all, she does warn him in the trailer that, “nobody leaves

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here”... never a good sign). And rounding off the cast is some international calibre in actor Ashok Mandanna (A Passage To India) and our very own TV/film star Celia Imrie (who is no stranger to horror, notably in Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 adaptation Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), in unspecified roles.

From the first glimpse of footage - with the insidiously raspy-sounding voiceover talking about bile rising and the like (yuck), the expressive (and stunning) imagery and the evil music that seems to writhe with unknowing dread - this is immediately a film that should be on the radar of the modern horror fan and one that this writer thinks could well be a perfect exercise in psyche-assaulting power (much like Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio). “You may experience visions” warns Isaacs’ Volmer, and from everything we have seen thus far, Verbinski’s film seems to be a vision itself, one that echoes works as diverse as Shelley and Lovecraft, while also boasting a story completely of its own and thus one we cannot predict.

This seems very much to be a film about the human condition and how a place of tranquillity can be a pool of paranoia, fear, and anxiety, but it could just as easily be a comment on how the working and aspirational man can be driven mad by his own cynicism and mistrust. Who can tell which direction Gore and the gang will go; we can only speculate at this point. However, one thing we are confident of is that we

cannot wait to see just what the story behind this wellness centre truly is. A Cure For Wellness boasts possibilities, unpredictability and a swarming sense of unease, all wrapped up in a presentation that straddles the line between dark beauty and deeply unsettling. This drive into the Swiss Alps is likely going to be a drive into the darkness of the human soul... so is it any wonder we don’t know what to expect from this visionary horror, which comes from a director who deserves the billing of ‘visionary’, and if he didn’t before he does now? Relaxing pools and stunning landscapes have seldom looked so untrustworthy and unknown.

A CURE FOR WELLNESS cleanses audiences of their anxieties (or not) on February 17th in the US and February 24th in the UK.

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by Martin Unsworth

JASON MILLS STARBURST catches up with another fantastic moviemaker who, works with lower budgets but still making impressive work. Born in the UK, he now lives and works in Canada. We find out about his back catalogue and his latest film, 3 HOURS TILL DEAD…

STARBURST: When did you first become interested in being a filmmaker?

Jason Mills: I was always interested in filmmaking from a very early age. As a kid, I used to take my dad’s old video camera to write and direct minimovies, forcing my friends to be the stars of the show! I gravitated towards horror after watching Chucky as a child; let’s just say I was hooked! It had a huge impact on me both in terms of content, and in how the stories were told visually. But it wasn’t until my high school English class that I knew my lifelong dream was to be a filmmaker.

Instead of writing an essay, my teacher allowed me to create a film, and from that day, I knew filmmaking was the career for me.

Your films have all been in the horror genre; what attracts you to the darker side of filmmaking?

I love the possibilities that the horror genre offers for artistic creation. I always felt I was capable of bringing the darker side of film to life! When I made my first film, They Came from the Attic, people really started to see me as the ‘Horror Man’ around town. It’s a genre that I am so passionate about, and I want to give my audience the thrills, jumps, excitement and gore that we all love about a good horror flick! Since I DOP my own films, I have more scope to play with, especially in regards to the lighting and look/feel of the film. Not only do I love getting scared myself, but I love to give people a scare, too! Another neat, but challenging, part of making horror films, is making sure the sound is ‘dead’ on, to create the perfect ambience and feel in the movie. The presence and absence of sound is very important for a film in this genre.

You have made three films prior to 3 Hours till Dead; They Came from the Attic, Changing of Ben Moore, and Alone We Are Not - can you tell us a little about these films?

My first movie was Above Us Lives Evil (aka They Came from the Attic), which was bought

by Lionsgate UK and now is in distribution with Chemical Burn Entertainment in the USA and Canada. Above Us Lives Evil starts when an accident takes the life of a young boy; the family move to a country home for a fresh start, only to discover there is something much worse than their memories and guilt living in the attic. Creatures were the main theme of the movie, and since it was my first, I could put my imagination to the test!

My second movie, Changing of Ben Moore, was a completely different approach to filmmaking, as it had the ‘lost footage’ approach. I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, and with some inspirations like Paranormal Activity to branch off of, I was able to create an original spin on the found footage-style movie. Changing of Ben Moore

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3 HOURS TILL DEAD

is about a young man with no recollection of his childhood, who starts on a journey of self-discovery. While living alone in his aunt’s house, Ben starts experiencing blackouts and health issues. His friends are concerned so they start a video diary and soon realise that things are not as they seem, and they become entangled in a demonic nightmare.

Alien Psychosis (we’ve changed the title of Alone We Are Not!) follows the story of Ryan O’Neil, who is a war veteran suffering from PTSD after being wounded in combat, and returns home to his pregnant wife Stephanie. Her brother, Tony, a corrupted sloppy cop, has been helping her out while her husband has been serving their country. Ryan and Tony have never been fond of each other, and things get heated as her brother meddles and tries to mess with their marriage. In this horrific story, Ryan starts to have flashes and visions of killers, extra-terrestrials, and other strange beings in his house at night, and is not sure whether it is real or his own mind. Stephanie, already on edge with Ryan, is questioning of her husband’s behaviour. As the days go by, Ryan soon finds out what sinister presence has been haunting him in his nightmares.

It was an awesome experience to delve

into the extra-terrestrial and home invasion zones this time around. We had a great location to shoot this film, which made it so much easier to get it done.

How did you fund those films?

Once I had the script solidified, I needed to find people who were as passionate as I was to help bring the films to life! All my films I funded personally through hard work, sweat and tears. My family was also to thank for helping me get started on my first project, They Came from the Attic.

But many volunteers were willing to help make these films a reality. If it weren’t for my amazing cast and crew, on each individual project, we wouldn’t be where we are today!

For 3 Hours till Dead, we launched an Indiegogo Campaign, which helped with some of the editing and sound costs!

You have written all your own films so far; does that make the process easier for you?

It is honestly an amazing feeling being able to create something from nothing.

I always wanted to be a filmmaker and to be able to tell my story. Having the opportunity to write and direct my own work is such a blessing! It doesn’t make

it easier, as it is another critical step in making the film what it is. You must have a defined storyline with peaks and valleys that captivates the audience. Especially in the horror film genre, you have to not only write your scares, but make them play out on film! I love the challenge and the ability to make everything from scratch. I can change what I want based on how the film is going.

You mentioned that you went through Indiegogo to part-fund 3 Hours till Dead; how did that go? Is it something you’d do again?

We had a lot of people asking how they could participate financially in funding the film. Indiegogo was an easy way for fans to get on board. There were options for them to be a ‘Blood Donor’ and have their name in the movie credits! That way, we were giving something to them for their kind contribution. Indiegogo might be an option for movies in the future, but we do try to gather the funds before we start shooting!

It’s in the zombie genre; what was the draw for that?

This was my first time making a movie based on the zombie apocalypse. I

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always had an idea in my head for a wicked zombie horror film, and it just so happened to be the perfect time to make one! I was surprised how much I ended up liking the creation of zombies, especially on set. The make-up and the amount of blood was unreal! My wife and I lived on the farm that we shot 3 Hours till Dead on and we had to sleep amongst the fake blood all over the house as we couldn’t clean it until the end of the shoot due to continuity reasons! The real nightmare was that the corn starch really attracted the flies. They were everywhere!

It was like we were sleeping in our own mini horror flick for more than a week!

What can you tell us about Bigfoot Country and Mermaid Island?

All my movies are so different from each other, but still surround the horror genre.

Bigfoot Country tells the story of four friends who are in search of an adventure, and decide to venture out into a ‘no trespassing’ territory of the woods.

Legend has it, it’s where Bigfoot lurks.

As they get deeper into the woods, something is watching them. Will they work together to get out, or will their fear be the killer itself?

My inspiration behind making this

film was the real life event of Harambe, the gorilla. Human instinct is to kill before realising the situation and the reason behind the animal’s actions (in this case, Bigfoot).

Mermaid Island follows the journey of four close friends who take their boat to an abandoned island. The island is full of beauty and features a lake of pristine, divine attractiveness. Toby, a young man in love, is planning on proposing to his girlfriend with the help of his friends. However, the fairy tale turns into a nightmare. The water is not what is seems, nor is the island an abandoned sanctuary. Shelley, one of the four trespassers, gets bit by something foreign in the lake. Soon, infection takes over and they are desperate to save their friend.

Will they make it off the island? Or have they started the opening to the end of civilisation?

My inspiration behind Mermaid Island was to create a unique, sinister spin on the beauty of mermaids and the mystery behind their untouched oasis. We have a lot of beautiful lakes where we live and I wanted to incorporate them into the film.

If you had to give one piece of advice to someone wanting to break into directing,

what would it be?

My advice would be to always follow your heart and your passion. It sounds cheesy, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t strive to become a filmmaker and follow my passion for it. I worked two jobs and then went home to write, edit, etc. There was no downtime, and there still isn’t. You can’t expect opportunities to fall into your lap; be proactive and create your own opportunities! Visit local festivals, go to movie premieres of local filmmakers. Those are the best places to socialise and network with fellow artists in the industry. Be kind, and you will attract the people you deserve! Always be a team player, no matter how sleepdeprived or hungry you are!

What’s next for you?

Right now, I am in pre-production for Clown Motel, which I am hoping to shoot within the next couple of months. Being the writer and director of my films, I must keep busy watching movies, writing, and creating every day. Don’t worry; more horror is on the horizon!

You can keep up to date with Jason via Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, just search for @millspictures.

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BIGFOOT COUNTRY

REvIEw: 3 HOURS TILL DEAD

CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JASON MILLS / STARRING: VLADIMIR ZARIC, AL DALES, BROOKE WALKER, CHRIS WALTERS, DARREN ANDRICHUK, HANS POTTER / RELEASE DATE: TBC In an oversaturated world of zombie apocalypse films, one would think there would be very little new to say, but indie filmmaker Jason Mills attempts just that with this, his fourth feature film.

A group of friends have been camping in the woods. On the way home, tensions are already strained, particularly between the brothers of the group. Jo (Zaric) has something he hasn’t told the group, which is making Stu (Potter) even edgier. They also appear to be lost and running out of petrol. The roads are strangely quiet, and the situation gets more anxious when they come across an abandoned car - the door left wide open and covered in blood.

MERMAID ISLAND

As the car’s tank is almost dry, they manage to find a farm that may let them buy some fuel. This too is deserted… or so they think.

The scenarios have almost all been exhausted, but 3 Hours Till Dead does manage to revitalise the well-worn ideas by injecting some human interest and conflict between the friends. Unfortunately, most of them (barring Jo, who is our main protagonist and actually a little more fleshed out in the characterisation) are so obnoxious that you’re practically begging for them to become zombie food. That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable. The tension within the group only adds to the mounting dread when they discover that the whole world has seemingly gone to shit while they’ve been playing happy campers. Add in the fact that they can’t necessarily trust anyone who they may come across, which heightens the pressure.

Almost to pre-empt the usual zombie film question - fast or slow? - Mills’ undead are a mix of both, with the runners being particularly terrifying.

Rather than spoil the illusion and mansplain it away, it’s left to the audience to come up with theories as to why some are slower than others, though.

Any exposition of what’s gone on in the outside world comes as naturally as possible, and stops short of actually giving reasons for the rise of the dead, which is no doubt how the real zombie apocalypse will unfold (you know you’re waiting for it too!). For the budget, the make-up is rudimentary but certainly passable, but the more elaborate gore effects are handled well and are quite often very effective.

3 Hours Till Dead does occasionally fall into some of the usual traps of low budget movies, with occasional overacting from some of the undead and some clunky dialogue, but it’s entertaining enough for them not to distract or sour the viewing too much. There’s a lot to recommend, though, particularly in the cinematography and use of the isolated location, almost bringing to mind, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Bravely, Mills gives us a satisfyingly nihilistic conclusion rather than a cop-out, which, while leaving the viewer on a downer, is perfectly fitting.

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Gently Does It

A look at the career of Samuel Barnett so far

by Tony Jones

As he’s come to prominence with the BBC America adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Holistic Detective, STARBURST profiles SAMUEL BARNETT…

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amuel Barnett’s professional career reaches back only as far as 2002 with his earliest appearances on stage; no surprise as he is only 36.

To most people, his body of work is summed up by The History Boys at the start and Dirk Gently in the present (and we are promised Season Two later in 2017; we can’t wait!). Thinking harder, they might mention Penny Dreadful (where Barnett gave a spirited rendition of Dracula’s minion Renfield), but, of course, there is much more, including (as fans of Big Finish will know) some stellar performances on audio.

His ability on audio should come as no surprise. Barnett’s career started on stage and in 2004, he became involved with The History Boys; he was an integral part of the production until 2006 the year he also appeared in the film version. He has also had some TV appearances (including Miss Marple, Two Pints of Lager, and Endeavour) and more stage work (including Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), as well as some radio work (including an adaptation of The History Boys and playing George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London).

It’s no surprise that he also did a oneoff drama for Big Finish - The Beast of Orlok, an Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) and Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith) adventure released in 2009. At the time, this was most noted for starring Miriam Margolyes but Samuel was there, too, playing Hans, and some reviewers thought his chemistry with Sheridan Smith was worthy of a permanent role

in the TARDIS. It was not to be, and Samuel didn’t appear again on a Big Finish release for some years.

When they were adapting the Mark Gatiss novel Nightshade, director Scott Handcock cast Samuel as Robin, a love interest for Ace (Sophie Aldred), who nearly leaves the TARDIS for him. It was another strong performance from Samuel

and again his chemistry with a well-established character was noteworthy.

In a recent Big Finish podcast (January 15th, available to download on the Big Finish website), Samuel speaks of his time (so far) at the audio drama specialists; it is very clear he thoroughly enjoys everything he does, and got a real thrill out of his part in this story.

Scott kept Samuel in mind when casting around for new characters when Big Finish was granted the licence for Torchwood.

Cue Norton Folgate!

Norton Folgate first appeared in the story Ghost Mission, a story by James Goss centring on Sergeant Andy Davidson (Tom Price) and his Torchwood entrance exam. His exam is overseen by an assessor, one Norton Folgate, who not only worked for Torchwood London back in the 1950s, but is also a ghost! It’s a cracking story from an excellent range and Samuel threatens to steal the show several times. It was no surprise when Norton returned, first in the Torchwood tenth anniversary release The Torchwood Archive and then in the special release Torchwood: Outbreak. Over these three stories, Norton developed from a sinister-yetcomic character to a sinister comic character with dark depths. His is the main Big Finish addition to the set of characters in Torchwood and by far the most original (even eclipsing the alien-hunting Queen Victoria!), and we will no doubt be hearing Norton many more times in the future. On a side note, Norton Folgate is an historic area of East London, known as a Liberty, though one whose name has fallen out of common usage. There is also a 2009 album by Madness called The Liberty of Norton Folgate. All will no doubt become clear one day; maybe writer James Goss just liked the sound of the name!

At first listen, Samuel’s version of Dirk Gently and his Norton Folgate seem similar, but where Dirk is both otherworldly and naïve (almost an ingenu), Norton is knowing and driven by motive, rather than Dirk’s instinct. Both are manipulative but in Norton’s case, it is deliberate and selfish. In many ways, Norton is Dirk’s darker older brother.

This more or less brings us up to date, and February 2017, a month that brings us the release of Cicero, written

by David Llewellyn. This is a download only, one-hour story starring Barnett as the titular Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Cicero is a towering figure in Roman

history, who came from a rich family and became a noted philosopher, politician, lawyer and orator. He was a contemporary (though not an ally) of Julius Caesar and eventually made an enemy of Mark Antony. His life story is rich and varied, and Big Finish has chosen to start with the twentysix-year-old Cicero, who as a lawyer investigates the murder of a wealthy landowner, and comes to the defence of Sextus Roscius. He and his brother Quintus (George Naylor) make powerful enemies as they seek to establish the innocence of their client.

The cast includes Simon Ludders, Elizabeth Morton, Stephen Critchlow and Youssef Kerkour, and this is another Scott Handcock-directed project. It will be interesting to compare Samuel’s performance as Cicero with Norton (and Dirk). We will also keep a weather eye open for how well this does in the market.

From even a cursory examination of the life of Cicero, and memories of such epics as the BBC’s I, Claudius, there is even chance this might grow into another major series for Big Finish.

If you want more information about this new story, there is a trailer available on the Big Finish website.

One thing for sure, we will be hearing lots more of Samuel Barnett!

SAMUEL BARNETT can be found on Twitter @mrSamuelBarnett. Check out the latest releases from BIG FINISH at bigfinish.com.

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REVIEWS

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

CINEMA

CERT: U / DIRECTOR: CHRIS MCKAY / SCREENPLAY: SETH GRAHAME-SMITH, CHRIS MCKENNA, ERIK SOMMERS / STARRING: WILL ARNETT, JENNY SLATE, RALPH FIENNES, ZACH GALIFIANAKIS, MICHAEL CERA, ROSARIO DAWSON, BILLY DEE WILLIAMS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW When Warners and LEGO joined forces to conquer cinemas in 2014, they did more than make a giant pile of cash, they made a really great film. By tickling the zeitgeist’s armpit the way that Pixar used to do, they also comprehensively cleaned up in film theory classes and at the sort of chattering dinner parties STARBURST wouldn’t be seen dead at (even if we got invited to them). The LEGO Movie artfully nipped the many hands that fed it but particularly Warners’ own Batman franchise, which made Batman a solo shoe-in for the next outing. Good call: The LEGO Batman Movie hones the strengths of the first film into a sharp, sassy and eye-popping instrument of mirth…

Not that Batman himself gets an easy ride. Gotham City authorities have grown weary of his all-singing, all-dancing entrances and exits, his ludicrous show-off vehicles and showboating speeches. Little do they realise how tormented he’s become, his Citizen Kane-style melancholy amplified by the gigantic hollowed-out island he now calls home. Meanwhile, the Joker seems to have formed an unhealthy emotional attachment to him and there’s this kid called Dick who wants to get himself Batadopted. Then the true darkness descends: every time he tries to fire up his favourite Tom Cruise scene in his giant private movie

theatre, he can’t remember which HDMI input to select…

The LEGO Batman Movie grasps the bat rope of affectionate silliness and swings with it. It certainly has plenty of raw material to work with; Warners’ frequent re-booting of the live action franchise under different teams has left a legacy as schizophrenic as any Arkham inmate. From the opening seconds when we hear Will Arnett’s spot-on growling tones narrating the importance of those multiple moody production company logos, we know what we’re in for. If anyone needs to duck the hardest to avoid the flying barbs that follow, it’s probably Christopher Nolan whose up-itself era gets a jovial kicking at every opportunity, such as the early assurance that this movie will ‘definitely be better than the one with the two boats’.

Scripter Seth Grahame-Smith might not whack every DC sacred cow in the time available but certainly gives it his best shot. Suicide Squad? Absurd concept.

Justice League? Just an excuse for a giant cosplay party. You get the idea, but this is no hatchet job, more like an affectionate roasting by a creative team who clearly love these characters and the immense heritage of the DC universe.

For LEGO master builders, there’s a renewed commitment to stretching the

THE LATEST BIG SCREEN GENRE RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

possibilities of construction as far as possible and then a bit beyond; attempts at depicting fire in CGI LEGO, for example, just look like the image is over-pixelating. But most of the time you’ll be applauding the ambition of sequences like the traditional Bat-fight enacted with the cartoon ‘ZAP!’ and ‘POW!’ captions lovingly rendered in ye olde Danish brickage.

It’s not a complete glory run; the decision to inject a giant dose of schmaltz into the final act feels tacked on and derails the fun in much the same way Will Ferrell’s ‘Glue Dad’ did to the first movie, and the Joker’s psychological hang-ups are milked to decreasing comic effect. Nor is there a musical moment as joyfully memorable as the first movie’s ‘Everything is Awesome!’ sequence but, as no small compensation, fans of John Williams’ Superman score will feel appropriate chills when we visit the Fortress of Solitude.

As with the first film, it’s the little details and character moments that stay with you. Scenes of Batman alone in his giant super-cave, hunched in front of his microwave and eating dinner alone on a little Rosebud Bat Boat, unexpectedly move you in ways LEGO minifigures really shouldn’t. When the Joker’s face collapses in the pain of rejection at one key point, your heart will truly go out to the little plastic bastard. Director Chris McKay’s layering of these delightful character beats amid the frantic action is a balancing act that pays off in spades and will have you watching this on rewind.

No surprises then: another slam dunk for that LEGO lot.

MICHAEL COLDWELL

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

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SPLIT

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN / STARRING: JAMES MCAVOY, ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, BETTY BUCKLEY, HALEY LU RICHARDSON, JESSICA SULA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW aspect, as this is an ambitious work that touches on many intriguing ideas. Split is really a story about how the abused can be transformed by their past into something dangerous and disturbed and, while some may well be thrown by how the film comes to venture into full-on horror at the end, not to mention the exaggerated approach, this is an entertaining and occasionally unsettling experience, in particular, one flashback for Casey.

The cast are great, with Taylor-Joy being a refreshingly more switched on and intelligent ‘victim’ than often portrayed in this kind of film and Betty Buckley being a wonderful character as Kevin’s understanding therapist Dr. Karen Fletcher. However, this is James McAvoy’s film and he is show-stealing, portraying so many personalities, from a nine-year-old to a stern middle-aged woman, with subtle nuances and perfect personal touches, that you eventually notice who has taken over Kevin’s body before they even speak. McAvoy is awards-worthy here and elevates the film from a fun ‘70s horror throwback or B-movie into something psychologically deep drilling and rather affecting (as Kevin comes to have a touch of The Fly’s Seth Brundle about him).

It is not perfect - Claire and Marcia are forgettable and some ideas are not fleshed out as well as they could be - but Split is a true return to form for Shyamalan, who delivers the kind of film here that we craved from him

the last few years, completed by a lead performance so compelling and ingenious that even the odd pole vault from realism to dark fantasy is made tangible. Not to mention that closing moment, which suggests that Shyamalan is well and truly delving back into the kind of work many cite as his best. Welcome back!

JACK BOTTOMLEY

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

5

8

CINEMA

After over a decade of being stuck in a rut of abject failure (The Last Airbender, The Happening) and dull misfires (Lady in the Water), the director once proclaimed as the next Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan seemed to be growing more and more distant from his early promise of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable (which many call his best film). Until, in 2015, a glimmer of hope arrived in the flawed but improved low budget offering The Visit. But can Shyamalan truly get back on form with his interesting new horror/ thriller Split, which seems blessed by a potential-filled concept.

Friends Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) are kidnapped from a car park by a man called Kevin (James McAvoy). They all soon wake in an undisclosed room and fear the worst. However, their fears cannot prepare them for what comes next, as Kevin has an extreme case of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and the girls will have to circumnavigate Kevin’s 23 personalities if they are to survive, but as all these personalities talk of the arrival of a 24th called ‘The Beast’, things could get worse...

As premises go, this is a great one but Shyamalan’s recent struggles suggest that, like Kevin, this film could go any way. Thankfully, it emerges as his best film in over a decade. The strength of the film, which has vibes of 10 Cloverfield Lane and Psycho about it, cannot be put down to just one

74 74

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2

CINEMA

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CHAD STAHELSKI / SCREENPLAY: DEREK KOLSTAD / STARRING: RUBY ROSE, KEANU REEVES, BRIDGET MOYNAHAN, IAN MCSHANE, LAURENCE FISHBURNE / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 17TH 2014’s John Wick was a lethal cocktail of modern kinetic thrills and 1970s action cinema influences, its wry script packed with deliciously evil villains, quotable dialogue and outrageously inventive situations. In other words, it was the sort of film Quentin Tarantino would be making now if he wasn’t more interested in seeing how many times he can foster Oscarbaiting dross like The Hateful Eight on us. With Keanu Reeves instantly owning a new signature role after so long in the wilderness, of course, we wanted to see more of this modern-day One Man and His Dog minus the sheep dips. So, does the sequel deliver another premium dose of adrenalised neo-noir?

You sense the answer is going to fall solidly in the affirmative from the get-go.

The action picks up almost immediately after the first film ended, with Wick attempting to brutally muscle back his beloved 1969 Boss Mustang. We’re plunged into a frantic, neon-lit car-chase that channels Diamonds Are Forever by way of Walter Hill’s The Driver. It’s a gloriously effective opening, particularly if your senses have been blunted by the unending, CG-enhanced car-foolery of the Fast and Furious series. If that’s the case, you need to watch this bludgeoning demonstration of the real thing on repeat until your brain eventually re-wires itself. Put The Blues Brothers on as well, while you’re about it.

Mission seemingly accomplished, Wick has hardly finished re-cementing his guns under the floor when he gets a visit from Italian crime boss Santino, played with exquisite slipperiness by Riccardo Scamarcio. You can’t go wrong with a

name like that, can you? Turns out Wick owes this sharp-suited Mafiosi a rather big assassination-shaped favour - a promise indelibly sealed by an old blood oath between the two men. Never a good idea, blood oaths. And so it proves; in a wonderfully witty sequence, Wick reluctantly suits up and goes back to ‘work’ at the Continental Hotel, scruffy new hound dog by his side. In these deceptively genteel surroundings, he replenishes his armoury with an exquisite selection from the hotel’s gun ‘menu’ before embarking on a mission to sort out Santino’s family feud and to take down an army of hitmen hell-bent on ending his legend. Turns out that’s the easy bit.

Keeping the core creative team from the first film proves a wise move. The original’s gunfights and hand-to-hand throwdowns were astonishing, but returning director Chad Stahelski ups his game to ensure Wick delivers an even bigger blizzard of devastation on those who cross him.

Meanwhile, scriptwriter Derek Kolstad elegantly extends his original, neatly framed revenge scenario across a much wider canvas. The more operatic scale is well and truly Toscared by the relocation to Rome for the requisite disco-gun apocalypse, this time mounted in the grounds and catacombs of a Roman Coliseum. This 007-flavoured middle act, with Wick spiralling down a mouse hole of impossible odds, may well be the best directed and choreographed piece of action cinema you’ll witness all year. It also looks stunning; rarely has ultraviolence been this beautifully photographed.

Keanu Reeves is magnificent as Wick, that trademark hangdog charisma making

ever more sense as he moves through middle age. He gets great support from a rogues’ gallery of pitch-perfect friends and enemies led by Scamarcio and the returning Ian McShane as ‘hotel’ boss Winston. Has Ian McShane ever played anyone other than Ian McShane? Long may he continue to do so. The only slightly rusty cog in an otherwise ruthlessly welloiled machine is the casting of Laurence Fishburne as a benevolent all-knowing guru who helps Neo, sorry, John out of a right old pickle once the action returns to New York. Talk about meta. When these two men first meet and eye each other with nudge-nudge familiarity, you fear the walls of their reality will suddenly collapse into a mass of green digits to reveal everything has been a gigantic Matrix in-joke, as opposed to the merely very big Matrix injoke we actually get.

But we’re quibbling; here is a textbook sequel-done-right. Everything that worked the first time is honed, the scale has become epic and the ante is upped and upped again to a pulsating climax that’ll leave you wanting Chapter 3 by next Tuesday at the latest. With insane action, a script that packs a gut punch of laughs, and Wick himself just about the most haunted soul to pull a trigger this side of Harry Callahan, John Wick: Chapter 2 is one righteous mofo of a movie.

MICHAEL COLDWELL

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

8

10

75

RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PAUL W. S. ANDERSON / STARRING: MILLA JOVOVICH, IAIN GLEN, ALI LARTER, SHAWN ROBERTS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW We are given no explanation for these discrepancies and without reading the novelisation of the series that tackles some of this issues, the film proves to be a contradiction to its predecessors.

Previously, the series has answered inconsistencies with the use of clones of key characters, which may be the resolution to some of the newest conflicts, and is actually referenced in this film when Alice comes face-toface with Dr Isaacs, whom she believed she had killed in Apocalypse. But this negligence to continuity is something that easily takes away value from the franchise and causes confusion when watching.

But despite these inconsistencies, The Final Chapter proves to be an entertaining spectacle. Taking the film out of the context of the series, which to some extent we are encouraged to do with the recap Alice gives us at the start of every sequel, it fulfils audience genre expectations. Opening with a couple of sharp jump scares, and a fight between Alice, a mutated zombie and a flying creature, it provides the attentiongrabbing action expected from the start. As teased in the trailer, there are plenty of these sequences, which are a spectacle to watch, and we are also able to revisit where it all began in the Hive.

This gives us throwbacks to the first film, using original footage, sets, monsters, and, of course, the iconic phrase “you’re

all going to die down here”. If fans are able to get by the narrative questions created by The Final Chapter, then it is a gratifying spectacle that, as the previous films have proven, may ironically turn out not to be the final chapter.

SOPHIE ATHERTON

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

5

7

CINEMA

The opening of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter begins where Retribution left off. We find our heroine, Alice, alone in a ruined Washington, D.C. and it’s revealed that Wesker had been lying about everything from the previous film; he had not left Umbrella; the White House was a trap and not the last human outpost, and it has always been Umbrella who were trying to wipe out the human race, not the Red Queen. We are told by the Red Queen that Wesker betrayed everyone at the White House fortress, decimating the city, leaving Alice as the only apparent survivor.

The Red Queen convinces Alice she has changed allegiance after it being revealed that the T-Virus was released into the world on purpose by Umbrella and sends Alice after Wesker, who has taken refuge in the Hive in Racoon City, where the saga began. She has 48 hours to stop Wesker and Umbrella from destroying humanity for good this time and release an airborne antidote to stop the T-Virus once and for all.

The Resident Evil franchise is known for its plot holes, and as expected many are revealed in this latest instalment.

Without going into spoiler territory, this time there is confusion over the creator of the T-Virus, the ownership of the Umbrella Corporation, and the mystery of what actually happened in Washington between the two films.

76

RINGS

CINEMA

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: F JAVIER GUTIÉRREZ / SCREENPLAY: DAVID LOUCKA, JACOB ESTES, AKIVA GOLDSMAN / STARRING: MATILDA LUTZ, ALEX ROE, JOHNNY GALECKI, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO, AIMEE TEEGARDEN, BONNIE MORGAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Rings is the not-at-all-awaited follow-up to 2003 horror The Ring, which, putting aside the debatable justification for the plethora of American remakes of Asian ghost stories, was actually a pretty decent film, and its sequel, which wasn’t. Short version of the relevant details: there exists a cursed video created by the psychic projection death throes of a creepy little girl named Samara that kills you seven days after you watch it, unless you copy it and show it to someone else, who must then do the same in turn, and so on.

Rings follows young woman Julia who, after several events that are ultimately incidental, views a copied video to save her boyfriend, and thereafter begins investigating the origin of Samara in the hope of saving herself.

If that sounds faintly similar to the original film, it’s because it is. Part of what made The Ring so compelling was the gradual uncovering of the mystery behind the video’s existence, learning the rules of Samara’s curse along the way. In an attempt to recapture its eerie tone, Rings replicates the structure (woman views weird video, sets out to learn more, is led by cryptic visuals to uncover piecemeal the truth behind a tragedy), but only gives us an artificial expansion of the mythos that merely answers questions that the film itself puts into place. Part of Samara’s intrigue was finding out just enough about her to tell a complete story, and this attempt to reveal more only dilutes her mystique, while the frankly meaningless details uncovered make the exercise a double failure.

Even though everyone already knows the story of the tape and how to beat the curse, it still takes about half an hour before Julia learns all the details the audience already knows, and what little

original story there actually is can begin.

While this allows anyone unfamiliar with the series to get up to speed, it moves the plot at a frustratingly sluggish pace, especially as there are two initial scenes before Julia’s story even gets underway.

There is at least some attempt to update the core concept; instead of a VHS cassette requiring physical duplication, the ‘tape’ now exists as a digital video file that can be copied in seconds with a couple of mouse clicks. This adds an extra element to the video’s propagation, as it can be watched on any number of devices, while the subculture of fate-tempting thrill seekers that has grown around the video’s urban legend can share it with concerning simplicity. You can easily imagine some malicious troll uploading it to YouTube, the Pirate Bay or any one of dozens of social

media sites.

Surprisingly, the final revelation driving the story actually harks back (in a roundabout way) to the original novels, but the ham-fisted foreshadowing is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is, resulting in an unsatisfying payoff. As a horror Rings is disappointingly tame, as a mystery it’s as ponderous as it is simplistic, and as a revival of a once-popular franchise it’s a wasted opportunity, and no amount of prophetic visions, surreal imagery or portentous drivel can convince otherwise.

ANDREW MARSHALL

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

6

4

77

THE LATEST HOME VIDEO RELEASES REVIEWED & RATED

REVIEWS

UNDER THE SHADOW

DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BABAK ANVARI / STARRING: NARGES RASHIDI, AVIN MANSHADI, BOBBY NADERI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW the surroundings become more turbulent, Shideh and Dorsa become convinced something has invaded their home; as Dorsa’s beloved doll goes missing and stress slowly begins to raise.

Even before the scares fully envelop the screen, Anvari’s film entices with its frighteningly realistic presentation of this era of fear, panic and grief. The drama is real because of the era and the characters are similarly urgent, while the ideologies are timely and alarming. This film recalls Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and A.J. Bayona’s El Orfanato in how eloquently and effectively it marries together atmospheric frights with meaning. This is a film that has much to say about the emancipation of women in this era of real life horror and also addresses ideas of the anxieties of war and the loss that comes with it. The surrounding disaster of the film is every bit as terrifying as the central maternal story of a mother and her child threatened by evil, and how their relationship is strained further by this climate of fear and oppression.

This is a very slow-burning film that is an absolute treat to a fan of the genre, or any genre for that matter, as it methodically unravels to deliver well-earned chills and startlingly original moments of culturally

JACK BOTTOMLEY

10

DVD & BLU-RAY

With the apparent lack of distinctive voices (with the exception of names like James Wan and Mike Flanagan) in the mainstream horror market, as the output seems increasingly overstuffed with jump scare studio offerings, the genre now seems to be booming independently and internationally. Back in 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night provided a strong start to the budding Persian language horror market and now we have debut director Babak Anvari’s chilling offering Under The Shadow, which is a UK/Jordan/Qatar production, and was shortlisted as the British entry for Best Foreign Language Feature at this year’s Oscars.

The film takes place in a war-torn Tehran in the 1980s (specifically The War of the Cities), as mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) fails to re-qualify for her medical course at university. Her problems only grow when her husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi) - who works as a doctor for the military - is called away to the war zone, leaving Shideh and their young daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) home alone together.

Worse still, the mother and daughter, as well as their neighbours are shaken by a missile strike that damages their housing block. As neighbours begin to relocate and

specific frights. The film simply excels at attacking both your heart and your mind, as its story is both emotive and lingeringly shocking, with a climax that leaves a lasting sense of unease in the face of seemingly inescapable evils (which are likened to the carnage perpetrated by war).

Rashidi is superb in the lead role as Shideh and really captures the soul of a frustrated and trapped individual, who is being confined by the views of the society in which she lives, while on the flip side she captures the shaken vulnerability of a mother doing her best in the face of so many problems and this unknown menace in her home. Meanwhile, young Manshadi is equally brilliant as Dorsa and her stress and grief over her lost dolly (almost a character itself) is wonderfully reflective of her mother’s own parental nightmare; Dorsa as a character is such a strong core to the film. The supporting cast play a great part, too, but undeniably this is a film that belongs to its two female leads and Anvari has constructed two characters we truly care about and whose ordeal we suffer along with them.

From moments of hair-raising scoring

by Gavin Cullen, the perfectly paced direction by Anvari and the engulfing atmosphere, to the compelling characters and the many moments of ideological impact, there is not a bad word this writer can find to say about Under The Shadow.

This is what horror filmmaking should be and not only is it the best film of last year but it is an absolute masterpiece. See it, or rather experience it, fear it and never forget it.

78

IBIZA UNDEAD DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTED & SCREENPLAY: ANDY EDWARDS / STARRING: CARA THEOBOLD, EMILY ATACK, JORDAN COULSON, ED KEAR, MATT KING, HOMER TODIWALA, MARCIA DO VALES / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 20TH Lazy critics have already dubbed Ibiza Undead a cross between Shaun of the Dead and The Inbetweeners Movie and whilst we’re not lazy critics here at STARBURST (far from it – sometimes we get up before lunchtime), we’re going to do much the same because, try as we might, it’s hard not to reach the same conclusion. Ibiza Undead tries hard to recapture the magic of Edgar Wright’s iconic British rom-zom-com and one of the most successful British comedy movies of the last twenty years, but Andy Edwards’ often gutter-level script and unsophisticated plotting

leave the movie shivering in two very large and much more accomplished shadows.

But that’s not to suggest that Ibiza Undead is an undead loss. Although it struggles under the weight of its lowbrow ambition, tiny budget, and deeply unsympathetic characters, it’s oddly watchable and manages, against the odds, to raise a smile or two and provide a couple of smart moments of gore, at least one of which demands that you look away or at least wave your hand over the screen shouting “Nooo, don’t do that!” as some reviewers must surely have done. Ahem.

OSAMU TEZUKA’S METROPOLIS (2001)

DVD & BLU-RAY

DUAL / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: RINTARO / SCREENPLAY: KATSUHIRO ÔTOMO / STARRING: YUKA IMOTO, KEI KOBAYASHI, KÔKI OKADA, TARÔ ISHIDA / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 13TH Based on a manga that was itself inspired by Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic of the same name (although narratively, it’s significantly different from that film), Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis is a spectacular accomplishment that looks better than ever on this new Blu-ray. It follows the journey of Kenichi, a young man who has arrived in Metropolis with his detective uncle on the hunt

for a rogue scientist involved with organ smuggling. But the scientist has been building a robot for Duke Red, the impressively coiffed leader of Metropolis, and when the scientist is murdered by Duke Red’s jealous son Rock and his laboratory is engulfed in flames, Kenichi rescues a wideeyed young girl called Tima from the inferno. Lost in the underground maze beneath the

The set-up is brisk enough.

An uprising of the undead has been contained (more or less) but life goes on even in times of direst crisis. For horny British teens, of course, this means jetting off to Ibiza with a pocketful of condoms and an unshakable thirst for cheap booze. A trio of likely (but not especially likeable) lads arrives on the island in search of sun, sea and… other stuff. They’re promised that the island is zombie-free, but an unscrupulous club owner (Peep Show’s Matt King) has been importing the undead to act as attractions at his nightspots.

Unfortunately, his unreliable supplier has dumped his latest delivery into the ocean – and noone’s reckoned on the zombies managing to wade ashore at the (un)dead of night.

This is all vaguely promising in a slightly derivative way, but Ibiza Undead stumbles and ultimately falls, despite some enticing visuals, predominantly because it’s really hard to care about any of the characters who find themselves trapped on a holiday island as it starts to go to hell. They’re a desperately grim bunch, especially the tediously repulsive Big Jim (Kear) and even ‘nice guy’ Alex (Coulson) is too much of a cold fish for the audience to warm

to, especially when he gleefully relishes the killing and carnage that inevitably ensues. Only underdog Az (Todiwala) comes close to earning our sympathy and the girls, including The Inbetweeners’ Emily Atack, are uniformly the type our mothers warned us about. Which isn’t necessarily a criticism…

Ibiza Undead’s low budget means it really can’t fly and exploit its admittedly novel concept. It says ‘Ibiza’ on the title card but it might as well have been filmed on Barry Island; much of the action takes place in a club, in a bar, or in the gang’s villa. Despite some decent make-up jobs for the zombies themselves, the film isn’t especially scary and, with its cast of irritating self-obsessed (and sex-obsessed) teenagers, it isn’t as funny as it thinks it is either. But there are a couple of worthwhile one-liners, a bit of pace in the narrative and enough goodwill to rise above the movie’s obvious shortcomings and deliver a moderately pleasing, if slightly grubby, ninety minutes of shambolic zombie mayhem liberally studded with knob gags.

city, with Rock in murderous pursuit, Kenichi and Tima must find their way back to the surface. But Kenichi doesn’t realise that Tima is Duke Red’s robot, and not even Tima knows the fate that’s in store for her when she is eventually reunited with Metropolis’s despotic creator.

Quite simply, Metropolis is dazzling to watch. Fans of the Fritz Lang movie will love all the small ways that director Rintaro graphically pays homage to that film (the fine detail on the skyscrapers and cityscapes are especially superb) and even though the two stories are very different animals, it’s clear that politically and ideologically they do share the same universe. In fact, one of the most intriguing things about the film is how Rintaro (and, presumably, Tezuka’s original manga) inverts many of Lang’s most famous tropes, especially the iconic Robot Maria who, in the body of Tima, is a completely different entity, and the famous rebellion when Lang’s

subterranean workers surge up to the surface to lay waste to the city, which is cleverly subverted in this vision. Even Tima’s throne, when it appears towards the climax of the movie, is a smart techno twist on Lang’s original conception.

But it’s the story itself where Tezuka’s Metropolis has problems. Although it moves along at a steady pace, there are also moments – especially during the quieter scenes between Kenichi and Tima – when the story drags and the dialogue becomes maudlin. It’s only a small criticism, but for a film that is steeped in so many gorgeous visuals, it’s a pity that the script couldn’t maintain similar levels of texture and excitement.

As for Eureka’s new dual format presentation, it’s superb and loaded with some terrific special features, including a fascinating ‘making of’. Highly recommended.

PAUL MOUNT

6

IAN WHITE

9

79

FIRSTBORN

VOD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: NIRPAL BHOGAL / SCREENPLAY: NIRPAL BHOGAL, SEAN HOGAN / STARRING: ANTONIA THOMAS, LUKE NORRIS, JONATHAN HYDE, LUCY CHAPPELL, EILEEN DAVIES, GEORGIE SMITH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Ah, another day, another month, another year, and yet here we are, with yet another “creepy child could prove to be the end of the world as we know it” effort. The question is: is this just another film that’s hoping to achieve some modicum of success in a subgenre that’s often full of also-rans and poor knock-offs, or is FirstBorn actually bringing

something new and fresh to a formula that seemingly ran dry many moons ago?

On the most basic of levels, FirstBorn is a film centred around young first-time parents Charlie (Antonia Thomas) and Jake (Luke Norris). When Charlie’s bun finally makes it out of the proverbial oven, this just so happens to coincide with a splash and dash of supernatural

MIAMI VICE - THE COMPLETE SERIES BD / CERT: 18 / CREATOR: ANTHONY YERKOVICH, ANDRES CARRANZA / STARRING: DON JOHNSON, PHILIP MICHAEL THOMAS, SAUNDRA SANTIAGO, OLIVIA BROWN, MICHAEL TALBOTT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW assignment, Crockett (initially) locks horns with Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), who is revealed to be a cop with the NYPD, looking to take down his brother’s killer; these two men put aside their differences and form one of the most famous TV partnerships of the 1980s.

Miami Vice is now remembered more as a time capsule for ‘80s fashion, but when you watch it, you realise just how radical the show was for its time. To begin with,

however, is in the second half, and in particular in the final third. What begins as a promising, gripping, well-crafted movie soon loses its way and heads towards a bland, cluttered finale that sees some of the key players making choices that seem out of character and against what we’ve seen play out beforehand.

Ultimately, FirstBorn can be chalked up as a disappointment and thrown in the everincreasing basket of ‘what could’ve been’ films. For fans of well-constructed tension and suspense centred around interesting characters thrown into a mind-spinning situation, the first half of FirstBorn is fantastic to watch. Sadly, after that, Bhogal’s promising picture veers into mediocrity. Make no mistake about it, Nirpal Bhogal, who has also worked on Sket and Misfits, is certainly someone to keep an eye on, and here’s hoping that lessons can be learned from this mixed bag of a movie.

it’s gritty. The bad guys that Crockett and Tubbs pursue are terrifying and you realise that you need cops like these to go after them; this is a credit to Johnson and Thomas, who made the writing and characterisation up its game in order to work. Meanwhile, staying on our two heroes, they are not as straightforward a duo as you expect; they come into conflict with each other a lot, and who the ‘a-hole’ of their conflict is flips between them.

Again, their characterisation is brilliant; just because they’re cops doesn’t mean you have to like them, but you want them to be the cops out there on the job.

Next, another defining feature of Miami Vice is its soundtrack; no TV show before it had integrated pop music into the scenes and atmosphere in quite the same way, and nowadays some programmes don’t do nearly as well!

Finally, Miami Vice is also guest appearances galore! Expect to see the likes of Gene Simmons, George Takei, Benicio del Toro, Leonard Cohen, Steve Buscemi, Sheena Easton, Julia Roberts, Frankie Valli, Ben Stiller, and Amanda Plummer to name but a few amongst the episodes in the series.

However, modern expectations will deter some viewers from Miami Vice because a lot of stories don’t arc across series and will expand into no more than two episodes (but hey, it still holds up better than the Colin FarrellJamie Foxx film incarnation!).

Overall, don’t let this put you off what is a genuinely innovative series, which isn’t as black and white with its characters as you would expect, and also has a good sense of humour about it (including scene-stealing cameos from an alligator named Elvis!). It’s a series that deserves the high definition treatment.

ANDREW POLLARD

5

NICK BLACKSHAW

7

DVD & BLU-RAY

From the good people over at Fabulous Films, classic ‘80s cop drama Miami Vice, which comprised of five series, totalling 111 episodes, has been brought to Blu-ray in high definition.

From executive producer Michael Mann, Miami, for all of its glamour and beauty, is riddled with a seedy underworld and it’s the job of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and the Miami PD’s Vice Unit to bring it down. However, on a routine

chicanery that all seems to be tied to this new arrival known as Thea. Fortunately for Charlie and Jake, the creepy Elizabeth (Eileen Davies) turns up at the door with the promise of helping them ride out this supernatural storm that’s a-brewing. You see, this initially eerie older woman has her own experiences and ties to Thea. But can this evil be stopped, just what exactly is at the core of the sinister presence, and can young Thea be saved?

To the credit of director Nirpal Bhogal and co-writer Sean Hogan, the first half of FirstBorn is fantastically crafted, with the building of tension and manipulation of suspense rather masterful to behold. Similarly, the response of the parents, particularly Antonia Thomas (of Misfits fame) as Charlie, is engaging and intriguing to watch unravel. For Charlie, we get to see a new parent battling with her own motherly instincts as she deals with an apparent demon child; but after all, regardless of the demon child moniker or not, this is still her child.

Where the film falls down,

80

VALLEY OF THE SASQUATCH DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JOHN PORTANOVA / STARRING: MILES JORIS-PEYRAFITTE, JASON VAIL, BILL OBERST JR, DAVID SAUCEDO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW After his mother died, Michael’s dad Roger managed to drink his way out of a job and the pair out of their house. Now the two of them are forced to live in a rundown cabin in the woods owned by Michael’s uncle.

Roger isn’t much interested in finding any work, and Michael is dismayed by their new living arrangement. Upon arrival, it’s clear something violent happened at the cabin, but they chalk it up to vandals and move in anyway.

Soon after, Michael’s uncle Will arrives with Roger’s friend Sergio, a tedious douchebag, for a weekend of drinking and hunting. As Michael doesn’t want to drink and isn’t interested in hunting he thinks things can’t get much worse.

But a logging company cutting down swathes of the forest is about to prove him wrong.

Their activity has put a family of Sasquatch on the move and the cabin is directly in their path.

But before then we need

MORGAN

DVD & BLU-RAY

DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: LUKE SCOTT / SCREENPLAY: SETH W. OWEN / STARRING: KATE MARA, ANNA TAYLOR-JOY, TOBY JONES, MICHELLE YEOH, PAUL GIAMATTI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Luke (son of Ridley) Scott’s directing début is a serviceable, if unremarkable, lo-fi sci-fi thriller, which asks familiar questions about the place of artificial intelligence in the modern world. Unfortunately, these are questions which have been asked a little too often recently and, in all honesty, the answers were given pretty comprehensibly in Alex Garland’s striking Ex_ Machina just two years ago.

Consequently, Morgan just comes across as a rather flabby postscript, a film with pretensions towards the

pretentious, which it abandons in the final reel for a few fist fights, car chases and random bloodshed.

The whole set-up is achingly familiar, if not entirely uninteresting. Corporate troubleshooter Lee Weathers (Mara) is dispatched to a top secret middle-of-nowhere research facility where revolutionary experiments are being conducted on a new, advanced level of living, breathing artificial life. But Morgan (Taylor-Joy) has developed a glitch and has plunged a blade into the eye

long stretches where nothing of interest happens. Sergio marks himself out as a charmdeficient git, and the other three circle each other checking for personality, but alas, nothing is discovered. They wander around the woods for a bit, argue, fight and generally endear themselves to no one, least of all an audience, until the family Bigfoot shows up.

Although it’s a low budget labour for Portanova, the Washington State scenery is a big plus, and he knows if he points the camera at some trees, he’s onto a winner. Having said that, despite having a huge natural film set on hand a lot of the film feels like a mid-season episode of a minor league sci-fi show. It has that we-shoot-inVancouver feel.

Dramatically, it’s inert; none of the conflict between the father and son rising much above soap opera level. As a horror film, it’s not especially gory and certainly isn’t scary, more likely inadvertently comical.

There’s often a listlessness to proceedings and subsequently

there’s no real oomph to much of what transpires.

If a straight-up Bigfoot flick is your cryptozoological cinematic bag then that’s definitely what Portanova is aiming for. From the opening scene where another hunter encounters the creatures to the Sasquatch siege finale, they’re on screen frequently. This isn’t the mysterious slow discovery of the creature, but a show-all as often as possible.

So then, it’s not particularly good. If you’re hoping for a scary creature-feature throwback, this is not the film you’re looking for. But if you’re an undemanding Sasquatch enthusiast, you get plenty of dudes-in-hairy-suits bang for your buck. To those people, it’s mildly recommended as you’ll get what you expect, another in a long line of not particularly good Bigfoot features. For everyone else, it’s a pass.

of one of her supervisors.

Eeuuw! At the facility, Weathers gets acquainted with the staff and even has a little romantic kissy-kissy with one of them.

But clearly something’s not right and despite the best, slightly desperate efforts of the unit’s top brains (including the ubiquitous Toby Jones) to paper over the cracks and dismiss a previous rogue AI incident, which saw a team of scientists killed, Weathers can’t help but voice her growing concerns, especially when Morgan kills a visiting psychologist (Giamatti). Not unreasonably, Lee decides that Morgan – super-powered and hyper-intelligent – ain’t worth the risk and orders the experiment to be terminated.

You’d not be too far off the mark if you were to suggest that perhaps things don’t go quite as planned…

After a leisurely, moody first hour set in and around the research facility and its environs, establishing the tone of a film that has precious little originality but is content to revisit familiar themes with some style and gravitas, all hell breaks loose in the last half-hour. Perhaps writer Owen felt his story needed a kick up the backside, or maybe Scott decided he needed to show his credentials

as an action director. Either way, the last act is a shock to the system, as Morgan sets off on a rampage, killing anyone in her way and suddenly ratcheting up the film’s previously sedate adrenaline levels. This change of pace – and a ‘twist’ ending you’ll probably have twigged a good hour earlier – turns Morgan into a bumpy, frustrating ride.

Although it was never destined to be anything other than a tame reworking of the likes of Hanna and Ex_Machina, it might have stood a better chance of hanging onto its credibility as a measured character study-cum-morality tale if it had ditched the gung-ho and been satisfied with being just a bit hey-ho.

Watchable, well made – Scott shows some promise behind the camera – and with game performances, Morgan’s not a waste of time but it certainly doesn’t tread any new ground and it’s hard to shake off the nagging suspicion that it really wasn’t trying to.

JAMES EVANS

4

Extras: Commentary / Deleted scenes / Documentary / Short film / Still gallery PAUL MOUNT

5

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BEYOND THE GATES DVD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JACKSON STEWART / SCREENPLAY: STEPHEN SCARLATA, JACKSON STEWART / STARRING: BARBARA CRAMPTON, BREA GRANT, RYAN KUNERT / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 20TH One of a recent (though admittedly small) wave of ‘80s horror homages (which includes the likes of Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here), this tale of a VHS board game that opens the door to a nightmare world garnered some serious attention with its retro advertising. Directed

by Jackson Stewart, the obvious initial comparison is an adult Jumanji, but there are plenty of other influences thrown in here.

As the title suggest, there’s

Fulci in here (The Beyond) and 1987’s Canadian cult flick The Gate. More than just horror movies, however, Beyond the Gates spreads its inspirations wide and there are elements of numerous ‘80s cultural road marks in the construction.

You could put Clue in the mix, as well as inevitably the early ‘90s Atmosfear games like Nightmare, amongst others.

When two brothers, John and Gordon (bonded by blood and little else, opposite as

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TOM FORD / STARRING: AMY ADAMS, JAKE GYLLENHAAL, MICHAEL SHANNON, AARON TAYLORJOHNSON, ARMIE HAMMER / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 13TH confront past deeds which have led her to her current, guiltridden and unhappy existence.

With his second feature, fashion icon Tom Ford once again adapts and directs and, if anything, offers up an even more sophisticated concoction than his incredible début, A Single Man. Like that film, Nocturnal Animals is an elegant affair, expertly crafted, exquisitely made and as beautifully tailored as a suit by the man himself.

enough history and a sense of a real relationship between them to invest an audience and in that it’s successful.

Barbara Crampton is only seen on a TV screen throughout, but that just reinforces the charisma of her performance.

On the other hand, there’s little sense of jeopardy or danger in either the game or the stakes of the film. The creepy shop the brothers visit seems to come from something else entirely, Jesse Merlin’s Elric coming across more as a proprietor of a local shop for local people than anything relevant to the film he’s in. Whilst it works overall, there’s no real comparison between the intense, circular nightmare of the Fulci film and Beyond the Gates.

In fairness, however, it’s not just attempting straight homage. This is filmmakers setting out to make an update of the films they grew up with, and as that, it’s certainly entertaining. As a feature length calling card for Stewart, it suggests there’s better yet to come from him and, overall, it’s time well spent.

And this works perfectly as we get to know Susan. In an astonishing opening sequence, her new gallery opening is going with a hefty swing, literally, as naked slow-motioned obese bodies dance for the gawping throng, and for us. Hypnotic and repellant, beautiful and disturbing, this opening sequence sets the tone for the whole film, as we quickly learn that Susan’s world is as shallow as an LA pool in a drought. Her marriage is loveless and, whilst her work has provided her with material glory and a splendid home, she knows that the work she peddles is worthless.

As she reads Nocturnal Animals, the novel plays out for us too, and it’s a different world – vibrant colours, overwrought characters, dramatic situations.

Importantly, what we’re seeing is Susan’s view of the story in which she naturally casts the author, her ex (Gyllenhaal), in the main role of the man seeking revenge for a brutal crime, with the help of hardbitten cop Michael Shannon, superbly played.

Within this complex narrative comes a third element,

as memories of the affair between Susan and Edward come in flashbacks revealing why they split up, why Susan feels how she does and exactly why Edward’s bitter revenge tragedy is Susan’s legacy.

The interweaving narrative strands are deftly handled and Ford gets great performances from a brilliant cast, including some fantastic cameos from the likes of Laura Linney, Michael Sheen and a brilliantly camp Andrea Riseborough. There’s genuine fear and menace too, a night time attack being one of the most uncomfortably upsetting scenes in recent memory, Aaron Taylor-Johnson creating a character you’ll hate for the rest of your life.

Some have seen the film as cold and remote, as Susan is, but this misses the point, and the fiction’s unlocking of her eventual need to address her past deeds leaves the climax as an even more devastatingly understated experience.

JAMES EVANS

7

ROBERT MARTIN

9

DVD & BLU-RAY

Amy Adams is superb as Susan, a successful art dealer who seems to have everything she could want. Surrounded by the trappings of wealth, she is emotionally unfulfilled. One day, the début novel of ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrives, a pulp Texan murder revenge thriller called ‘Nocturnal Animals’, and it’s dedicated to her. It’s cruel, violent and sad and, as the fiction-within-fiction unfolds, Susan is forced to

they are), are brought together again to shut down and sell on the stock from their missing father’s video store (all VHS, of course), a chance discovery leads them to suspect the titular game might unravel the mystery of daddy’s disappearance.

Once they start, their very lives depend on finishing it. Barbara Crampton here plays the host of the video’s segments that lead the brothers on.

It can be fun recognising the influences and callbacks to films and culture we know and love, but that’s not enough to make a film its own thing. So, putting all that aside, does Beyond the Gates stand up as more than the sum of its parts?

We’re happy to report the answer is a yes, though with some caveats. After an initial none-more-‘80s credits sequence that suggests full blown pastiche, it settles down into concentrating on producing atmosphere. Rather than going for lazy, repetitive jump scares, Stewart instead earns a nightmare mood that makes a few gory set pieces all the more effective. The two brothers have little in common but both writing and performances seek to give

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JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK

DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JAY OLIVA / SCREENPLAY: ERNIE ALTBACKER / STARRING: MATT RYAN, CAMILLA LUDDINGTON, JASON O’MARA, RAY CHASE, NICHOLAS TURTURRO, ENRICO COLANTONI, ROGER CROSS / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 6TH The eighth film of a shared universe that began back at the end of 2011’s stunning Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, this latest animated DC offering decides to explore the more magical and mystical corners of the DC Universe.

Pulling its inspiration from the comic book group of the same name, Justice League Dark is very much the DC Universe, just maybe not as some casual viewers will know it.

Plot-wise, the film opens with a world that’s being attacked by eerie, supernatural forces. When this new threat manages to baffle our regular Justice League line-up, Batman (Jason O’Mara) is forced to turn to some of the more unique and darker of the planet’s heroes in order to stop the whole world going to the dogs. And so with that, we see the Caped Crusader join with snarky occult

investigator John Constantine (Matt Ryan – who played the character in the sadly-axed live-action Constantine show), magician Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), the ghostly Deadman (Nicholas Turturro), the hulking Etrigan the Demon (Ray Chase) and even Swamp Thing (Roger Cross). After pinpointing malicious sorcerer Felix Faust (Enrico Colantoni) as the man behind these deadly goings-on, it’s down to this ragtag bunch of supposed heroes to work together in taking down Faust and saving humanity. But all is maybe not quite as it seems, as this dark and delicate tale unravels.

From the moment that Justice League Dark opens, it feels different to all that has come before it in this particular strand of the DC Animated Universe and its continuity. Not only are our ‘heroes’ bleaker

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)

DVD & BLU-RAY

BD / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: ROBERT WIENE / SCREENPLAY: HANS JANOWITZ, CARL MAYER / STARRING: FRIEDRICH FEHER, WERNER KRAUSS, CONRAD VEIDT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW From Star Wars to film noir to the work of Tim Burton, each owes a debt of some kind to the German expressionist classic Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari; originally created by Robert Wiene in 1920, its surreal sets, its sinister title character and its use of narrative completely changed the way the world looked at films, and it is now

being given a limited edition two-disc Blu-ray release.

The story opens on the recollection of another story from the past; Francis (Friedrich Feher) and his friend Alan (Rudolf Lettinger) are larking about at the annual local fair when they encounter the sinister Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss), whose star attraction is the

characters than your regular DC favourites, but the film itself is similarly a more grimy, gritty, and dour effort than what you may be used to. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.

What Justice League Dark manages to do brilliantly is that it introduces us to an array of characters who some viewers will have never even heard of, yet by the time the credits come to a close you’ll be perfectly versed in who the likes of Constantine and Etrigan are.

To the credit of Jay Oliva – who, in amongst his vast credits, helmed the aforementioned excellent Flashpoint Paradox as well as the mesmerising two-part adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns – and his team, they manage to skillfully balance introducing their core characters in a way that tells you all you need to know about them while not having the plot drag. And all of the group are given relatively equal screen time and presence, meaning none of the JL Dark crew feel like afterthoughts or weak links.

It could be said, however, that the use of Batman here is maybe a little shoehorned in purely to give some instant name value and recognition to viewers, but it’s understandable that the World’s Greatest Detective – one of the most well-known characters in pop culture as a whole – is used as the ‘in’ to the Justice League Dark team. And it’s also the

Dark Knight’s dynamic with the abrasive, sarcastic Constantine that stands as one of the true highlights of a film that pleases on many levels. Bats as the straight man to Hellblazer’s antics and attitude is the perfect choice, particularly as neither of the pair have a reputation for being exactly a people person.

Gushing with rich, compelling landscapes that are delicately constructed, Justice League Dark looks absolutely phenomenal, with the picture as a whole having an otherworldly feel to it. Added to this, the action, much like some of the other recent DC animated movies, is brutal when called for – with violence aplenty and even some choice language thrown in for good measure (that’d be Constantine’s fault!).

And then there’s the music score

by Robert J. Kral, which is pitchperfect and only adds further to the surreal nature of the film.

Full of twists and turns, and making each member of the Justice League Dark team feel like a genuine big deal – particularly the masterful use of Swamp Thing – Justice League Dark is a great introduction to some lesser-known DC characters, and here’s hoping that Constantine and co. are utilised in further animated outings down the line.

somnambulist Cesare (screen legend Conrad Veidt), who can predict the future of those who dare to seek a glimpse. However, the story takes a murderous twist when Cesare’s prophecy comes true; is Cesare involved, or is a more hypnotic puppet master at work?

Dr. Caligari is a mustsee for anyone interested in horror, psychological thrillers or extravagant set pieces, as the foundations of so many influential films have a root in this film. It is a compelling story told with more plot twists and turns than some modern features can handle; you are left thinking that this was essentially the true original motion picture. In addition, for a film that is nearly a century old, it does not fail to disturb the audience; Caligari is a truly foul character, whilst his victim Cesare has enough power in his eyes alone to make an audience

member wince.

Of course, what also makes Dr. Caligari an excellent piece of cinema is the context of its making. In addition to the film, audiences are given the documentary ‘From Caligari to Hitler’, a two-hour chronicle of the German cinema of the interwar years, in which its unintended prophetic nature gives an even more chilling interpretation of this brilliant piece of work.

In order to complete this review, this reviewer stands by their initial claim that anyone interested in the history of cinema, must see this film; it shows first-hand the power of film through set design, through performance and through narrative.

ANDREW POLLARD

8

NICK BLACKSHAW

9

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BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN DVD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TYLER PERRY / STARRING: TYLER PERRY, CASSI DAVIS, PATRICE LOVELY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Tyler Perry has a reputation for making films that aren’t very good. The Madea movies are scoffed at among cinephiles and you can see why – they’re like a cross-pollination of the latter-day Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy films most

people tend to agree aren’t going to win Best Picture anytime soon. That said, despite their questionable quality, there’s something fascinating and entertaining about the Madea movies which ensures they’re never boring,

ESSEX SPACEBIN VOD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DAVID HOLLINSHEAD, PHILIP THOMPSON / STARRING: LORRAINE MALBY, CARYL GRIFFITH, JOERG STADLER, IAIN STUART ROBERTSON, GILL NUNNS, PHELIM KELLY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW may be expecting. For you see, Lorraine is battling mental health issues while making said claims, which in turn, completely devalues her words to many of the supporting characters – ranging from her family to her doctors – yet at the heart of Essex Spacebin is the realisation that maybe Lorraine speaks far more truth than her ramblings may suggest. But, could there really be interdimensional portals to alien worlds hidden away in little old Chelmsford, Essex? That’s what Lorraine is determined to prove as she tries desperately to hunt down

to the effect of Boo! A Madea Hallloween. We don’t know how anybody could have devised this script sober, but in some bizarre way it works. Throw in some wholesome family values and straight-laced soap opera drama and Boo! turns out to be a strange concoction like no other.

Overall, this isn’t going to win Tyler Perry any new fans, but it’s the type of mindless entertainment that hits the spot just nicely after a long day, when you want to turn your brain off and immerse yourself in some unabashed stupidity.

We’re not sure whether Tyler Perry is an evil genius or the current incarnation of the Antichrist, but if you just roll with him, you might find yourself smitten by his charms.

the magical Essex Wormhole.

As you may have guessed from the above rundown of the film’s key plot, Essex Spacebin is truly a unique beast. Overflowing with British humour, dialogue, and mannerisms, Hollinshead and Thompson’s movie is full of the charm of a classic sci-fi effort of decades gone by – which is only added to further by being shot on 35mm – and is a hugely enjoyable romp through a landscape that feels quintessentially British yet completely otherworldly.

Being a low-budget production, obviously this isn’t a film to go into and expect to see glamourous, elaborate Hollywood special effects, but the duo behind Essex Spacebin manage to make the absolute most out of what they had at their disposal. And that’s similarly something that can be said about the film’s cast, with all involved putting in performances that are perfect for what is required here.

The clear star of the film, of course, is Lorraine Malby as the portal-searching Lorraine, and the relatively unknown actor shows fantastic comedic timing throughout this rollercoaster ride. That said, though, Caryl Griffith steals the movie whenever she turns up as Lorraine’s mother, Caryl. No-nonsense and as blunt as they come, Caryl is a true highlight of

Essex Spacebin, yet she doesn’t steal too much of the central Lorraine’s thunder.

Essex Spacebin has been picked up under the banner of Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz’s Troma, which should give any well-versed film fan an idea of what to expect. Whilst it may not be full of the bloodshed and other extremities some may often associate with a Troma picture, Essex Spacebin manages to have the heart and little-engine-that-could attitude that has been seen in so many Troma movies over the years.

Clocking in at a brisk seventy-five minutes, Essex Spacebin rackets along and there’s never a particularly dull moment in this at-times laughout-loud effort. How the humour translates to international audiences is an interesting topic, but its references to everyday British pop culture, products, and characteristics make it a massively enjoyable trip for UK audiences to get wrapped up in.

Go into Essex Spacebin with an open mind and you may just surprise yourself with a funny, frenetic, and furiously unique viewing experience that could prove to be one of the sleeper hits of the year.

KIERAN FISHER

7

ANDREW POLLARD

8

DVD & BLU-RAY

From David Hollinshead and Philip Thompson comes Essex Spacebin, a slightly bonkers sci-fi comedy adventure produced by the Chelmsford Film Society and picked up internationally by Troma Entertainment.

Whilst Essex Spacebin may, on the surface at least, be merely about crazy Lorraine (Lorraine Malby) and her ridiculous claims of otherworldly portals, interdimensional keys and maps, aliens, bizarre robot animals and other erratic, unexplained shenanigans, there’s actually a lot more depth to the film than some

and Boo! A Madea Halloween is no different.

The movie sees Perry play a host of characters, including the titular Madea, an elderly woman who flashes her sagging breasts at college kids and allows them to touch her.

Here, our heroine is called in to watch a group of teenagers to ensure that they don’t end up at a party, but babysitting rebellious kids turns out to be the least of her problems when all sorts of spooky hocus pocus starts to happen. For nearly two hours, Boo! A Madea Halloween manages to be full of surprises – and that’s a compliment.

Peppered with outlandish scenario after outlandish scenario, the effects are more akin to a fever dream than a cinematic experience. If you can imagine Big Momma’s House and Goosebumps mixed into a batch of marijuana-induced brownie mix, then that’s close

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INTERVIEW

LLOYD KAUFMAN We don’t know, but we know we like it.

Michael Herz [Troma co-founder] and I love the film. The theatrical distribution, such as it will be, is having the premiere at the Prince Charles in the UK. I’ve not seen the film with an audience so I’m very excited to see the reactions. I’m coming over there because if I’m there it’ll fill the house and get a real audience. And Tromeo & Juliet is also showing as part of the 400th year of Shakespeare [laughs].

DVD & BLU-RAY

With David Hollinshead and Philip Thompson’s fantastic British sci-fi comedy Essex Spacebin having been picked up by those crazy cats at Troma Entertainment, we caught up with Troma’s iconic figurehead, Lloyd Kaufman, to discuss the film.

STARBURST: How did you and Troma end up involved with Essex Spacebin? Did David and Philip approach you directly?

Lloyd Kaufman: Yeah, they were fans. It’s our 43rd year now, and Troma has become legendary by taking on projects that are one-of-a-kind projects that the mainstream are too stupid to appreciate. Projects like Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Cannibal: The Musical. That was unfinished when it came to us, and no mainstream people wanted to touch it. And I assume that to be true with Essex Spacebin. In fact, that would be my advice to any independent filmmaker: go to the companies that have a lot of money and get advance payments.

If that doesn’t happen, if you don’t get an advanced payment, then I think Troma is the best show in town because we’re honest and we’ve been around for 43 years, and we work hard and appreciate the one-of-a-kind movie that comes from the heart. And this is certainly a movie that David Hollinshead and Philip Thompson produced not just from their heart but from every other organ in their body. Plus it’s in 35mm, which shows you their dedication to the wonderful world of cinema. They didn’t just vomit it out

on a RED or Blackmagic and then use shitty sound, which so many people do.

We saw a quote from yourself where you said you’ve not been as excited by a movie as much as Essex Spacebin since the first Toxic Avenger film. What makes you say that and why does it have you so excited?

Well, I like the fact that it’s sci-fi, comedy, and it’s not about some young non-male in a bikini. It takes risks! Remember Surf Nazis Must Die? The central character was a fat old black woman, Momma.

Unfortunately the actress is dead, but we didn’t have anything to do with that. This is a similar situation, an old woman who’s basically mentally ill. A lot of people in that position see things but it turns out they’re not mentally ill. So there’s a very interesting yin and yang there. I think it’s Chris Morris meets The Mighty Boosh.

With Essex Spacebin, the humour on show is very much British humour in its references and in its dialogue. How did you find that, and how do you think that humour will translate to US and other international audiences?

It’s a strong indicator in the faith you have in David and Philip, that you’re placing such trust in them that the film will connect with international audiences…

The projects that we’re involved in, even the ones we write and direct, we have to really believe in them. Then if they fall flat, so what? Nobody would play The Toxic Avenger when we made it, and now Toxie is a much bigger star than most of the idiots who are telling us what to do at the Golden Globes. Nobody would play the film, then it eventually ended up with 2,000 screens in the United States. It’s really an art form, and maybe it won’t work in the United States.

But you’re right, it’s very British. In a fair world it should be playing at Sundance and all the great festivals. Unfortunately, Harvey Weinstein hasn’t taken it under his big fat wing. It’s just as good as the movie he’s got out now, Arrival or Nocturnal Animals. I’ve seen them both, and this movies is much better than those! But unfortunately, the elite gatekeepers are usually stupid and unimaginative. I don’t think there are any independent movie companies that have any longevity or any credibility or that are honest except for us.

ESSEX SPACEBIN is available now on Amazon Prime, DVD and Blu-ray releases follow later in the year and and is also being shown as part of a double-header with TROMEO & JULIET, including a Q&A with Lloyd Kaufman, at the Prince Charles Cinema, London on February 18th.

Words: Andrew Pollard

Lloyd Kaufman

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while stocks last

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AUDIOSTATIC

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF AUDIO ADVENTURES

BY TONY JONES

And Finally, Big Finish

Last, and by no means least, a few announcements from Big Finish.

Last December, they announced Cicero, a one-off historical drama set in Roman times with Dirk Gently star Samuel Barnett in the lead role; we have more on Samuel Barnett and his work with Big Finish elsewhere in this issue. The final set of Avengers Lost Episodes was released, and we learned the upcoming series of Survivors will be adding Julie Graham to the cast, and the Short Trips range will move into Time War territory with Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor.

Key titles to watch out for this month from Big Finish...

BBC Audio Drama Awards Announced

The winners of one of the biggest celebratory events of the audio world calendar, the BBC Audio Drama Awards, have been announced.

The only genre offering to come away with a gong was from Big Finish, who won the Best Online Only Audio Drama award for Doctor Who: Absent Friends at the ceremony, which took place at the end of January. The Eighth Doctor story, which can be found on the Doom Coalition 3 collection, was written by John Dorney and directed by Ken Bentley. Bill Nighy was honoured with the Special Award for Services to Radio Drama.

Introducing Red Moon from the Wireless Theatre Company

Following the much-lauded success of their series The Saga of Springheel’d Jack (aka The Springheel Saga), The Wireless Theatre Company is bringing us a new series in 2017, Red Moon. This is set in an alternate history in which Russia landed on the Moon in 1968.

No more details yet, but this is one project we at STARBURST will be monitoring closely.

Meanwhile at the BBC…

There’s a bumper crop of goodies from the BBC, of which the biggest is probably the announcement of a new radio adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. This will be in five parts and be available in February. One of the many interesting aspects of this is the casting of Hermione Norris in the (now female) lead part of Stevie Byerley.

It’s from the same B7 Media team who have given us many high quality releases such as Dan Dare and The Martian Chronicles.

AUDIO

Not Forgetting the World of Podcasts

STARBURST favourite The Light of September, a free drama from Dan Freeman, the creator of The Minister of Chance, has come to an end with the tenth episode, Ultima Thule, in January. The series can be heard/downloaded from radiostatic.co.uk and if you hunt around you will also find news of Dan’s project to turn The Minister of Chance into a novel.

DOCTOR WHO: 222 THE CONTINGENCY CLUB Groucho Marx once said “I’d never want to join any club that would have someone like me as a member”, and the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) often follows the same rule, except to infiltrate and discover its secrets, as he does with a new exclusive club that has opened in 1864 London, one in which something particularly sinister is taking place. Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Tegan (Janet Fielding) are the companions aiding the Doctor.

AvAILABLE FEBRUARY 27th +++ DOCTOR WHO SHORT TRIPS: 7.02 GARDENERS’ WORLD A Third Doctor/Jo tale in which something is afoot in the village of Colston Burghley. A medieval monument and disappearing postboxes are just the start of the trouble. Narrated by Tim Treloar.

AvAILABLE FEBRUARY 27th +++ DOCTOR WHO: 6.02 THE ETERNAL BATTLE Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor finds himself and companions Romana (Lalla Ward) and K9 (John Leeson) in the midst of a war zone, and bizarrely, they are rescued by a Sontaran tank. What can be more dangerous than the race of combathungry clones and can the Doctor get to the bottom of the long-running feud before it’s too late for everyone?

AvAILABLE FEBRUARY 27th +++ DOCTOR WHO: THE WAR DOCTOR vOL 4: CASUALTIES OF WAR Three more tales set during the Time War with John Hurt’s War Doctor. Jacqueline Pearce plays Cardinal Ollistra, who is deserted with the Doctor far from the Time Lord allies. They do find someone familiar among the carnage of the battle, however: former companion Leela (Louise Jameson).

AvAILABLE FEBRUARY 27th +++ CICERO A historical adventure set in Rome, 80 BC. Samuel Barnett is Marcus Tullius Cicero, who attempts to get to the bottom of a murder of a wealthy landowner whose son is the accused. In defending him, he makes some very powerful enemies.

AvAILABLE FEBRUARY 27th To order, or for more information, head over to bigfinish.com

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THE LATEST AUDIO RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

THE NEW COUNTER-MEASURES: SERIES 1 DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / WRITERS: GUY ADAMS, IAN POTTER, CHRISTOPHER HATHERALL, JOHN DORNEY / CAST: SIMON WILLIAMS, PAMELA SALEM, KAREN GLEDHILL, HUGH ROSS / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW twists. The inclusion of alien technology and supernatural elements reaffirms the show’s roots in the Doctor Who universe, but there are plenty of realistic, ‘real world’ constraints hampering the ability of the Counter-Measures team to thwart their enemies’ schemes. These are very recognisable, human champions.

In that sense, there are some clear parallels between the struggles of Toby Kinsella’s agents and those of their early-70s contemporaries in the offices of Doomwatch. Toby Wren and his compatriots were another specialist team working on the fringes of officialdom to protect the public good - although Spencer Quist would never have signed-off on an all-expenses-paid ‘jolly’ to Monte Carlo!

This first series of new adventures offers a set of four top-notch episodes.

Guy Adams’ Nothing to See serves up an effective blend of two genres: going undercover in a gang of thieves pulling off audacious heists, and the sci-fi staple of an ‘invisibility’ device. Adams’ twist is that ‘disappearing from sight’ has unexpected impacts on the user’s memory and psyche. Troubled Waters by Ian Potter is a tense and claustrophobic tale set aboard an alarmingly empty submarine.

The team risk death in the icy depths as they uncover the chilling truth about the vessel’s hidden weapons.

Best of the bunch is Christopher Hatherall’s The Phoenix Strain, in part a homage to Hitchcock’s The Birds, which explores the threat posed by the spread

RICH CROSS

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Building on the momentum provided by last year’s ‘transition’ special Who Killed Toby Kinsella?, the first series of the New Counter-Measures announces the relaunched team’s arrival in the mid1970s in fine style, through the drama of distinctive standalone stories that together augur really well for the show’s future.

The time shift leads to some notable changes in tone and style from the tales set in the previous decade. This is a more glamorous Counter-Measures than existed in the less exuberant world of 1960s Doctor Who. As the behind-thescenes interviews make clear, the show’s production team have made conscious efforts to emulate the panache, elan and confidence of ITC’s stable of action shows, as a re-energising jumping-off point.

These New Counter-Measures adventures draw on themes familiar to fans of series such as Man in a Suitcase, The Protectors and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased); not least those shows’ blend of high-concept stories, energetic action sequences and moral protagonists who move through a fastchanging world with an unflappable sense of self-belief and confidence.

Not that Counter-Measures’ writers feel duty bound to only reflect the lightness and moral simplicity that distinguished so many of ITC’s most memorable imprints. For all of the Seventies’ brashness, these remain stories with serious undertones, and inventive (and sometimes unsettling) plot

of an avian disease that turns feathered friends into ruthless assailants and which infects scientists and members of the public alike. Events are brought to a satisfying conclusion in John Dorney’s A Gamble with Time, which has great fun subverting expectations in a tale of time-travelling technology and high-stakes gambling.

Sparking exchanges between the different members of the Counter-Measures team have long since become a signature motif of the series and, as the generous set of cast interviews make clear, all five actors relish working together on the show. Amidst the high adventures, there’s time for some entertaining character interplay, with the spotlight this time picking up on the growing recognition and mutual respect between Professor Rachel Jensen (Pamela Salem) and Allison Williams (Karen Gledhill). Simon Williams continues to shine in the role of dashing ‘man of action’ Group Captain Ian Gilmore, while Hugh Ross exudes an assured sense of focus as the redoubtable team leader Kinsella.

Director Ken Bentley handles the action sequences with the usual aplomb, meeting the challenges set by his scriptwriters (invisibility in the realm of audio is always a tough sell).

Sound design is strong, enhancing the atmosphere and the sense of ‘place’ as the drama moves between a tin coffin beneath the waves, the bustling streets of London and the decadent interiors of luxury hotels and casinos.

Amongst an impressive guest cast, pride of place goes to Carolyn Seymour, who excels as the elegant and scheming Lady Suzanne Clare. She is a beguiling villainess, and listeners can only hope that Big Finish delivers on their heavy hints about Clare’s return in future stories The quality of the diverse stories in this box set confirms that a focus on standalone adventures suits the New Counter-Measures rather well. The new setting - the troubled and turbulent 1970s opens up a whole new vista of storytelling.

In the world of genre TV, it was a decade defined by the new brutal sensibilities of shows like Survivors, Noah’s Castle, The Changes, and 1990. For as long as the New Counter-Measures combines the influences of its 1960s roots with the darker and more expansive stylings of the 1970s, it will continue to deliver stories that intrigue and convince.

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BLACK MIRROR: SAN JUNIPERO COMPOSER: CLINT MANSELL / LABEL: LAKESHORE RECORDS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Is it possible that the best thing Clint Mansell’s done in years was for a TV series? Obviously, it’s not as if the composer has been churning out rubbish for the last couple of decades, but the music Mansell made for the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror is both emotionally resonant within the context

of the program, as well as standing on its own two feet as a proper album.

As a quick recap, San Junipero is set in a version of the 1980s, and it involves love and death and coming to grips with who you are as a person and how what you’ve done informs all that.

To go into further detail kind of ruins a delightful surprise, but suffice to say, it’s one of the rare Black Mirror instalments which doesn’t leave the viewer crippled emotionally at the end.

Somehow, some way, Mansell manages to embody the entirety of that preceding paragraph into his music. The score exists alongside a cavalcade of ‘80s songs within the episode itself - most notably, Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth - and so it makes sense that the compositions are somewhat more in the vein of what Mansell did on Drive than the rather more ethereal work of The Fountain, or classically derived á la Black Swan.

The ten tracks on the album stand better together than they do individually, charting as they do the arc of two characters as they negotiate their lives and relationship, but some do manage to stand alone. Waves Crashing On Distant Shores Of Time could easily pop in the

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DOCTOR OMEGA’S PARALLEL ADVENTURES: THE SILENT PLANET DIRECTOR: JOHN GUILOR / WRITER: JOHN PEEL / STARRING: JOHN GUILOR / PUBLISHER: WHO DARES PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW What if…? The alternative universe has been a mainstay of science fiction since before science fiction was even a thing, its first example dating back possibly as far as the Great Fire of London. The Silent Planet posits an alternative world of fiction inside the construct of an alternative world of non-fiction, asking what Doctor Who might have been like had William Hartnell been playing the character of Doctor Omega in a series inspired by the character created by Arnould Galopin back in 1906 – potentially an influence on the 1963 series’ creator Sydney Newman – rather than the entirely new character we’ve been watching these past fifty-odd

years. It’s a devilishly layered conceit, the character of Omega sharing as much in common with Peter Cushing’s eccentric human inventor in Dr Who & the Daleks as he does with the alien Doctor who had earlier fetched up on The Dead Planet. Yes, we’re a long way down the rabbit hole here.

Which is not to say that The Silent Planet is in any way a difficult listen; quite the opposite, in fact. John Peel has written an entirely new, twentyodd minute adventure for this Doctor, inspired by Galopin’s novel Le Docteur Oméga rather than based upon it, in which Omega and his assistant Borel arrive on an apparently dead world only

midst of a DJ set that features Tycho or M83, as does the closing track, San Junipero (Saturday Night In The City Of The Dead).

The nods to synthy dance music pair nicely with all of the action in San Junipero nightclub Tucker’s, but the quiet side of Mansell’s score is peacefully powerful. There’s a restraint here in the earlier moments. Faith, Hope, Fear, & Falling In Love, for example, uses wave-like swells of wordless chorus paired with flute to organically offset the electronic backbeat. It’s obvious - even without the title - that this song, as well as the following Tick Tock (Clock of My Heart) are behind some romantically powerful scenes.

Even if the listener has never seen a single second of Black Mirror, Clint Mansell’s score for San Junipero represents a real career high point, demonstrating just what the composer can do to really pull an emotional response. At turns sad and fun, but always gorgeously touching, San Junipero is a must-have.

NICK SPACEK

9 to discover deadly danger and a mystery to be solved. The plot is modest and unfolds at a gentle pace, complete with a “surprise” resolution to the mystery; Peel’s achievement is in writing the audio equivalent of the simple sci-fi of early 1960s Doctor Who, yet which still manages to evoke the ambience of the turn of the century fantasy fiction of Verne and Wells. It’s a lovely combination to listen to, simultaneously soothing and involving, and a huge amount of fun.

A huge part of that fun is in hearing John Guilor’s note-perfect ‘William Hartnell’ going through the paces as this alternative Doctor. Complete with the hums and haws, the slight grumpiness and superior attitude of the first Doctor we actually got to meet in 1963, Guilor’s Omega is Cushing’s Doctor if Cushing had based his performance on the original, or Hartnell’s Doctor had he been given Cushing’s scripts. Guilor had already honed this performance giving a reading of the Galopin novel, and it’s an absolute hoot and delight. The great news is that this looks to be just a taster for a more involved set of stories to come, perhaps an ‘alternative’ Season One’s worth. Meanwhile, it’s well worth seeking out this initial release, not just because it benefits a worthy charity but also because of the dinky little comic that comes with it – which is just as welljudged and enjoyable as this.

J. R. SOUTHALL

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THE DIARY OF RIVER SONG - SERIES 2 DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / WRITERS: GUY ADAMS, JOHN DORNEY, JAMES GOST, MATT FITTON / STARRING: ALEX KINGSTON, COLIN BAKER, SYLVESTER MCCOY / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Since making her supposedly final appearance in TV Doctor Who, the character of River Song has been freed up to appear in other media. Not only has she appeared alongside the Doctor in comics and books, but she also has her own spin-off audio series. This second volume sends the timetravelling archaeologist on another four-part adventure, also featuring two incarnations of her Time Lord husband.

In The Unknown, written by Guy Adams, both River and the Seventh Doctor join the crew of a ship investigating a new planet that’s appeared in the solar system. It’s tense and full of space-set claustrophobia as a mysterious affliction grips a crewmember, but the most enjoyable aspect is River’s more conflictive relationship with McCoy’s Doctor, getting

HANS ZIMMER: THE CLASSICS COMPOSER: HANS ZIMMER / ARTISTS: VARIOUS / LABEL: SONY CLASSICAL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

their music scores. From The Amazing Spider-Man to The Lion King, and from Kung Fu Panda to Interstellar, Zimmer’s genius has added to our enjoyment of some of the greatest cinematic spectacles of the past thirty-odd years.

How fitting that his work be celebrated in what is basically a ‘greatest hits’ type of album, featuring some of his most beloved scores. This is, essentially, what Hans Zimmer: The Classics is, but with an added twist that the tracks haven’t merely been culled from the back catalogue of Zimmer soundtrack CDs as one might expect, but have been re-recorded and reinterpreted by The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra featuring performances by several of the most stunning virtuoso musicians in the world.

The result is an overwhelmingly satisfying album that offers a fresh new take on some of the composer’s best loved scores and honestly makes you fall in love with the music all over again.

Violinist Lindsey Stirling lends her talents to a new version of the memorable main theme from The Dark

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KIERON MOORE

8 Knight Rises, while Maxim Vengerov uses the instrument to a more melancholy effect in Light from The Thin Red Line. The boisterous theme from Pirates of the Caribbean is given a fresh and surprising sound by The Piano Guys. Speaking of piano musicians, The Gladiator Rhapsody and Man of Steel themes are revisited by master pianist Lang Lang, but perhaps the most stunning use of the instrument is saved for Khatia Buniatishivli who plays a tour de force version of The Battle Scene theme from Gladiator as a piano solo.

Leona Lewis supplies the vocals for Now We Are free, again from Gladiator, backed with a new arrangement. As the album concludes its twelve tracks with the organ music from The Docking Scene from Interstellar.

This is clearly a CD that will appeal not only to fans of Zimmer’s film scores, but also to enthusiasts of classical music.

ROBIN PIERCE

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Hans Zimmer barely needs an introduction to film fans, either general or genrespecific. Since the mid-eighties, he has built up an incredible body of work, providing several of our favourite films with

annoyed at the seeming silliness of the man she’ll one day marry.

Five Twenty-Nine by John Dorney sees the apocalypse begin – every time zone on Earth becomes uncontactable once it reaches 5:29. Despite this, it’s the kind of small-scale, character-led story Dorney does best. River arrives on an isolated island and tries to save its inhabitants, allowing the script to focus on the emotional toll this event has on an elderly couple and their beloved synthetic daughter. Though a sidestep from the main arc, it’s a sad, moving tale and the highlight of the set.

Next is James Goss’ World Enough and Time. It’s reminiscent of the Tenth Doctor TV stories in which the heroes would infiltrate a sinister corporation – River uses the Donna-like strategy of getting a temp

job, but the Sixth Doctor takes the more egocentric approach of buying all its stock and becoming MD. Again, the highlight is the interaction between River and this classic Doctor, with her successful infiltration humourously contrasted against his pompous and clumsy effort.

Matt Fitton’s The Eye of the Storm brings these events to a conclusion, while changing setting to London, 1703.

There may be a slight contrivance to allow for a historical instalment in this mainly future-set story, but Fitton uses the setting well, tying the story arc into a famous storm and some real-life figures. It’s a satisfyingly dramatic finale, relying on the wits of River and both Doctors to save the world.

The stories are perhaps less characteristic of River than those in the first volume, which took us to an archaeological dig and to a glamourous space-set party; instead they tell an epic and time-twisting tale that may be more expected of a Doctor Who adventure. While THIS may affect the series’ individual identity, it does allow for lots of fun to be had with River meeting two past Doctors.

One gripe here is that, including the three times she’s now met the Eighth Doctor, the number of ways she can meet pre-Tennant Doctors and not have them remember her is running thin.

Nevertheless, The Eye of the Storm’s take on this requirement is a very funny scene.

The format of the box set works well, with the epic arc split up into four stories that all have their own identity and tone, though it does mean that some threads from the early instalments aren’t tied up in an entirely satisfactory manner.

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DOCTOR WHO SHORT TRIPS - FOREVER FALLEN

DIRECTOR: NEIL GARDNER / WRITER: JOSHUA WANISKO / NARRATOR: NICHOLAS BRIGGS / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (FREE DOWNLOAD FROM BIGFINISH.COM)

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Paul Spragg was, by every available account, one of the loveliest and most helpful men in Doctor Who fandom, often using his position within the wider industry to give help and advice to those who might have needed it. It was entirely appropriate that last year his employers at Big Finish inaugurated the Paul Spragg Short Trips Memorial Opportunity, an annual competition with the aim of giving an author hitherto unpublished by the company the chance to write a short third-person Doctor

ASSASSIN’S CREED: THE BEST OF JESPER KYD COMPOSER: JESPER KYD / LABEL: SPACELAB9 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Who story, to be narrated by Big Finish boss Nicholas Briggs and made available on the company’s website for free near Christmas.

Spragg, for those who aren’t aware, sadly died in May 2014 – and to be honest, no short story was ever going to live up to the task of honouring Paul’s life. Conversely, New Jersey resident Joshua Wanisko’s forty-minute take Forever Fallen (such an unfortunately apt title, alas) probably comes as close as anyone might.

It is, ostensibly, the story of a man who

Jesper Kyd’s music for Ubisoft’s video game series Assassin’s Creed is almost synonymous with the franchise as a whole. Although Kyd left the franchise after Revelations in 2011, giving the duties over to his Revelations collaborator Lorne Balfe, it’s still his sonic aesthetic with which the games are most identified.

Most of the cuts in this collection come from Jesper Kyd’s music for Assassin’s Creed 2. The whole first side is actually from that title, while the second features one more cut from the sequel, as well as two from Brotherhood, one from Revelations, and just the final cut comes from the original game.

Given the fact that Kyd’s music for the first sequel is by far the fan favourite, it oughtn’t come as much of a surprise that so much of the music here comes from that instalment. There are even two tracks from Assassin’s Creed 2 - Florence Rooftops and Leonardo’s Inventions [Extended] - that are exclusive to this picture disc, and

thinks he knows better and who, thanks to an encounter with the Seventh Doctor, discovers that life will throw up problems for which there are no simple solutions, no matter how grand – and ultimately that there is no escaping your past regardless of how much distance you can put behind it. In many ways, Wanisko’s story is a close fit for Steven Moffat’s first foray into Doctor Who prose, the 1996 Decalog 3 short story Continuity Errors, also involving Sylvester McCoy’s manipulative seventh incarnation of the Time Lord. The Seventh Doctor is the perfect fit for prose fiction, being the most authored incarnation the classic series offered up, and just as in Moffat’s story, Wanisko writes him as a distant character whose invisible puppeteering and temporal jitterbugging affects the lives of those he chooses to touch in substantial but undetermined ways. If there’s an issue, it is perhaps in the conspicuousness of the conclusions Wanisko draws, but alternatively it would have been an error to have begun the Memorial Opportunity with something less clear-cut.

Briggs’ reading is suitably lacking in lachrymosity (nothing would have been worse than to have treated the material with too much reverence for the premise of the competition), if occasionally a little laboured; his McCoy and Sophie Aldred voices understandably leave a little to be desired. But overall the production is a gratifyingly simple and understated one, allowing the story to take centre stage and giving Wanisko’s themes every opportunity to make their presence felt. Forever Fallen is about as appropriate a story as Big Finish might have chosen, and deserves to be heard by everyone, whether they ever had cause to experience the kindness of Paul Spragg or not.

J.R. SOUTHALL

8 haven’t previously been released.

That game’s blueprint - guitars and drums pushing everything forward, with the strings as accents, rather than the emphasis of the first game - is what made Assassin’s Creed so notable. So, celebrating the groundwork Jesper Kyd put down is a completely wonderful thing, and the folks at Ubisoft and Spacelab9 have done an excellent job of putting together the highlights from the composer’s tenure with the franchise.

Whether you’re intimately familiar with the games, or just a fan of good, pulsepounding soundtracks, Assassin’s Creed: The Best of Jesper Kyd is a very nice starting point for Jesper Kyd’s music. The picture disc on which the music comes is a little hissy, but it looks gorgeous, and having any of this excellent music on vinyl is a pretty solid start.

NICK SPACEK

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DEEP BENEATH THE EARTH, SOMETHING IS STIRRING...

INDIA FISHER

and

JAMES JOYCE

in

SERIES TWO 5-DISC SET • OUT MARCH ON CD AND DOWNLOAD

W W W. B I G F I N I S H . C O M

@BIGFINISH

THEBIGFINISH

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OST

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R

ight after we finished last month’s column, we got an email from Chad Rugola over at Lunaris Records letting us know that the label’s next release would be Carlo Maria Cordio’s score for the infamously bad Troll 2. Now, while the film is notoriously awful - even spawning a documentary on it entitled Best Worst Movie - the score is an absolutely wonderful collection of music.

It’s by turns synthy, folksy, and rocking, and you’ll spin this repeatedly, sans irony. This marks the début of Cordio’s score, and it’s available on compact disc, cassette, and vinyl. The vinyl has a die-cut sleeve with a reversible insert featuring both Joshua and a goblin, depending on your whim, and is available on either transparent neon green or woodland green marble wax.

The liner notes have an interview with the composer, as well. It’s pretty fantastic, and we’ve been spinning it daily since it showed up in the mail.

Speaking of terrible and awesome all at once, Water Tower Music’s soundtrack for The LEGO Batman Movie

came out at the beginning of the month, and it’s kind of the same mix of pop songs and oddball classics as The LEGO Movie soundtrack was. There’s a title song from Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, which we’re going to pretend doesn’t exist – see also Big Hero 6’s Immortals and last summer’s Ghostbusters (I’m Not Afraid) for exhibits A and B as to why – but there are some new Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covers, and we’re fairly psyched for the Las Vegas lounge lizard take on Everything Is Awesome. The kids may also enjoy the new cut from Joe Jonas’ DNCE, as well. We look forward to seeing a revival of Cutting Crew’s (I Just) Died in Your Arms, but figure Harry Nilsson’s One doesn’t need another airing.

The score doesn’t have an official release date as of yet, but given the fact that composer Lorne Balfe collaborated with instrumental post-rock geniuses Explosions in the Sky for the score, we’re just as excited for that one as we were for Mark Mothersbaugh’s score for the original LEGO Movie. And that was amazing.

THE STARBURST GUIDE TO THE LATEST SOUNDTRACKS

BY NICK SPACEK

John Wick: Chapter 2’s soundtrack is out, and while the majority of the music on the disc and download from Varèse Sarabande is Joel J. Richard and Tyler Bates’ score, there are a few electronic numbers, too. It’s an action-packed thrill ride yet again, with Le Castle Vania and Ciscandra Nostalghia returning from the original’s soundtrack along with composers Richard and Bates. However, the likely big name is the closing credits song, A Job to Do, by Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, as it marks some of the first solo work from Cantrell in years.

Mondo has released a slew of records recently. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest is out now. Much like the first Castlevania release, this is a 10-inch vinyl record.

The vinyl has the Nintendo score on the A-side, with the Famicom version on the flip. The artwork is by Eric Powell, best known for his work on The Goon, his long-running Dark Horse Comics title.

As has been expected, Death Waltz Records followed up their Twin Peaks score with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. The music is by Angelo Badalamenti, and has been re-mastered for vinyl from the original tapes. It’s out now as a double LP on 180-gram cherry pie-coloured vinyl, with a die-cut sleeve matching the label’s television series score release last year.

Death Waltz put out digitally the latest from Cristobal Tapia de Veer, whose name you likely know from his fabulously amazing work on Channel 4’s bizarre series, Utopia. De Veer’s been tapped for the score to the zombie film, The Girl with All the Gifts, based on the excellent novel by M. R. Carey. We’ve not yet seen the film, but the book is an astonishing read, and the most human take on the zombie apocalypse we’ve yet experienced.

While it’s not yet available on vinyl, it will

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be in time for the film’s stateside release at the end of the month. Go to Mondo’s Bandcamp page to get it now, because it’s absolutely brilliant.

The label’s also back to its roots with the release of two Italian giallo scores: Bruno Nicolai’s The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail and Assassinio Al Cimitero Etrusco by Fabio Frizzi. The former’s a double LP on 180-gram vinyl. One LP is a black/yellow split, and the second is red/black split vinyl. The latter is a picture disc, with art

by Graham Humphreys.

Back Lot Music digitally released composer West Dylan Thordson’s score for the latest M. Night Shyamalan thriller, Split. Much like the film itself, Thordson’s score is a tense affair.

Listening to the music, one assumes that the alternately dissonant and melodious aspects are meant to reflect the dissociative identity disorder of James McAvoy’s Kevin, and it’s fairly effective. The dissonance is far more interesting than the melodies, but the contrast lends both more power through the interplay between them.

Morricone Youth’s latest re-score is now available. The New York City-based ensemble tackles George Miller’s 1979 film Mad Max on their new LP. While previous releases have been EPs, this marks the first full-length from the longrunning Devon Levins-fronted group. It’s synthy, but has a wonderful swing to it

that brings to mind an Italian romance.

If you’re familiar with the Wall of Voodoo take on the Morricone spaghetti western themes, then you’ve got something right up your alley. Mad Max is available as a digital download or on vinyl. The vinyl comes in two limited edition pressings of 500 LPs each, on either coke bottle green or gold swirl.

The soundtrack for Trainspotting 2 leaked after the holidays, thanks to someone at Amazon pressing a button they oughtn’t have. It was confirmed by director Danny Boyle, and it’s since gotten an official release. Much like the original film’s music, there’s a pleasing mix of classic and new cuts, with Blondie, Queen, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood on the older end of the spectrum, and Fat White Family, Young Fathers, and Wolf Alice on the more modern. The trailer gave us scads of hope for the possibility that the sequel will live up to the original, but as your columnist lives across the pond, he’s a couple of months to go before he can see it yet.

It’s not a soundtrack per se, but director Nicolas Winding Refn compiled a selection of tunes which he listened to as he wrote and directed The Neon Demon. That compilation, entitled The Wicked Die Young, comes out in April from Milan Records as a double vinyl LP. Given the quality of both the scores for Refn’s films, as well as the selections

he’s made as part of the Nicolas Winding Refn Presents series of vinyl reissues for Milan, this seems to be a no-brainer in terms of whether you ought to pick it up or not. Selections from Sparks and Giorgio Moroder rub elbows with the likes of 999’s Homicide, meaning that this should be one hell of an interesting audio journey.

Finally, the Oscar nominations have been made, and there’s only one nomination that could be considered genre fare, and that’s Thomas Newman’s work on Passengers. Arguably, the film’s more of a relationship drama set in space, but it’s as close as we’re going to get. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Arrival score was disqualified for a reason we seem to run into every year, wherein a score is made ineligble because it’s supposedly diluted by previously released music. Obviously, we enjoyed Cliff Martinez’s Neon Demon score more than anything else, but Clint Mansell’s High-Rise and Moniker’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople were both pretty solid, as well. Still, it’s astonishing to see that John Williams wasn’t nominated for The BFG, making this the first year the legendary composer had a film not be nominated since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Additionally, Michael Giacchino had four scores this year, and not one made the cut. Here’s hoping for more far-reaching genre material next year.

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BRAVE NEW WORDS

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

Rhysling Awards Cause Chaos

Nominations for the 2017 Rhysling Awards closed recently, but not before causing a small amount of controversy. The awards, managed by the Science Fiction Poetry Association, are for (naturally) poetry inspired by sci-fi. However, it seems a recent nomination for the award was initially rejected for not being ‘speculative’ enough, despite it being published by a science fiction anthology outfit. Cue many members of the community trying to define exactly what ‘speculative poetry’ is and red faces all round for the SFPA.

WRITE ON BY KINDLE to Close Amazon’s version of Wattpad, called Write on By Kindle, is to be shut down this March after only being out for a year. Writers using the service are encouraged to download their work from the site and save it elsewhere.

Trump Increases Sales of Dystopian Fiction

Sales of 1984, Brave New Worlds, Fahrenheit 451, and The Handmaid’s Tale have shot up since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the USA. George Orwell’s dire warning about a surveillance state ruled over by a demagogue immediately shot to number one in Amazon’s own book charts. Dystopian YA also continues to be a growth market as the real world becomes increasingly stranger than fiction.

Marlon James to Produce Fantasy Series

Guests of Honour For Edge-Lit Announced

Brave New Words is delighted to be able to list the exclusive line-up for Edge-Lit 6. The guests are Stephen Baxter, Joanne Harris, Andrew Michael Hurley, Ken MacLeod, Peter Newman and STARBURST favourite Jeff Noon. Dystopian author Samantha Shannon is also a special guest. Edge-Lit is an excellent one-day book event in Derby in which fans get to run shoulders with the authors and key members of the UK publishing industry. The event is being held on July 15th at the Quad, Derby and is well worth your time.

Booker prize winner Marlon James has promised to produce a rich, sprawling fantasy drama called the Dark Star Trilogy, which he describes as an ‘African Game Of Thrones’. The first book is named Black Leopard, Red Wolf and will be followed by Moon Witch, Night Devil and The Boy and the Dark Star. The first book will focus on three characters - the Tracker, the Moon Witch, and the Boy - locked in a dungeon in the castle of a dying king, awaiting torture and trial for the death of a child.

Karen Lord is Worldcon 75 Toast Mistress Sci-fi writer Karen Lord has been announced as Toast Mistress for Worldcon 75, held this year in Helsinki. Congratulations to Karen, who will be in charge of the event’s opening and closing ceremonies, as well as introducing the Hugo Awards.

GOOD OMENS comes to TV Amazon Prime and the BBC are collaborating to bring an adaptation of Good Omens to our TV screens. The 1990 novel was written

by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett back when both of them were merely ‘up and coming’ writers. Pratchett, who passed away in 2015, had requested that Gaiman write the script posthumously, which he duly did. The book is a parody on various supernatural thrillers, including The Omen, and a light-hearted look at birth of the son of Satan and the coming of the End Times.

BOOKS

WINDS OF WINTER Out in 2017

In a move that may be familiar to regular readers of these pages, George R. R. Martin has announced that his novel The Winds of Winter will be out in 2017. ‘Definite progress’ has been made on the novel, according to Martin himself, via his LiveJournal page.

Game of Thrones fans will remember that this promise was made last year as well.

Catch STARBURST’s own book podcast, Brave New Words, via our website starburstmagazine.com and on Twitter @radiobookworm.

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ED FORTUNE A MONTHLY PICK HIGHLIGHTS OFNOTEWORTHY GENRE FICTION

BY KATE FATHERS NEW TITLES

COMING SOON

STAR WARS: THRAWN AUTHOR: TIMOTHY ZAHN PUBLISHER: CENTURY RELEASE DATE: APRIL 6TH

Grand Admiral Thrawn was one of the few gems in the old and extremely self-indulgent Star Wars canon. An alien who can make it all the way to Grand Admiral in the horribly human-biased Empire is a force to be feared beyond all measure, and his re-appearance in the new canon via the Star Wars Rebels series delighted many. Star Wars: Thrawn sees this most mesmerising of villains reunited with his creator, Timothy Zahn, to produce something rather exciting. Fanboys who lament the collapse of the old series may well be lured back to the light by this latest addition to the new canon.

GHOST WRITER IN THE SKY

AUTHOR: PIERS ANTHONY PUBLISHER: OPEN ROAD MEDIA SCIENCE & FANTASY RELEASE DATE: APRIL 18TH

The Xanth series seems pretty indomitable at this point. The fantasy series has its tongue rammed so firmly into its cheek that the series probably deserves some sort of medal. This pun-driven frenzy is a standalone book that is (as always) enhanced if you’ve happened to have read other books in the series. Expect Nightmares, Nightcolts, Demons called Ted, sarcastic goddesses and many, many jokes based on wordplay.

Get lost in the world of Xanth, but don’t forget to take a sense of humour or you will be groaning all the way through.

NIGHT NIGHT, GROOT

AUTHOR: BRENDAN DENEEN, CALE ATKINSON PUBLISHER: MARVEL PRESS RELEASE DATE: APRIL 4TH

Baby Groot was the most adorable thing about the new Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer, so predictably, Marvel has decided to take full advantage. Night Night, Groot is a lovely-looking children’s book that features everyone’s favourite tree-person. The book starts with Baby Groot getting ready for a well-deserved nap. Alas, his good friend Rocket needs a hand with saving the galaxy, and, of course, it’s up to Groot to save the day.

The art is quirky, and the pages are entirely chewable. Suitable for children of all ages, not just the recommended three to five.

THE RETURN

AUTHOR: JOSEPH HELMREICH PUBLISHER: ST MARTIN’S PRESS RELEASE DATE: APRIL 1ST

AUTHOR: CARLTON MELLICK III PUBLISHER: ERASERHEAD PRESS RELEASE DATE: APRIL 1ST

At STARBURST Towers, we can rarely resist something truly weird and odd. Inspired by the inadvertently frightening art on the back of ‘80s cereal boxes, Carlton Mellick has created this strange fable about nostalgia for childhood biting one in the bum. When forty-something Petey starts having nightmares about Berry Bunny, the mascot on the back of the old Fruit Fun boxes, he discovers that he’s the only person who remembers the breakfast treats. Things take a turn for the worse when Berry Bunny starts talking to him directly. This sounds like just the sort of weird we love.

ANOTHER WORLD: NINETEENTHCENTURY ILLUSTRATED PRINT CULTURE AUTHOR: PATRICIA MAINARDI PUBLISHER: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELEASE DATE: APRIL 4TH

Sometimes what you need is a good source book to understand the nature of a medium. This book details the elements that led to the creation of the 1844 groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name by J. J. Grandville. On the way, it examines the invention of art in print through all its mediums, be it comics, caricature, illustrated press and books, and mass-produced prints, following the development as well as the aesthetic, technological, cultural, and political issues that formed them. Another World promises to reveal all about how our world became so oversaturated with images.

ALIEN – THE COLORING BOOK PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS RELEASE DATE: MARCH 30TH

There has been a growing trend for colouring books with adult themes.

They are all the rage, and pretty much everything and anything has been given the DIY fill-in-the-blanks treatment.

There comes a time, however, when you have to declare a genre to have reached its pinnacle, and the Alien colouring book is clearly it. No relaxing mandala here, just plenty of black, green and other appropriately horrifying tones. This is not going to be your usual relaxing, mindfulness-style meditation, but it does look like an awful lot of fun.

THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS AUTHOR: ALIETTE DE BODARD PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ RELEASE DATE: APRIL 6TH

Aliette de Bodard won many, many awards for The House of Shattered Wings, the first book in her Dominion of the Fallen saga.

Set in an alternate history in which magic is commonplace, this new novel sees Paris recover of the magical warfare from the previous book. The Fallen Angels who control the city are still standing, however, waging their constant war for control of the place. With the various Houses of power clawing back control, a fragile peace begins to take hold. But will it last? De Bodard is one of the most influential voices in fantasy today; this will be well worth a look.

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Ever wondered what would happen if a prominent astrophysicist was suddenly abducted by aliens?

What happens when he comes back six years later, found wandering in the desert with no memory of the event or anything since? What happens to those who have searched for the truth since the event? This story looks at not only the strange cults and conspiracy theories that have sprung up around the event but also tells a thrilling mystery tale of loss and strangeness. Expect secretive organisations, stunning revelations and more than a few twists and turns. It sounds like exciting and compelling stuff to us.

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racing the history of the fantasy genre must be a lifelong study. It has no clear beginning, no seminal work that brought it into being; fantasy didn’t so much start as evolve. But there are key moments in its evolution that fantasy fans can cling to, and one of those moments is the publication of what many consider to be the first fantasy novel for adults: George MacDonald’s Phantastes.

The plot is pretty simple. Anodos, our twenty-one-year-old protagonist, discovers a fairy woman while going through his deceased father’s belongings. She tells him that he will come to Fairy Land, and the next day he awakes to find he’s done just that! Anodos spends the rest of the book journeying through the land, encountering goblins and giants and knights, all the while discovering more about himself. On the face of it, Phantastes isn’t too dissimilar to all the fantasy stories that have come after it, but for readers that’s part of its brilliance.

Phantastes serves as a bridge between stories like The Faerie Queen and modern fantasy, and it contains both familiar fairy tale trappings and new elements that are now part of traditional fantasy. There’s the prevalence of the number three and the worry over fairy food, taken from folklore and fairy tales. Anodos’ inner struggle and his exciting battle with giants feel like they’ve been pulled straight from a twentyfirst century film. As you read, you can see and feel the memory of other fantasy stories there with you, and rather than take away from Phantastes, I found that it made the book more dynamic. Frodo and Bilbo walked beside Anodos, meeting colourful characters and learning valuable lessons.

Stepping into the cottage with the four doors was like entering a Studio Ghibli film. One hundred and fifty years of fantasy echoed around me as I read, and that made the experience all the richer. Who knew the weight of history could be so exhilarating?

A MONTHLY PICK OF GENRE FICTION

BY KATE FATHERS

But this doesn’t mean that Phantastes is only valuable as a piece of fantasy history. What I found the most surprising about Phantastes was how original it is, even by modern standards.

It has inspired the likes of CS Lewis, but it still stands on its own as a great story.

The prose is dense but readable, and at times beautifully descriptive. Anodos is an incredibly likeable character, although it helps that the novel is told through his first-person narration. His journey is also absorbing, it being both internal and external. Anodos is finding himself, and tries on about as many personas as there are fairies for him to meet. He’s a romantic hero. He’s a knight. He’s a squire. Taking on, and then ultimately abandoning, these skins enables him to truly know himself, and find comfort in it. Anodos’ journey is very affecting, but it doesn’t take away from Phantastes’ vibrant imagery. MacDonald’s fantasy images are so unique and vivid, and they stick with you long after you’ve finished the book. The aforementioned cottage with the four doors, and the old woman with the young eyes who owns it, is a favourite of mine, but there are others that stand out amongst the commonplace images of fairies and kobolds. MacDonald has a great imagination, and it shows in his ability to turn a story that could have been so familiar - even in 1858 - into something extraordinary.

Unfortunately, there is one place where I found MacDonald’s imagination failed. In the middle of the novel, Anodos finds himself in a palace where he makes use of the library. Two chapters are dedicated to his recounting of stories he’s read, and while in hindsight these stories do have some relevance to the greater plot, in the moment I thought they were pointless. I considered skipping over them. If they had been summarised by Anodos, I honestly don’t feel like anything would be lost.

Additionally, one of the stories really would have been more appropriate as its own novel. I’m thankful that this is really Phantastes’ only major flaw.It doesn’t matter whether you choose to read Phantastes because of its plot or its place in genre history, because you’re going to have a wonderful experience.

Phantastes is interesting and absorbing, both unique and wonderfully familiar, and a must for any fantasy fan. George MacDonald is also the author of other fantasy works, like The Princess and the Goblin, as well as poetry, non-fiction, and general fiction.

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A MONTHLY PICK THE LATEST RELEASES OF GENRE FICTION REVIEWED AND RATED

BY KATE FATHERS

BOOK WORMHOLE REVIEWS

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY AUTHOR: ALEXANDER FREED / PUBLISHER: CENTURY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW If there were such a thing as making a ‘risky’ Star Wars movie, then Rogue One was definitely it. It not only introduced many new characters, but it also did something with them that not many would have ever expected from a Disney movie.

While the best elements of the Rogue

AN OTHER PLACE AUTHOR: DARREN DASH / PUBLISHER: CREATESPACE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING PLATFORM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

of the book treads very literally on the toes of the film, but there are a few extended or new scenes that Freed includes, with mixed results. These new parts, including more of Galen and Orson in the prologue, and more of Jyn in a cell at the labour camp that she is rescued from at the beginning of the film, add little, but are not jarring with their presence.

The ‘supplemental data’ scattered through the book between chapters is a little jarring, however. Who wants to stop the flow of the story to read what amounts to a series of emails between Imperial managerial types?

When the story finally lands on Scarif, the last hundred pages of the book fly by. Freed does an excellent job of lending the events emotional weight, but doesn’t stand a chance in matching the final scenes of the film for the visual thrill of seeing the man in black back in action. Still, if you didn’t feel that Rogue One gave you long enough to spend with its characters, this novelisation is an excellent chance to soak up a bit more time with them.

that his plane journey out of there takes him to a strange other world. A place where only one nameless city exists, populated by people with short-term memories who haven’t bothered to invent indoor plumbing or glass. This is all strange enough, but when savage creatures attack the city when the moon turns red, Newman decides he must escape – at any cost.

To say any more about the plot would be to spoil the mind-bending journey that An Other Place offers. Your humble reviewer read the novel from cover to cover in one sitting, which goes to show just how adept Dash is at building a central mystery and quest for answers that the reader must see through to the end. Existing somewhere between speculative fiction and straight-up horror, it brings to mind The Twilight Zone (as referenced by Newman at one point).

Yet even Rod Serling himself would have struggled to come up with an alternate world so completely off-the-wall and yet oddly meaningful as Dash has here.

The sense of anguish the protagonist feels about being trapped in such a nonsensical, infuriating place is keenly felt through the near stream of consciousness first-person narrative voice. Newman starts out as pretty unlikeable - rich, misogynistic and rude, though not to ridiculous degrees - but you’ll find yourself sympathising with him once he’s reduced to a desperate man

trapped in his own weird hell. It is Newman’s dry, sarcastic sense of humour that serves to punctuate the impenetrable setting and keeps you engaged even during the story’s weirdest moments. On the other hand, things also veer into harrowing territory at times as Dash, despite the fantastical setting, doesn’t shy away from some very real-world evils. Make no mistake, this is not an all-ages book.

With so many zany ideas, you can’t escape the feeling that Dash was feeling his way through the story as he went – and he apparently wrote it over a hefty period of eight years. If that is the case, though, that only increases the edge-of-your-seat thrill of reading a novel that is nearly always unpredictable and quite unlike anything we have read for a while. Only the final reveal was a little expected to this reader, even if it suitably leaves you guessing.

Be warned, if you like your books to serve up neat answers and end with everything tied up in a bow, then this isn’t for you. If you want something that lingers in the memory, is open to interpretation and has a demented energy all of its own, however, make sure to take a trip (trip being the operative word) to An Other Place.

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You might know Darren Shan - real name: Darren O’Shaughnessy - from ubersuccessful young adult novels like the Cirque du Freak series (once adapted into a Hollywood movie in 2009) or Zom-B. What you might not know is that he also writes adult novels under the pen name Darren Dash.

An Other Place is his latest foray into writing for more mature audiences – and it sees an imaginative writer at the top of his craft.

An Other Place follows Newman Riplan, who, after partying hard in Amsterdam, finds

One film are all present and correct in Alexander Freed’s novelisation, it’s a bit of a shame to see just how safely the book plays it. Of course, this is a novelisation so it is strictly based on the film and its script, but it’s difficult not to feel that when adapting the film into a novel, Freed could have taken a few more risks.

The story is exactly that of the movie; Jyn Erso, daughter of Death Star designer Galen Erso, is lured into a Rebel Alliance plot to steal the plans to the planet-killing weapon. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t know the rest, what are you still reading this for? Go see it. Or read this book.

For those who criticised Rogue One for bland characters or a lack of character depth, you might find more to like in Freed’s novelisation. He does an excellent job in balancing multiple character viewpoints, offering a little more insight into many of the characters’ decisions and mind states. Ben Mendelsohn’s villain Orson Krennic is best served, with his character being an endless source of fascination throughout the book.

We also get more details about Jyn’s backstory with Saw Gerrera, which had to be dealt with far too quickly in the film. Most

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WINTERSONG

AUTHOR: S. JAE-JONES PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Tales about fairies are often associated with childhood, even though most stories that feature the fey aren’t really for children.

KILLING FOR CULTURE FROM EDISON TO ISIS: A NEW HISTORY OF DEATH ON FILM AUTHORS: D. KEREKES, D. SLATER PUBLISHER: HEADPRESS RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW What is our obsession with looking at death? No sooner had the camera been invented than it was used to record images of the dead and dying. From Thomas Edison (who staged executions on film) to the mythos of the snuff

SHERLOCK:

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THE ESSENTIAL ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE ADVENTURES VOL. ONE

AUTHORS: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Unlike other TV shows, Sherlock doesn’t need to go to the trouble of creating new content for its tiein books. Luckily for them, some bloke called Arthur Conan Doyle

Modern fairy stories are, instead, about the loss of childhood. Not only the end of innocence, but that critical point in a person’s life in which they decide to become an adult.

Wintersong is a haunting story about growing up that just happens to feature a sexy and seductive Goblin King. Easily described as Labyrinth meets A Company of Wolves, Wintersong is set in 18th century Europe and follows the story of nineteen-yearold Liesl. The young lady has set aside her own hopes and dreams for the well-being of her rather anarchic family. Her sister is the pretty one and her brother the one with a chance at a promising career as a violinist. Liesl is the

glue that holds the family together, the one who has surrendered herself to the everyday in order to ensure her siblings succeed.

Except, as a child, she has a very special friend. Despite the dire warnings of her Grandmother, she dallied with the Goblin Men, and as her family finally begins to achieve its dreams, the Goblin King pulls it all away, simply by kidnapping Liesl’s sister. So of course, adventure beckons.

This, however, is a book of two halves. One is a fairytale adventure, the other a peculiar romance. The latter half is haunting and compelling, and also the sort of tragic romance that makes for movie trilogies and hordes of screaming fans

(and also the type that endless essays are written about on social media). If you ever thought a Goblin King could be sexy (and anyone who’s seen Labyrinth would have to think that), then this is for you.

It’s a very slow-paced tale as well, mostly because it’s almost all build up. There’s a lot of talk about music and dance, and this works well as an over-arching metaphor.

Good music takes years to truly appreciate and can both transform and transport us. Wintersong moves the reader to its own unique tune.

movie to sickening murder porn uploaded onto the darknet to the obscene news footage that TV channels seem to force-feed us with practically every night, death and the movie camera have always been inextricably, repulsively and fascinatingly linked together.

Killing for Culture traces our voyeuristic fixation with death from its earliest beginnings, and it’s an exhaustive and engrossing journey that comes highly recommended but is definitely not for the squeamish.

It seems like no gory stone is left unturned here, with chapters that contain everything from the lurid history of ‘mondo’ cinema, thrill kill videos and fetish zines, to necrobabes and the rise of death porn to – most disturbingly – the films we know are awfully real, including the execution videos of ISIS and the grisly mind-crippling footage loaded onto the Internet

by the ‘Dnipropetrovsk Maniacs’, Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko.

Stopping off along the way are chapters analysing death in the media, censorship, and the alleged snuff films produced by the notorious Manson family, as well as a hefty slice of more legitimate cinematic offerings: Paul Schrader’s masterful Hardcore, Cronenberg’s Videodrome and even Sidney Lumet’s classic newsroom drama Network all get a scholarly and meaty dissection. With this freshly updated version of Killing for Culture, authors David Kerekes and David Slater have really done something quite extraordinary – they have taken a subject that (at least on the surface) seems too grotesque and hydra-headed to ever properly pin down and they have not only succeeded in pinning it down, they have nailed it to the examination table and

split it open from groin to gullet, exposing every nasty blood clot and cancer-ridden artery along the way. It’s a studious and richly illustrated volume but it’s not the pictures you have to worry about when you open up this tome – the myriad of photographs, video covers and grainy VHS stills are nothing compared to the true horrors buried inside the text.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing tacky or sensationalist about it - if anything, this is an extremely well-balanced, well-structured and elegantly written piece of research - but it’s also a dead-on freefall through the foulest parts of the human psyche and, like all great horror stories (factual or fictional), it’s a book that’s impossible to put down once you begin reading it.

wrote sixty stories about Sherlock Holmes back in the late 19th and early 20th century. All they have to do is repackage them with Benedict Cumberbatch’s face on the front cover.

We jest, of course, but that does essentially sum up this new release from BBC Books. The concept is that showrunners – and uber Doyle fans – Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have compiled a selection of must-read stories from the Holmes canon.

These nineteen stories were previously collected in a gorgeous hardback tome – which is now being released, in two parts, in paperback form. Volume One contains the first eight entries in the collection.

So what stories did Moffat and Gatiss plump for? It’s an

interesting, eclectic bunch of tales, to be sure. Alongside the must-reads like Irene Adler’s appearance in A Scandal in Belgravia and the wonderfully lurid The Speckled Band, you have underrated pieces like A Case of Identity and The Man with the Twisted Lip. What’s more, the first two Holmes novels - A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four - are presented in their entirety. It’s quite impressive how much is packed into this trim 350-page book. You are certainly getting a multitude of mysteries for your money.

What is a little disappointing is that Moffat and Gatiss’ introductions to the stories are so brief. It would have been interesting to read their extended

thoughts on these tales but all that is included is a short twosentence preface before each entry. Conan Doyle’s words are obviously the highlight here, but it would have been nice to have some more fresh content.

Of course, while hardcore Holmesians will no doubt have these stories sitting on their shelves already, the real aim of these volumes is to introduce fans of the TV show to the great work of Conan Doyle for the first time.

More experienced fans may wish to skip this purchase, then, but for anyone looking to dive into the original Sherlock Holmes stories, these volumes truly are essential.

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THE SCIENCE OF GAME OF THRONES: A MYTH-BUSTING, MIND-BLOWING, JAW-DROPPING AND FUN-FILLED EXPEDITION THROUGH THE WORLD OF GAME OF THRONES AUTHOR: HELEN KEEN PUBLISHER: CORONET RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

PRINCE LESTAT AND THE REALMS OF ATLANTIS AUTHOR: ANNE RICE PUBLISHER: CHATTO & WINDUS RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE HANGING TREE AUTHOR: BEN AARONOVITCH PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

number of entertainers who combine science with standup comedy and much of the book feels like an extended stand-up routine. It also helps that Keen is clearly a massive fan of both the Song of Ice and Fire books and the Game of Thrones TV series (though the book mostly concentrates on the TV show).

This rambling but fun style bounces from topic to topic. Dragons and giants are used to explain the inverse cube law, and from there it’s a short leap to talking about the Giant’s Causeway and geology. Calculations on how hot a dragon’s flame would be are included, but Keen’s style means this information feels like a punchline, rather than a lesson. The approach to Game of Thrones is pretty comprehensive; every

technology and magical trick is questioned, and then science facts are applied.

The science, of course, isn’t complete. This is popular science at its best. If you like shows such as Mythbusters and like your science accurate but light and frothy, then the book’s approach is spot on. If you’re expecting an ornithological essay on how a Raven-based communication network would work, then you’ll be disappointed (instead we get a good look at pigeons, owls, ravens and how smart they all are, before bouncing onto the next joke).

Overall, it is a good read for fans of fantasy and science.

Ever since Anne Rice created the character of the vampire Lestat for the Gothic horror novel Interview with the Vampire, readers have craved more from the mesmerising monster.

Unlike Lestat’s lust for blood and pleasure, however, this desire is not unending. Subsequent books have gotten more complicated and strange. Which brings us to book twelve: Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis.

The plot is about as far from Interview with the Vampire as you can get; for a start, it isn’t Gothic horror, instead being rather more surrealist fantasy. An ancient, unearthly and mysterious power, one from the depths of vampiric lore, possesses Lestat’s mind and body and takes everyone’s favourite sociopath on a

spiritual journey into the lost kingdom of Atalantaya. Of course, this spirit is a threat to the status quo that vampires thrive on, and potentially a world-ending problem.

If this sounds a little like the plot of Queen of the Damned meets Tale of the Body Thief (previous Anne Rice novels), then you’re right. One of the significant problems with the novel is that it only contains one new idea, and it’s a really silly one. In fact, it’s so jarring and daft that the book’s entire genre jumps a track and enters the world of science fiction. This is clearly unfamiliar territory for Anne Rice, as the result is a dry story with absolutely no credibility.

Most of the book is more of the same, aimed at pleasing the many fans that Rice has gained

over the years. Alas, in an attempt to do something new, what the author really does is tread over old ground, adding a rather unsatisfying and pointless twist.

The other problem is that by novel twelve, Lestat is rather boring. We know that the vampires in this world are inhuman monsters that can appear charming and erudite. We know that Lestat is a honourable bastard who is both despicable and entertaining. We’ve seen these tricks before and it does nothing to enhance the book.

After twelve books, Rice has done something new with the vampire genre: she’s made it boring.

more pleasurable. Fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series will be delighted to discover that this latest instalment is just as good as the previous five. Those new to the books will also be pleased to learn that this clean and well thought-out novel doesn’t require prior knowledge to be fun.

The premise of the Peter Grant books is as follows. In the real world, magic is real. Grant is a Metropolitan police officer who has had the misfortune to encounter magic-related crime and has been lucky enough to find a mentor to train him in the mystical arts. Peter is one of only two coppers who wield magic and keep an eye on the horrors

that the supernatural can unleash on the unsuspecting general public. Of course, because Grant is a modern copper, there are plenty of forms, procedures and the like to follow when unleashing spells on a fleeing fairy creature in the middle of Harrods. All of this is part of the charm.

Previous stories have featured Grant’s growing relationship with Beverly Brook, a modern woman who just happens to be a river goddess, and The Hanging Tree explores this further. However, we kick off with an incident involving another river goddess, Tyburn (sharp and clever readers will note the connection between the title and river, of course). Grant is roped in

to investigate a death, one that’s the result of magical interference.

Over the course of the story, he discovers more magic users, more supernatural beings and more about the shadowy Faceless Man, he being responsible for much of the havoc in the previous books.

The pace is constant, strong and relentless throughout.

Ben Aaronovitch is a master of metropolitan magical mayhem and the action is delightful. This is a tight thriller that is compelling and buckets of fun. If you already know the series, it’s high time you got re-acquainted.

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One the lovely things about an ongoing series is familiarity. If you follow a set of stories set in the same world and created by the same author, reading the book becomes effortless and

These days, it seems that every popular franchise will spawn a collection of spin-off books that have little or no bearing on the actual franchise. These include colouring-in and dot-to-dot books, as well as behind the scenes insights and artwork books. One of the odder types of these ilk look at the franchise through the eyes of a serious discipline. In The Science of Game of Thrones, comedian Helen Keen uses plot points and scenes from the TV show to explain interesting science facts in simple terms. Keen is funny, clever and highly knowledgeable.

The book doesn’t really have a narrative; Keen makes no attempt to tell a story here.

Instead various elements of the TV show’s story are held up and examined with a light-hearted scientific eye.

Keen is one of the growing

100 memories, sharing both with his friend Valentine, who is similarly attempting to cope with the indignities of ageing. But even the sweetest of Manderlay’s dreams rapidly descend into nightmare, and although Valentine ascribes them to wild imagination and bad indigestion, Manderlay knows better. In his dreams he meets a young soldier who sends him on a perilous journey, and if he is going to complete the journey successfully, Manderlay must never wake up. It is a journey to an island where a nightmarish King awaits, and one of Manderlay’s long-forgotten musical compositions is his only map to reaching the island safely.

En route, he must defeat other Sleepwalkers and dark

entities who are also in search of the island, and he will befriend a sleepwalking woman who may or may not hold the key to everything. Or has he already given the key away? Travelling in an airship that feels as alive as he is, Manderlay proceeds through an intensely vivid, hugely emotional dreamscape towards a shadowy Capital where he will face the greatest dangers of all.

Metronome is a remarkable novel, a crafty and brilliant interweaving of the real and the imaginary, the sleeping and the waking, the dark and the light.

Oliver Langmead’s previous book Dark Star made a very strong impression but this follow-up is even better. It is a hero’s quest unlike anything this writer has ever

read before, richly textured and studded with some truly affecting imagery. Langmead understands the landscape of nightmares and the tortures of waning mortality, and he has captured the organic surreality of the dream state like lightning in a bottle. With its shades of the tarot, its nod towards the secrets of alchemy, and the genius Jules Verne-ness of the wonderful steampunk airship Manderlay finds himself travelling within, this is a book that speaks to the subconscious and is genuinely thrilling to read.

We’ll also bet that it’s going to be a book that is very hard to forget.

years and has produced well over seventy works, so it can be difficult to know exactly where to start. Library of America has solved this dilemma for the reader by producing The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena/Stories and Songs. This may seem like an unusual choice; Le Guin is better known for her science fiction and fantasy works (namely The URSULA K. LE GUIN: Left Hand of Darkness and A THE COMPLETE Wizard of Earthsea). Orsinia, ORSINIA: MALAFRENA / on the other hand, is more STORIES AND SONGS mundane in its approach. Set in AUTHOR: URSULA K. LE GUIN the fictional European country of PUBLISHER: LIBRARY OF AMERICA Orsinia, the stories are historicalRELEASE DATE: OUT NOW style stories which use social upheaval to frame tales of Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the everyday human struggle. They living masters of genre fiction. mix the dullness of everyday Serious readers of fiction will life with the amazing things a want to read, enjoy and even person can do with that life. study her work. However, she’s Malafrena is a novel-length been writing for well over fifty story that dominates this

anthology. It’s a coming of age tale, following the trials and tribulations of a young chap who is lured to the capital city with the promise of freedom. His perspective is one of suffering; he sees his life as inherently unfair as the world does not bend to his will.

We also see the character from the perspective of others; a spoilt and privileged young man without any measure of humility. Malafrena is one of Le Guin’s earliest works and it’s easy to see how her talent evolved after this book.

Other stories run along similar lines, exploring art, politics, power and control.

They are all highly nostalgic and though Orsinia isn’t a chocolate box vision of historical Europe, it does come close at times. As the collection ends, we become more and more familiar with this most interesting of fictional lands and

it’s easy to find oneself trapped there, between the pages.

The book itself is beautifully produced. Library of America is a non-profit organisation that only prints books that it feels are America’s best and most significant writing. The organisation ensures that the book is never out of print, and as such, all of their books are made to last. This is a beautiful thing, bound in such a way that it will be robust and long-lasting. Though this lends a ‘family bible’ vibe to book, it’s still a rather lovely thing, and with its plain black cover, looks imposing on the shelf.

This is a staggering collection of work, and one that every genre fan should take the time to get to know.

wrong decision could easily lead to an abrupt and violent death.

It is the brainchild of Legend, a mysterious man who has been twisted by exposure to his own invention. In Caraval, Legend’s troupe of players play many parts but none of them can be trusted, and rumour has it that Legend has played the villain for so long that he has become one. But Scarlett has spent seven years writing CARAVAL to Legend, begging him to bring Caraval to her island. And for AUTHOR: STEPHANIE GARBER PUBLISHER: HODDER & STOUGHTON seven years, Legend has refused – until now. Today, just days before RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Scarlett is due to marry a man she What is Caraval? Well, quite has never met, she receives an simply, it is an exclusive invitation to bring her sister and entertainment that takes place a third guest to a nearby island over a series of nights, an allwhere Caraval is about to begin. Of encompassing series of games course, Scarlett must refuse – but within games where nothing is her sister has other plans. Soon, what it seems and making the Scarlett will be forced to play

Legend’s game. If she loses, her sister, her sanity, her heart, maybe even her own life, will be forfeit.

Advance word on Stephanie Garber’s Caraval has been nothing short of ecstatic, and in this case, we’re glad we believed the hype. It is a lush romantic fantasy, exquisitely written, inhabited by a cast of marvellously colourful characters. Scarlett is a terrific heroine (without, thankfully, any discernible superpowers) who is forced to rely on intelligence and instinct as she proceeds through the game in pursuit of her sister.

When she makes the wrong choices and events begin to turn nasty, that’s when we realise how cleverly Garber has led us into the trap – the surprises are genuine and we actually find ourselves caring about Scarlett’s fate. It’s an

immersive experience, and there’s no wonder that the movie rights have already been snapped up.

Is Caraval for everybody?

Probably not because – unlike many YA novels – it does feel as if it was written with a specific audience (cough: the female Twilighters) in mind. Although there are no supernatural monsters in here, its romantic undertow might be a little off-putting to readers who like their fantasies shallow, cold and senseless. But it is much, much better than Twilight, and if you enjoyed The Night Circus, or even Francesca Haig’s The Fire Sermon, we think you’re going to like this a lot.

METRONOME

AUTHOR: OLIVER LANGMEAD PUBLISHER: UNSUNG STORIES RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

BOOKS

Manderlay is an ex-sailor and musician living in an Edinburgh care home, where his body is slowly succumbing to arthritis.

He exists on dreams and

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101 GARETH EVANS PULLS MONITOR DUTY TO BRING YOU THE LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF COMICBOOKS

ustice League vs. Suicide Squad wrapped up this month and there are two pieces of news worth talking about from it. The first comes from the last page of the comic. Maxwell Lord is locked up and has figured out that Waller manipulated the events of the entire series as a way to get Batman to

let her run the Suicide Squad in peace.

When he asks if he will be inducted into the Suicide Squad, he is told that he will be joining something called ‘Task Force XI’. Out of the two news items to come from this issue, this is the one I find less exciting. I get that Amanda Waller has to tread carefully with the Suicide

Squad now that the Justice League is watching, but it feels like everything that could be done with Task Force XI has already been done with Task Force X (the official name of the Suicide Squad, for those who didn’t know). I could be wrong but it is hard to see how this new team isn’t already redundant.

The development that I was actually excited to read in Justice League vs.

Suicide Squad #6 was that Batman asked Lobo to join the Justice League. I repeat, Batman asked Lobo to join the Justice League - and since Lobo owes him a favour he might actually do it. I can’t wait to see how that turns out.

Since Tony Stark was killed (and by killed, I mean his mind downloaded into an AI) in the final issues of the recent Civil War II event (which is not worth reading, trust me) some readers might be wondering who will be running his company. Well, wonder no more: #3 of Invincible Iron Man saw Tony’s birth mother (a few years ago, Tony Stark was revealed to have been adopted) announce that she would be running Stark’s company in her absence. She is amazing. In one conversation, she puts a scheming board member in his place, and it was a lot of fun to read.

Also in that issue, the question of what Riri should call herself came up. Tony Stark suggested ‘Iron Heart’ and it has a certain ring to it, it makes her sound a bit like a knight.

Meanwhile, Captain America is (sadly) still an agent of Hydra. In last month’s issue of Captain America, Steve Rogers spoke up in favour of dismissing Maria Hill as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. In this issue, he is shown to be successful (and it looks like he is going to be the one to replace her), but not without Hill stealing some valuable defence plans out from under his nose. This is all seemingly leading up to Marvel’s next event (yes, they have already announced another one) Secret Empire (releasing in the spring).

Hulk #1 came out towards the end of January. For many, this may be the first time they see Jennifer Walters out of her hulk form. Despite the fact that she can control the transformation, the character usually opts to stay green.

The new Hulk series, however, opens with her struggling with the loss of her cousin and finding that she doesn’t draw comfort from her powers like she once did. She doesn’t even really transform in this issue. As opening issues go, it is promising and worth checking out, even if (like me) you haven’t been reading

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many (or any) Hulk comics recently.

The question of whether you need to have read certain comic books before you can understand any of the superhero books currently on the shelves is one that has dogged the industry for a while now. This question was at least partially behind DC’s infamous New 52 reboot in 2011. Marvel’s latest response to this is to publish a reading guide for its Marvel NOW! initiative. Giving Marvel NOW! a reading guide is ironic (fingers crossed that I used that word correctly) because the whole point of Marvel NOW! was initially to make Marvel’s comics more approachable to new readers. The fact that Marvel now feels this enterprise needs a guide is a sign it might have failed somewhat in that original objective,

or at the very least strayed from it.

Another point of contention for comic books is the price, and if you’re a fan of DC’s comics you could be about to pay more. From April, physical issues of Batgirl, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Batman Beyond, Batwoman, Blue Beetle, Cyborg, The Hellblazer, New Super-Man, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Super Sons, Supergirl, Superwoman, Teen Titans, Titans, and Trinity will be selling for $3.99 instead of $2.99, though DC has promised that readers who buy Rebirth comics digitally will not be affected by the price raise.

On February 11th, 2000 AD celebrated its 40th anniversary. In honour of the occasion, Rebellion (who owns the comic) has released an updated edition

of Thrill-Power Overload, a book that details the company’s long history.

2000 AD is one of the most prominent British comic books, home to such iconic characters as Judge Dredd. 2000 AD also marked the day with a big festival. I would like to extend huge congratulations to 2000 AD. I can’t wait to see what you do with the next forty years.

A lot of debate has gone into whether or not it was a good idea to make last year’s Ghostbusters movie a reboot instead of a passing-the-torch sequel (in the same vein as Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

Questionable cameos aside, the original team didn’t meet in the reboot, but all of that is set to change with a new comic coming out on March 22nd. The two teams will meet for the first time in Ghostbusters 101. One of the things that makes this crossover interesting is that, while there are some comparisons to be made between each team, the new team has its own characters rather than simply being reflections of the original four. It will be great to see how they react to each other.

If you’re a fan of long running manga Berserk, I have some good news for you.

Dark Horse will be publishing Volume 38 on July 5th.

I’m not sure how solid this last news item is, but DC might have hinted at a new event. The solicit for Trinity #7 mentions something called Divided We Fall. It isn’t mentioned anywhere in the solicit for #8 and my research didn’t reveal any further information either.

Only time will tell if this detail holds any importance. Also, if you were curious about the significance the appearance of the Comedian’s button in the Batcave (in DC Universe Rebirth), be sure to check out Batman/Flash crossover The Button taking place over the months of April and May. Gareth Evans can be contacted at: gareth.evans@starburstmagazine.com and tweeted @OneTrueGareth

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THE LATEST COMIC BOOK RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

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JUDGE DREDD: EVERY EMPIRE FALLS

writer: MiCHAeL CArrOLL / ArtiSt: VAriOUS / PUBLiSHer: reBeLLiON / reLeASe DAte: OUt NOw

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Since Judge Dredd first appeared in 2000 AD’s second issue, the dystopian world he inhabits has been fleshed out in great detail, exploring his turf of Mega-City One as well as various global locations, from Texas City to Brit-Cit. Over recent stories in both 2000 AD and its sister title Judge Dredd Megazine, writer Michael Carroll gave us a globe-spanning conspiracy thriller which brought in many of these locations.

This collection of those stories starts with New Tricks, in which Dredd and Irish Judge Fintan Joyce venture into the Undercity and encounter the sinister Goblin King. The volume’s arc builds momentum in Blood of Emeralds, in which Joyce and Dredd travel to Murphyville (future Ireland) to investigate the death of Joyce’s father. In The Grindstone Cowboys, Dredd’s out in the American wastelands, in pursuit of a raider gang, leading to a shocking cliffhanger that seemingly puts him out of action.

Following on from this, in the violent Dust to Dust, Chief Judge Hershey calls in reinforcements from Texas City, only for conflicts between both cities’ Judges to break out, while Dredd’s sort-of-clone Rico carries on pursuing those raiders.

And in The Lion’s Den, Joyce is back in Brit-Cit, on the run

due to the fall-out from a shooting back in Murphyville. All of these threads come together in the climactic Reclamation, with various heroes teaming up to end the schemes of Texas City’s Chief Judge Oswin.

If that all sounds like a lot to take in, it gets even more complicated; Carroll clearly knows this universe, bringing in various characters from past continuity, including the maverick Cursed Earth Koburn and the noir-esque detective Armitage.

The story also sees several changes in tone, with the battle in the Undercity reminiscent of a war movie, the violent wasteland action resembling Mad Max, and Joyce’s adventure in Brit-Cit like a John le Carré novel.

Yet somehow, all these disparate elements come together to form a gripping epic. Long-term 2000 AD readers will enjoy visiting a load of familiar locations and characters, while the more confused readers will still be entertained by the pacey plotting and brutal action.

Plus, like all good Dredd stories, there’s an element of political satire; as the Texan Judges gain control over Mega-City One, they impose stricter controls on mutie immigration and are particularly violent towards those from this oppressed class – no prizes for spotting the parallels with real life. The hateful Oswin’s familiarity makes her all the more effective as a villain.

Vast in scope and chock-full of continuity, Every Empire Falls may not be the ideal starting point for 2000 AD newbies, but it is an excellent Dredd epic, and a ruthlessly relevant one.

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THE DAMNED VOLUME 1: THREE DAYS DEAD

AUtHOr: CULLeN BUNN / ArtiSt: BriAN HUrtt, BiLL CrABtree / PUBLiSHer: ONi PreSS / reLeASe DAte: MArCH 21St

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In 1920s America, with soul-trafficking demon cabals standing in for organised crime families, cursed fixer Eddie is tasked with locating a kidnapped arbitrator who'd been trying to broker a shaky truce between his employers and a powerful rival. As unease and distrust threaten to erupt into an all-out gang war, Eddie must search the shadowy recesses of the criminal underworld to find the answers he seeks, even if it gets him killed. However many times.

Despite the demonic twist to the setting, The Damned is first and foremost a gangster tale. The underworld of macho criminals, glamorous women, cowardly informants and indulgence of endless vice is

HILO BOOK 2: SAVING

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD writer & ArtiSt: JUDD wiNiCK / PUBLiSHer: PUFFiN / reLeASe DAte: OUt NOw

presented in all its seedy glory in a perfect realisation of the Prohibition era; remove the supernatural elements and the story could easily be a subplot of Boardwalk Empire. As a result, it’s very much a character-driven story.

Despite being physically unintimidating, Eddie is a force to be reckoned with even when facing the most dangerous opponents. The full nature of his curse is never explicitly spelled out, but it becomes apparent that if someone touches his corpse, they suffer his death as he is returned to life. And as is often the case with characters for whom death is a minor inconvenience, Eddie has a habit of regularly getting himself killed in

One of the toughest things to do in the world of storytelling is to produce something that both adults and children can not only enjoy, but can find compelling and hilarious. Adults are jaded and tend to be above simplistic humour, whereas kids are new to the whole idea of Knock Knock jokes and get turned off by anything too involved.

Judd Winick’s series of graphic novels, Hilo, gets the mix right every time and with every gag. The plot of Hilo is quite silly. Hilo is a robot boy from another dimension, he shoots lasers out his hands, is hard to destroy and is super smart. His friends DJ and Gina are regular kids with bags of pluck and courage. Together, they help save the world from monsters.

Saving the Whole Wide World is the second book in the Hilo series and immediately picks up from the first one.

You can read them out of order and still be entertained, but reading them in order is more fun. Hilo has survived his encounter with the monster robot Razorwark, but in reality has become weakened.

Weird monsters start appearing around Gina and DJ’s hometown, and

variously gruesome ways. This also has the upshot of making him completely unflinching in the face of demonic power, not just from his curse making him functionally immortal, but also because after having been subjected to the worst that infernal powers have to offer, they no longer have anything with which to truly threaten him.

Three Days Dead is an interesting enough introduction to its world of soul bartering and infernal machinations, but aside from the demon-dealing aspects, it’s not much more than an archetypal gangster noir that offers what any fan of the genre will be widely familiar with. It’s only in the horror aspects that the story properly comes alive, such as a cursed man who has been transformed into a serpentine monstrosity or Eddie’s forays into the realm of the dead, hounded through a mist-shrouded purgatory by a mad creature with glowing red eyes. The Damned is an entertaining comic, certainly, but also ultimately indistinct.

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it’s up to Hilo and his friends to get rid of the beasties before Razorwark finds a way back to Earth. Despite this excitingsounding plot line, much of the book is taken up with Winick’s trademark anarchic humour. The characters run round trying to save the world and mostly shouting, making dumb jokes and trying not to get exploded.

Family life also plays an important part of the book and it’s sweet to see how the various brothers and sisters of the main cast respond to the utter weirdness that Hilo brings to their lives.

Winick (who is better known for his work on DC comics) brings steady pacing the comic. He also draws in a very cartoony style that enhances the sense of fun all the way through.

Hilo is great fun, is deeply silly and also has appropriate sad bits, so you claim that it’s serious art. Read it and then give it to a child that you quite like so they can grow to love comics. eD FOrtUNe

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ROBYN #1 AUtHOr: SiMON BirKS / ArtiSt: eGe AVCi / PUBLiSHer: BLUe FOX COMiCS / reLeASe DAte: FeBrUArY tBC Blue Fox Comics produce some of the most visually impressive and narratively interesting books in the indie comic book scene today. Previous books on their list include GONE, a haunting tale of loss, and supernatural horror tale Hexes: The Boy Who Came Closer. It’s easy to describe these books as art, because that’s exactly what they are - visually impressive works

THE MUMMY #3 writer: Peter MiLLiGAN / ArtiSt: rONiLSON Freire / PUBLiSHer: titAN / reLeASe DAte: OUt NOw

is designed to catch the eye in a specific way, making the storytelling feel both epic and effortless. Character design is clever and careful. Robyn herself is both terrifying and yet the picture of innocence.

Friar Tuck is decidedly dodgy and appropriately Gothic, and the rest of the supporting cast add to the mythic, gritty and yet fairy tale feel of the book.

Overall, this is a comic which embodies the fine traditions of British indie comics. It takes an old idea and makes it new. It subverts our expectations and demands that we re-think our assumptions, and it does all this with its tongue rammed ever so slightly in its cheek. It’s clever, it’s witty and it steps into the world of the strange without even blinking. It’s of the quality we've come to expect from the likes of 2000 AD, and is a fine example of the amazing work you can find in the modern indie scene.

Robyn will be available of the Blue Fox website and at all good comic conventions and the classier sort of comic shop. Blue Fox are also doing an online crowdfund for the book (which is pretty standard these days) and you should check them out to find out more.

will kill them all. When we last left her, Angel had briefly found her way to the Sect’s rivals the Pyramid Club, where youngest member Duncan had promised he could help her, before the Sect performed a prayer to compel Nebetah to return to them.

This issue kicks off with a flashback to 1880 that shows how the wealthy white men of the Sect came to learn about the blood-drinking ritual that has granted them immortality. In Luxor, they discover a still-youthful Kharis (who last issue had been shown betraying his former lover Nebetah so that he could gain immortality) and steal his secret.

Writer Peter Milligan continues to develop themes that ran through the previous two issues. The Sect might not have aged, but they are still a group of old, bigoted men who believe other cultures only exist to provide them with what they need. Their racism is nicely marked out in the opening scenes and their use of slavery, prostitution and other sinister schemes to fund the Sect is appropriate.

That said, the Pyramid Club (who split from the Sect decades ago in order to stop them) are no better. To them, Angel is a means to an end, and they care little for what will remain of her if they are successful. For both, women and the ceremonies and rituals of ‘ghastly’ other cultures are simply tools to be used.

As circumstances grow ever more desperate for all involved, dangerous choices are made that unleash even greater evils into the world. Milligan’s storytelling advances all of these themes further here.

As much as this is Angel’s story, which provides the emotional core, it’s also arguably as much about men who perceive their place in the world as disappearing doing whatever they can to hold onto their positions and power, and the political slant gives the story some wider depth and relevance. The art and colour continue to tell the story well and bring the myth of Egypt alive in modern London.

At the end of this issue, Hammer historian Marcus Hearn also continues his welcome look back over the studio’s related movies, this time focusing on The Mummy’s Shroud.

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After being possessed by the spirit of Nebetah, trafficked and abused young woman Angel, escaped onto the streets of London. The Sect of Anubis are desperate to get her back because if they don’t, Ammit, the demon dog devourer of souls,

that also happen to tell a story.

Their latest offering is called Robyn, which is pitched as a gender-flipped take on Robin Hood. Like most elevator pitches, however, it falls substantially short of what’s actually going on here. Robyn is a riff on a traditional tale, but it’s also much more than that.

Firstly, the gender of the lead protagonist isn’t a gimmick. The character isn’t overly sexualised, there’s no cheesy ‘woman doing a man’s job’ approach or any of that nonsense. What we have is a young person who lives in a medieval world trying to do the best by their own conscience.

She is aided by her friend Tuck, who is a mysterious monk, rather than a jolly fat bloke who likes eating lots of food. We also meet what first appears to be a genderflipped Marian, but is actually another important part of the Robin Hood lore. It’s a clever turn around.

The artwork is nothing short of gorgeous. Robin Hood is traditionally seen as a bit of a pagan parable, with lots of greenery and a nature sensibility. This tends to be thrown in with themes of rebellion to create something bright, brash and loud.

Robyn is different, of course. The book is mostly soft autumn colours, with the palette subtly changing to indicate mood and theme to the reader.

The layout is also splendidly well done. The pacing is superb and each panel

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

ANIME-NATION GHOST IN THE SHELL Inspires Soft-Body Robot

Soft robotics are fast becoming the latest major development in creating realistic robots, using materials like silicone to simulate lifelike movement and something truer to the touch. And here ‘major’ is the operative word, as an engineer who’s been dabbling in ‘soft-body’ tech has been influenced by Ghost in the Shell.

The famous octobot might have got the wiggle down, but Takuya Umedachi from the University of Tokyo has taken things a step further, building a bot that can actually be controlled. Using a device similar to a video game controller, Umedachi showed off the bot’s moves in an impressive YouTube clip.

Anime adaptation of FATE/APOCRYPHA slated for 2017 The manga adaption of the Fate/Apocrypha light novels may have been last year’s big Fate news, but now we have the anime adaptation to look forward to. Charlotte’s Yoshiyuki Asai will be directing the series at A-1 Pictures, with original author Yūichirō Higashide penning the script himself. The world might be going to hell in the proverbial handbasket, but at least anime in 2017 is looking comforting.

FULL METAL PANIC! Return Teases Details Manga First with Reality-Based Boys-Love Title With shows like Yuri!!! on ICE beginning to break the mould for how gay relationships can be depicted in anime and manga, it’s safe to say it’s high time to break away from the current boys-love status quo. Manga artist Kamome Hamada has answered the call, and has already started to fill the gap in the market with her new manga Tatoeba Konna Koi no Hanashi (For Example, a Story of This Kind of Love). This is the first ever BL manga to be based on a true story. We’re just hoping an English translation isn’t too far off.

2016 wasn’t all doom and gloom, with news that mech fan favourite Full Metal Panic! was making a comeback. Aside from a spring date and working title, details were sadly absent… until now. Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory is based on the novel’s sixth volume, but more exciting is the confirmation that the full original voice cast will reprise their roles. Well, except for Nozomu Sasaki who voiced Yang Jun-Kyu. Boasting returning staff, including original novelist Shoji Gatoh on series composition and scriptwriting, and original character design and chief animation director, it’s bound to be a treat worth waiting for.

TRANSFORMERS Designer Builds Real Robot to Aid Fukushima Visual effects artist Vitaly Bulgarov is in the midst of a new project, his eventual aim to aid Fukushima, the prefecture of Japan worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011. The thirteen-foot ‘robot-powered suit’ is being developed in South Korea under the name Method-2. Far from being a mere CG indulgence, Bulgarov said that the build is a real robot, with many potential real-world applications. His new design, based on an original prototype, is “a modified version of that robotic vehicle [that] is already in development and planned to operate in the Fukushima disaster area”.

Oscars Nominate THE RED TURTLE for Best Animated Feature

ANIME

Despite being officially listed for consideration from the Academy, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name bizarrely wasn’t nominated. Yet out of the three eligible anime movies, it was the Ghibli and Wild Bunch co-production La tortue rouge (The Red Turtle) that pipped the shortlist for Best Animated Feature. Dutch-British animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, who had previously worked on Oscar-winning short film Father and Daughter, directed alongside Grave of the Fireflies’ Isao Takahata as artistic producer. The film’s story and storyboards were finished in Koganei, Tokyo, where Studio Ghibli holds its HQ, and it was then animated in France.

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REVIEWS

the lAtest Anime releAses reViewed And rAted

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN BOX SET27

ANIME

DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: HAYATO DATE / WRITERS: VARIOUS / STARRING: MAILE FLANAGAN, YURI LOWENTHAL, DAVE WITTENBERG, SKIP STELLRECHT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Naruto Shippuden Box Set 27 covers the last thirteen episodes of Season 15 of the long running anime. It picks up at a point where the characters are in the middle of a great war, and the tone of the episodes reflects that. Naruto Shippuden is dark, but it isn’t gritty. The themes and issues present within the episode always feel like they are treated as they deserve, without the need for the mood to be either forced, cheesy, or overly serious.

These episodes also have a reflective quality to them. There are several points among the episodes in which characters have long overdue talks about their past, and the Nine-Tails even tells everyone what it thinks of Naruto. Long-time fans will particularly appreciate the conversation that Sasuke has with his brother, and the return of a certain character whose identity won’t be spoiled in this review.

The episodes move at a good pace,

and there is generally a good mixture of action and dialogue amongst them.

The only time this balance really fails is when one of the characters explains one of their techniques (or jitsus as they are called in the anime). As appreciated as the explanations are, they do tend to get close to being lectures and this does interrupt the flow somewhat.

Another flaw in the pacing of the episodes is the appearance of filler. The filler isn’t bad, it provides backstory to one of the factions and is told well. The characters within the filler all benefit from solid characterisation, and the episodes have the feel of a classic tragedy to them. The problem is that the filler interrupts a battle that previous episodes spent so much time building up to. It is rather jarring when the battle stops in favour of episode after episode of backstory, with no mention of the transition. This filler affects this box in the same way it would have been

affected if a handful of episodes had been taken from another season and mixed in with the other episodes present in this collection.

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 27 brings closure to old story lines, and allows previously written-off characters a chance to have a final moment in the spotlight. It also sows the seeds of new storylines, with the revelation of a certain character’s identity, and the exploration of how he is connected to the already established cast. Some episodes feel more like an interruption than an addition, but they make up for that by being engaging character pieces. Overall, the episodes within are good additions to the series and are well worth watching.

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100 MANGA ARTISTS HARDBACK / AUTHOR: VARIOUS / ARTISTS: VARIOUS / EDITOR: JULIUS WIEDEMANN / PUBLISHER: TASCHEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW been included, so their story is told in the broadest possible terms. By focusing on so many artists the book doesn’t have the space to go into the work it highlights in any great depth, or explain why they chose the specific examples that are present in the book.

One point that will divide readers is that the writing in the actual manga is all in Japanese (except for the odd English word on a sign in the background). The source material is Japanese, and, in fairness, the book is primarily concerned with showcasing the art, but the biographies talk a lot about the themes present in the writing. Having translations of what the characters were saying would have provided context that would help the readers better appreciate the art.

Ironically, this book might actually be best suited to people who aren’t already fans of manga, or at least, not hugely into it. It doesn’t provide much information, and depending on how much you know about

manga you may already know everything this book has to tell you. If you don’t know much about manga, this book could be helpful. By including such a wide array of work, 100 Manga Artists is ideally suited for those wishing to figure out whether manga might appeal to them, and what they should try reading first.

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100 Manga Artists is exactly what the title would suggest. In the book, readers will find examples of manga from 100 different artists. The work of each artist is accompanied by a brief bio, explaining who the artist is, how they got into manga, and the sort of work they are known for. This edition has been updated to include more recent artists.

The fact that this book includes the work of 100 artists provides both its strengths and its weaknesses. Because so much different manga is on display there is a great amount of variety. Readers will come across multiple genres and multiple artistic styles. Horror manga with great detail can be found next to romance manga with a more simplistic style.

The downside to having so many artists represented in the book is that the book subsequently has less time to spend on each of them individually. The two paragraphs discussing each entry is all the reader gets on why that artist has

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COSPLAY CATWALK

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

TINY TIGRESS COSPLAY STARBURST meets another fantastic convention-goer on the cosplay scene…

STARBURST: How did you get started with cosplaying?

Tiny Tigress Cosplay: I got a ticket to the concert tour of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of The Goddesses, and thought I have to try and make something for that. I made a hand-sewn Link costume and Hylian Shield, and found I loved the creative process of it, so have never looked back!

Who is your favourite character to dress as?

I love to cosplay strong female characters that I really like, so it’s hard to choose a favourite, but I’ll go with Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass. She’s such a badass character, and that makes her really fun to cosplay!

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COSPLAY

SANDY SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

How long do you spend making the costumes and how much do you usually budget for?

It varies for each cosplay and the quality of the material. A lot of the characters I cosplay have spandex suits or outfits, so I’ve become a bit of a spandex-sewing whizz and they don’t take long to make. I try to improve my skills with each costume I make, so I’ve started doing costumes that have more props, so builds take longer. In terms of budgets, it can range from anything between £20 to £100. The more complicated the character, the more it costs to make, naturally.

What costumes do you have planned for the future?

I have an endless list! I am currently working on a Tiny Tina cosplay from Borderlands, as well as Poison Ivy. I have a lot more Marvel characters planned this year, but also want to work on bigger projects such as the version of Zelda from Ocarina of Time.

Find out more about Tiny Tigress Cosplay at facebook.com/ tinytigresscosplay, Twitter @AikiSaul, and Instagram @tinytigresscosplay.

Words: Martin Unsworth

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PIXEL JUICE

NEWS AND PREVIEWS IN GAMING

BY LEE PRICE

COMING SOON

BULLETSTORM: FULL CLIP EDITION

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC RELEASE DATE: APRIL 7TH

Game Announcements Made For Switch

We’ve heard a little more about the games that are coming to Nintendo’s new console. Skyrim has been confirmed, though that should come as no surprise to those who watched the Switch reveal trailer. The console will also get a ‘deluxe’ edition of Mario Kart 8, though the early word is that the game won’t feature any new tracks. However, other new content will be added so we’re guessing maybe another character or two and possibly a new weapon.

Fighting fans should be prepared for an HD remake of Ultra Street Fighter II, which we are sure will be nice and shiny but is basically a re-tread of a game that has been remade approximately 3,000 times across multiple platforms.

Fire Emblem fans can also rejoice, as another mainline series game is seeing a western release, making it the first to hit consoles since 2007. The game was announced during the Fire Emblem Nintendo Direct on January 19th, but there’s not a whole lot of info out there other than it is coming to the Switch and will be released at some point in 2018.

Minecraft and Super Bomberman R are also going to be making their way to the console, as is a sequel to Splatoon, all of which should satisfy the social gamers among you.

However, one game that is definitely not coming to the console is Borderlands 3, which is apparently all down to Nintendo if a Twitter post from Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford is to be believed. Despite this, the fact that there were apparently talks to bring the game to Nintendo’s console may indicate it has a little more power than we may have expected.

GAMES

COMING SOON

LITTLE NIGHTMARES

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC RELEASE DATE: APRIL 28TH Now this one looks intriguing. Little Nightmares is the story of a little girl called Six who has been forced to work in a vast underwater resort that was built for the elite of the world to enjoy. She eventually gives herself a chance at freedom but she must first navigate the surreal world of The Maw that the developers promise will confront gamers with a lot of their childhood fears. There are small elements of BioShock present in some of the game’s presentation but we see this puzzler being a much different experience. Hopefully, this underwater world can give Rapture a run for its money.

Bulletstorm isn’t the first game we’d point to when talking about previous-gen games that need the remaster treatment. A decent enough FPS, the game offered some really cool set pieces and very sophomoric humour. It was a good way to waste ten hours but after that we imagine many of those who played weren’t exactly anxious to go through it again. Still, Gearbox Software obviously feels otherwise and we have a remastered edition coming. Expect shinier graphics, a few new levels and an ‘Overkill’ campaign mode.

DEUS EX May Be On Hold If we’re all absolutely honest with ourselves, the last Deus Ex game was a little bit of a disappointment. Sure, the virtual Prague created for the game looked absolutely stunning, but the mechanics of the title didn’t really move too far forward from those in Human Revolution and the apartheid-esque story was clunky at best.

This was all compounded by the ending, which was as open-ended as you can get and made it very clear that Mankind Divided was a stopgap game. Still, at least we have the third to look forward to, right?

Well, apparently not, if recent rumours are to be believed. The word is that Square Enix has completely scaled back on production of the final Deus Ex game in the trilogy, to the point where it has been put on hiatus.

A lot of people are pointing towards the company’s recent partnership with Marvel to create a series of games as being the main culprit for the decision, coupled with less than brilliant sales for Mankind Divided.

If true, it will leave tons of gamers out there without any sort of resolution to the plot, which is particularly frustrating seeing as Mankind Divided purposefully left a lot of plot holes gaping wide open.

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COMING SOON

YOOKA-LAYLEE

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, SWITCH, PC, LINUX, MAC RELEASE DATE: APRIL 11TH

BREATH OF THE WILD To Be Final First-Party Wii U Game With the Nintendo Switch bearing down on us, it should come as no surprise that Nintendo is going to have to draw their focus away from the Wii U. That was made official earlier this month when it was confirmed that the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last first-party game for the ailing console.

Speaking recently, Reggie Fils-Aime did mention that online services for the console are going to stay operable for a long while yet, which is great news for all of those Mario Kart and Splatoon fans out there.

COMING SOON

This Kickstarter-funded game from the people who brought us the brilliant Banjo Kazooie is finally ready to be unleashed on the world and we have to admit we are a little excited. The game features Yooka and Laylee as they start exploring the world outside of their home town in search of the mythical ‘Pagies’ that will give them access to more of the Grand Tomes. Their quest is to stop Capital B and Dr. Quack from absorbing all of the literature in the world. This should be a cracking slice of platforming action the likes of which we don’t see enough of these days.

Marvel and Square Enix Team Up We mentioned it in passing when talking about the Deus Ex situation, but the recently announced collaboration between Marvel and Square Enix deserves a little more than that. In addition to that, the company has also partnered with Eidos Montreal.

The companies have announced they will be teaming up to develop a number of games based on the Marvel universe, with the first being an Avengers game made by the fine folks at Crystal Dynamics, who have brought us the last few Tomb Raider games.

Unconfirmed reports are also claiming that Eidos Montreal has started work on a Guardians of the Galaxy game, hot on the heels of the Telltale game that was announced a little while back.

No other plans have been announced yet, but this partnership definitely has some potential. After all, we could definitely see an Avengers game working with Final Fantasy XV’s battle system.

EA Wary About Switch One of the biggest problems the Nintendo Switch is going to face is finding support from the major third-party developers. Failure in that task has contributed to the deaths of many consoles, including SEGA’s Saturn and Dreamcast.

While Ubisoft seems to be excited about what the Switch is doing, EA is a little more cautious and has announced they have no immediate plans to bring any games to the console beyond the latest FIFA title.

While Executive Vice President Patrick Söderlund talked about how the company would be there once the platform was launched in a recent interview, he also stated: “We have the benefit of being a platform-agnostic company. We will be at whatever platform the consumers are. New hardware is always a positive for our industry. It allows us to push forward.”

To us, that suggests that EA is taking a wait-and-see approach to the Switch and will start development in earnest if the console proves to be a success.

Even More Nintendo Switch Details PORTAL KNIGHTS

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE RELEASE DATE: APRIL 28TH

GAMES

Already available on PCs, Portal Knights combines Minecraft with classic action-RPGs like The Legend of Zelda, to create a really cool game that sees you crafting your own weapons while also taking on the scores of monsters and other enemies that roam the landscapes. The crux of the game lies in exploring the massive sandbox world that is presented to you, which can be done on your lonesome or with a max of four people. It should be a great choice for those who love Minecraft but fancy something a little bit different.

So with the launch of the Nintendo Switch drawing nearer, it’s about time Nintendo told us a little bit more about the console. Happily, the company has released a spec list that drills a little deeper into what it has to offer.

As expected, there will be proprietary Nintendo Switch game cards, with the console itself weighing barely anything at all, coming in at 0.65lbs without the Joy-Cons attached.

It will feature an NVIDIA customised Tegra processor and have a rather paltry 32GB of storage space, though that can be boosted with Micro SD cards, which is good seeing as 32GB is barely over the size of some of the triple-A titles being released on PS4 and Xbox One at the moment.

The battery life is also a slight cause for concern, as it can go for three to six hours before needing a recharge, which takes a further three hours.

There’s no real news on the true power of the console yet, though, so we don’t know if it will be capable of playing the latest PS4 and Xbox One releases.

We’re really hoping for the console to find some success, but it is still a little difficult to see where it is going to fit into the current gaming landscape and the specs we have so far aren’t really filling us with too much excitement. Is there a need for a new mobile gaming platform when there are so many smartphones and tablets around? We guess the question will be answered on March 3rd when the console is set to launch.

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COMING SOON

MICRO MACHINES WORLD SERIES

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC RELEASE DATE: APRIL 21ST

APOCALYPSE NOW Video Game on Kickstarter Famed movie director Francis Ford Coppola is currently working on an Apocalypse Now video game. That is, if the game gets funded on Kickstarter. A fairly small $900,000 target has been set and it is likely we will know the outcome by the time you are holding this magazine in your hands.

The game is going to eschew the shooter format that other developers might have taken, instead focusing on building tension, offering dialogue choices to players and generally playing like a tactical RPG. It all sounds very interesting and the rewards for contributing are pretty cool, including a number of props from the movie. With Coppola’s backing, this could turn into something special if it gets funded.

COMING SOON

PERSONA 5

GAMES

PLATFORM: PS3, PS4 RELEASE DATE: APRIL 4TH It’s been a very long time coming, but Atlus and Deep Silver are finally set to deliver the eagerly awaited sequel to Persona 4. That game was perhaps the last truly great title to be launched on the PS2, with its mix of in-game social elements, RPG tropes and the murder mystery that underpinned the whole thing combining to make it a really engaging experience. A lot of work has gone into Persona 5, which has led to numerous delays, so we’re really hoping this one lives up to the hype and delivers the brilliance we know the series is capable of.

There was a time when Codemasters’ Micro Machines games stood at the pinnacle of social gaming. With special cartridges that had extra controller ports built in, the game encouraged people to get together and engage in a little manic racing with a plethora of vehicles from the toy range. The purity of the experience has been diluted somewhat in the years since, but it has been a long time since we saw Micro Machines rear its head.

The emergence of online play makes this a really exciting title and we can see ourselves losing hours to this.

Namco Founder Passes Away

For almost as long as there has been gaming, there has been Namco. The company, which shot to fame with Pac-Man and is one of the longest-running developers out there, has been responsible for some of the greatest games of all time.

So it is with heavy hearts that we bid adieu to Masaya Nakamura, the founder of the company and the ‘father of PacMan’, who passed away at the age of 91.

A statement released by Namco honoured the memory of a man who many hold responsible for ushering in the ‘golden era’ of arcade gaming back in the 1980s and we at STARBURST send our condolences.

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THE LATEST GAMING RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

DILUVION DEVELOPER: ARACHNID GAMES / PUBLISHER: GAMBITIOUS DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT / PLATFORMS: PC, MAC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW in this regard, as you divert power about systems and change orders at will, giving the player more direct control over how they fight.

While it might still be extremely stats-based, it nevertheless permits a few opportunities to demolish a more powerful foe. In addition to this, the nine submarine classes on offer are extremely diverse in terms of design and capabilities, and no ship handles in exactly the same way, meaning you have room to tailor your gaming experience.

What’s most notable, however, is the exploration Diluvion offers. There are more caches of items, more lost treasures and far more encounters to brave across the ocean, so you can still be running into new items dozens of hours into the game.

While you’re hardly tripping over such opportunities and there are long stretches of bleak silence, there is always a sense of life and vibrancy to this world. This is further enhanced by the constant risk of death, as your submarine can only take a few knocks at a time, and without the usual hand-holding you can bump into something that will utterly overpower your tiny sub. You are always at risk, but you are always rewarded for finding ways to beat the odds.

Unfortunately, Diluvion often manages to defeat itself thanks to some very notable blind spots. Rather than permitting some control over your fate, many later game

aspects seem to rob you of resources you desperately need, artificially ramping up the difficulty as a result. The lack of checkpoints means that you can lose hours of gameplay at a time, and often for the stupidest of reasons. Chief among these is a particularly irritating bug that can abruptly stop you docking with ports, meaning you can survive countless engagements only to starve to death because the game actively screwed you over. Plus, the controller is the only way to go with this one, as the mouse interface is a complete joke.

This is ultimately going to be the marmite of 2017’s indie video games.

Some will love the lore, the thematics, the design and the slower, methodical pace of the title. Others will tear their hair out in frustration at the obtuse controls, odd bugs and sheer frustration factor of the late game limitations. Still, while it desperately needs a few patches in places, the beauty of this utterly stunning world will likely keep calling you back for more. If you’re a fan of FTL, Sunless Sea and the like and have a penchant for Dark Souls-style suicidal conflicts, give this one a look.

CALLUM SHEPHARD

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GAMES

There is something to be said for the beauty of a post-apocalyptic world.

Whether it’s cities overrun by wildlife or repurposed relics of technology, from Fallout to Guns of Icarus there are always marvels to behold in any environment.

However, Diluvion might well have beaten the lot of them, and it’s one of the most promising games of 2017 so far.

Set in a flooded world of derelicts, sea monsters, and submarines, you’re given the option to pilot a steampunk submersible about the oceans in search of new horizons. Every crewman recruited will have their own story, you’ll be forced to map by points you recognise, and everything from air to food will need to be rationed.

Now, many of you are already thinking the same thing: isn’t that just Sunless Sea? Well, the answer is yes, the two games are very similar, but it seems as if Arachnid Games used Failbetter’s creation as a guideline for their own work, while at the same time sticking to their own story. This is far more steampunk than Cthulhu, and while it simply cannot beat Failbetter in terms of writing or atmosphere, it comes close, while also amping up the more active mechanics.

While combat here is methodical, there are more opportunities to outmanoeuvre, outrun and strafe enemy vessels, while also pausing to order about your crew. It’s more akin to the old Star Trek Armada games

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RESIDENT EVIL 7

GAMES

DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: CAPCOM / PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW There’s a specific cycle that seems to have afflicted Resident Evil since the very beginning. You know the exact one - where the series will suffer an abrupt identity crisis, produce a few bad games and then revive itself once more. We last saw this with the rapid decline in quality following Resident Evil 4’s revamp, which ended with 6 almost killing the franchise. However, the years since that game’s release have been well spent, and 7 proves to be a new high point for the entire series.

Taking more inspiration from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre than the typical Evil Dead influences, the game breaks from many conventions. Along with switching over to a first person view, it sees new protagonist Ethan searching for his missing ex, eventually tracking her down to a seemingly abandoned house.

Unfortunately for him, she’s not entirely well in the head, and its other occupants aren’t too happy with Ethan.

Distancing itself from Umbrella or the more iconic monsters, 7 focuses on delivering a claustrophobic and borderline sadistic experience for its protagonist.

Robbed of allies, weapons or even the basic familiarity established by past games, everything from the near-perpetual darkness to unsettling background noises keeps the player on edge. There is quite literally nowhere that is safe here, and even the basic enemies will constantly prove to be a challenge. Yet, despite this, the variety of them on hand and their tenacity avoids the Outlast problem of turning antagonists into simple obstacles for you to overcome.

Best of all, however, the combat is back to its more methodical and tense self, rather than the action-orientated outings of previous sequels. While weapons are plentiful ammunition is scarce, and

many fast-moving foes will often soak up more bullets than they’re worth. It can be almost impossible to predict where they will show up at times as well, meaning you can run down the same corridor nine times but bump into something nasty on the tenth. Running is usually your best option to avoid these foes, and hiding always helps, but rather than the usual air vents or lockers, the player has to make do with piles of debris or tight corners. This rewards skill more than just recognising certain bits of the environment. Combined with the excellent environmental designs, it makes the dilapidated house one of the best settings the series has had since Spencer Mansion.

The backstory of the infection and its exploration takes a new turn here. As before you have the expected narrative logs and books to help flesh things out, there are also VHS tapes that are fully playable and provide some of the game’s best scares. So, even if you’re not one to typically pick up text logs, there’s much more incentive to do so if you want to get the best out of this game.

The faults here arise more towards the end than anywhere else, and relate more to the narrative than the core gameplay.

One character-driven choice proves to be practically arbitrary in how little it influences events, and the final boss behaves like something out of an entirely different game. Once you start fighting it, 7 effectively switches gears and starts mimicking Dead Space for the finale. For what had been a methodical, tense and dramatic story, it proves to be extremely underwhelming and is paired up with a twist you can see coming from the start.

Once its over, the story also just sputters out, and is so open-ended it seems almost

built for DLC to be tacked on at a later date. Little is answered and only some of the basic issues are resolved, with a few big issues hanging over the story, which can leave players unsatisfied. Oh, and the VR mode is extremely problematic, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Still, despite stumbling at the final hurdle, the rest of Resident Evil 7 is nevertheless one of the best horror titles we have seen since Amnesia: The Dark Descent. This will likely be the game all other survival horror experiences will be measured against for years to come.

CALLUM SHEPHARD

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YAKUZA 0 DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: SEGA / PLATFORM: PS3, PS4 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW sheer variety of weapons and techniques ranges from gritty to insane, as you can end up wielding anything from a switchblade to an honest-to-Conan broadsword or giant fan.

Even if you do become tired of punching people, there are also a multitude of mini-games and secondary quests to keep you entertained. This is arguably what the series is best known for as it helps to bring the world to life, permitting you do to anything from owning real estate and protection rackets to bowling and pool. Each has been so well designed they could have stood out as a solo title without any complaints, but even on top of them you have arcades running a few classic titles. Really, at almost any time you can run into a set of doors beneath the SEGA logo on the street and boot up a game of Space Harrier.

However, there are a few issues that definitely hold this back from perfection. A big one proves to be its surprising restrictive nature. While this seems at first as if it might be an open world experience, the game has many areas blocked off by invisible walls. In addition to this, gameplay sequences can be limited to mere minutes long fights between lengthy cutscenes that, while thoroughly entertaining, have the habit of overwhelming the game itself.

This is only further harmed by an obvious upgrade in terms of graphics, as Yakuza 0 was originally intended for the PlayStation 3. So, while the characters themselves are presented in all their high definition glory, they’re often waltzing about low resolution backdrops and cardboard buildings. None of this manages to kill the game, but it makes the experience increasingly tiresome at

several crucial points. Plus, and it has to be said, more than a few mini-games enter some rather questionable territory by western standards at times, especially the phone sex options. Yes, that’s actually in there.

Still, while it is certainly flawed in places and stumbles into a few major personal peeves, Yakuza 0 nevertheless manages to make it all work in the end. Between extremely tight combat, two engaging storylines and excellent voice acting across the board, it’s definitely an outing any PlayStation 4 owner should look into. Well, unless you hate subtitles, anyway.

CALLUM SHEPHARD

8

GAMES

For the average gamer, Yakuza is likely one of those series you have occasionally seen but never been pushed into playing.

At first glance, it’s easy to mistake this for a lesser man’s Grand Theft Auto, with more Japanese flavouring thrown in. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and this latest iteration of the series is one of the strongest to date.

Serving as a prequel to the main series, Yakuza 0 sees protagonists Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima becoming tied up in a “Vacant Lot” power struggle between several shadowy organisations. However, after Kiryu is suspected of murder and Goro refuses to assassinate a seemingly innocent target, each is forced to go on the run from those they once served.

The actual core story to Yakuza 0 proves to be one of its strongest selling points. With excellent voice acting and cutscenes that rival the Metal Gear games in terms of execution and quality, it manages to remain thoroughly engaging despite the inherent goofiness of certain scenes or ideas. This is particularly true with Goro, with an introduction that is dripping with a vast number of overplayed tropes, but manages to pull them off with such a straight-faced manner that it becomes endearing. Blocking, suplexing and countering here never gets old, and just as you tire of one move, another one will arise for you to have fun with.

However, as great as the storytelling truly is, the core combat is the icing on the cake, playing out like the love-child of Tekken and Sleeping Dogs. Flashy, colourful and obscenely over-the-top, it can leave you spin-kicking six people at a time, or pitching a man out of a six-storey window via a super-move. The

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DOOM: THE BOARD GAME DESIGNER: JONATHAN YING / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Nostalgia is a funny thing. Often, trying an old thing that you were once fond of can be a mistake, as the mind tends to gloss over the boring bits. Doom is seemingly immune to this effect. The space marine vs. demon first-person shooter is as fun as it always has been, and subsequent updates of the video game have

simply added to the core game, keeping its simple violence as entertaining as always.

Doom: The Board Game has been blessed with a similar power. The original board game came out in in 2004 and though it was fun, it suffered from being a bit too, well, board-gamey.

The latest version streamlines

STAR WARS: ARMADA – THE CORELLIAN CONFLICT

GAMES

DESIGNERS: MAX BROOKE, ALEX DAVY, MICHAEL GERNES, SAM STEWART / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Star Wars: Armada has always been a game that is epic in scope. It is, after all, the game in which you send very large space ships against even larger spaceships, whilst tiny, tiny models of TIE fighters and X-wings swarm across the board taking pot shots at anything they can get near.

The Corellian Conflict expands the game into a campaign; multiple games in which the outcome of one fight can impact the outcome of other games. This means you and

your Rebel playing buddies can gang up on your chums who play the poor Imperial fleet (who are probably just minding their own business and oppressing alien scum). Each player designs a fleet of 400 points, and obviously you have to have an even number of people in the campaign (up to six). You’re limited on the number of unique cards, obviously. So only one Darth Vader at any time, for example. You draw mission cards and these give you cool things like space stations.

These are useful. They

everything and keeps the essential Doom-ness of the game. Simple, violent fun.

The core game is as follows: you pick a space marine. They don’t really have names; Alpha, Beta, etc. What they have is different weapons, guns mostly.

Each gun has its own set of cards, which allow you to blow away monsters in different and clever ways. The actions are worked out so you can do one big thing each round and lots of cooler small things, too.

Then you and your four-person squad read the mission brief and blows away demon monster things. The missions may involve picking stuff up as well, but mostly you’re rolling dice, making cool moves and blowing up horrors.

The game is designed for two to five players. Up to four of those players are marines. The other player controls all the horrors from the world of Doom. These are wonderfully crafted pieces that look really cool on the board.

Everything from Cacodemons to The Baron of Hell and Cyberdemons come in the box, making it a really varied selection of shapes and sizes. The player

in charge of the monsters has a host of options to stop the marines, and this mostly involves flooding the table with plastic creeps and unleashing hellfire on the hapless humans.

Like the video game, features such as extra guns and health are available for the marines.

They can also gain extra skills by doing enough damage to the monsters. These are called Glory Kills. This, of course, means that the marines are constantly trying to go for the coolest kills, which often gives the adversary enough time to recover.

The game itself is very easy to reconfigure. The board game can be assembled in all sorts of ways, and the options available to the player are both simple and wide. It emulates the joy of the video game very closely, whilst keeping the friendliness and intimacy unique to board gaming.

Doom: The Board Game is as much fun as Doom itself. We dare you to play it without getting a big grin on your face and making ‘pew pew’ noises.

can give you the edge in future battles. It’s worth pointing out that over the course of the campaign, ships can be become scarred, meaning that they’ve gotten battle damaged in a fight. Fail to spend resources on healing a ship and you could lose it entirely in the next battle.

You log who takes control of what as the game continues and a nifty map and some worksheets are provided. The campaign can (optionally) end in one huge epic battle.

Rules for different player numbers and table layouts are provided, and the whole thing is neatly put together and very comprehensive. If you’re not into campaigns, the set does come with 12 new objectives and 16 new squadron cards, which is something any Armada player can enjoy. Some of these are variants on familiar themes. Of special interest is Captain Janus, a TIE Bomber Squadron that lets you always gain an accuracy token if you stay in formation.

Imperials also get Ciena Ree, who’s great at tackling swarms.

We also get a Rogue Squadron card for you X-wing pilots, which works as a nifty bombing card. Shara Bey makes A-Wings even tougher, and also happens to be Poe Dameron’s mother,

which is cool.

This is a strong expansion, that adds much needed rules cards, and tools to Armada. It’s likely that as a regular Armada player you have friends who also play regularly, and this set breathes new life into the game without cluttering your shelf with more spaceships. A strong expansion and one you’ll likely get a lot of use out of.

ED FORTUNE

9

ED FORTUNE

8

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RETRO BYTES

LIGHT BYTES

(Part whatever-made-up-number-we’re-up-to-now)

H

iya folks! Welcome to the ropey old games section once again. If you’re reading these pages then it probably means you’ve already gone through the rest of the magazine. Did you enjoy it? We do hope so. Well, you’re nearly done now, and it’ll soon be time to find some new bathroom reading. While you drop the kids off for the final time this issue, let’s check out some nonsense from a time when controllers had wires and the Internet didn’t exist!

TOILET KIDS

GAMES

(PCE, 1992)

The Mega Drive had M.U.S.H.A. and the SNES had Axelay. Two of the greatest vertically scrolling shoot ‘em ups of the 16-bit era. That’s all well and good for Sega and Nintendo fans, but what delights were in store for those who – for whatever reason – had chosen to buy a TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine instead of one of the more popular consoles?

Coming straight from the Land Of The Rising Bum, it’s... Toilet Kids.

So there’s this little boy who gets up in the middle of the night to pay a visit to the smallest room in the house. He’s quite happily sitting there minding (and doing) his own business, when suddenly a huge surge of water shoots out of the

A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD OF RETRO GAMING WITH CHRIS JACKSON

toilet, sending him flying up into the air and back down into the toilet itself. As far as we can make out, the aim of the game is to fly around inside the toilet and find your way back home!

As you might expect, many of the enemies in Toilet Kids follow a certain theme. There are turtles with poo-shaped shells, crabs with bare backsides and a helicopter whose entire front end is a bottom. Most of the enemies shoot brown bullets, apart from the disembodied... for the sake of politeness we’ll call them ‘winkies’... which shoot yellowy green projectiles.

The aforementioned helicopter even has rapid fire in the form of clusters of brown pellets, surrounded by clouds of toxic green gas. We can only imagine what that’s supposed to represent!

At the end of the game, after a final showdown with the King of Poo (that’s probably his name – it’s all in Japanese, so we’re honestly not quite sure), our little hero finds his underpants and that’s the end of that.

We’re not recommending Toilet Kids because it’s an amazing game – truth be told it’s incredibly average – but it really is something that needs to be experienced at least once. The ‘why does this exist?’ factor is absolutely off the charts with this one, possibly more than any other game we’ve ever come across. Unbelievable.

BILLY HATCHER AND THE GIANT EGG

(GC, 2003)

Something a little more wholesome now, with a should-have-been-but-neverwas Saturday morning kid’s cartoon in video game form.

The story goes that there’s a place

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called Morning Land that is inhabited by chickens. One day, an evil raven appears with his army of crows, and they set about terrorising the land and turning daylight into eternal night. Meanwhile, Billy Hatcher is playing in the forest with his friends when he sees a lone chick about to be finished off by a couple of crows. Billy jumps to the rescue, and the chicken sweeps him off into the sky, eventually arriving in Morning Land where Billy must save the day (quite literally)!

What a load of nonsense, right?

Well, yes, but some of the best games have stupid stories. BHATGE is a 3D platformer with a little light puzzle solving and a big old dollop of fastpaced mayhem. Billy is next to useless on his own, only being able to run and jump, but as soon as he gets his hands on an egg, he’s able to do all sorts of stuff – bouncing high in the air, running at super speed, rolling over enemies and throwing eggs at bad guys. Collecting fruit makes Billy’s egg grow, to the point where the egg will ‘mature’ and Billy can hatch the egg by gleefully shouting ‘cockadoodledoo’ at it. Contents of these eggs differ depending on what colour it is – they might be upgrades for Billy, or possibly an animal friend who will accompany you for the rest of the level, allowing Billy to use their powers.

Each of Morning Land’s seven worlds are vibrant and colourful, with insanely catchy soundtracks throughout. Characters are memorable, and cute without being annoying. There are a total of eight levels within each world, all with their own objectives to be met before Billy can continue to the next stage. The first few worlds are pretty straightforward, but around the halfway mark, the difficulty ramps up and it can offer quite a challenge to players wanting to complete every objective.

Despite its cartoonish style, this definitely isn’t just a game for kids.

Youngsters will enjoy it, no doubt about that, but there’s tons for grown-ups to enjoy as well. It’s a shame that Billy Hatcher was a commercial flop, as it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a sequel. But we do enjoy a cult hit around these parts, and this is very much one of those. Give this one a go, we promise you’ll have a cracking good time! (Sorry!)

RETRO FIGHTS: BRIAN CAGE but I was a Sega and Sony man mainly. We had this cool video store called Ray’s Video where you could spend a few bucks per hour to play whatever system and as many games as possible... I never hated Nintendo, but when someone would say it was better I’d have to drop the hammer. Kind of like how I equally enjoyed WCW and WWF, but if someone put WCW over, I had to dominate.

He’s not a man – he’s a machine! A standout of El Rey Network’s Lucha Underground, Brian Cage has been wowing crowds for several years now, using his superpowers of strength and agility to maximum effect all across the globe. But when he’s not crushing his foes with Weapon X, it’s another story entirely...

STARBURST: What are your earliest gaming memories?

Brian Cage: Mario Bros and Duck Hunt on the NES were huge staples. I remember the whole family getting into it and my mom covering her eye with a wash rag to play Duck Hunt - and who didn’t try to shoot that damn dog?! And I’ll always remember the secret infinite lives by repeatedly hitting a turtle shell into the stairs on Super Mario Bros.

What consoles have you owned over the years?

NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, Game Boy Color, N64, PS2, GameCube, PS3, PS Vita, PS4...

I’ve played plenty of Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as well as Game Boy Advance, DS/3DS, Virtual Boy, Dreamcast, arcades, etc.

Are there any games or consoles you really wanted in your younger days but didn’t have?

I played a lot of Super Nintendo and N64,

What’s the main appeal of retro games?

I was a big gamer, I loved it and played with my brothers and all my friends.

Great pastime at family functions, too. It definitely gave an escape, and an outlet to get lost in. Compared to today though, shit was hard. Limited guys and continues, or passwords... Makes memory cards and hard drives a true blessing for games of today. Before, it was usually ‘beat it in one sitting or not at all’. Stiff.

What are your all-time favourite games?

The Resident Evil series, Oddworld, Tony Hawk, Streets Of Rage, Shinobi 3, Mario 3, Crash Bandicoot, Road Rash, WCW/nWo Revenge, the Smackdown games, Tecmo Superbowl, Punch Out, and from the new school, Uncharted and The Last Of Us. Any favourite/proudest gaming moments?

Beating Resident Evil 2 as Claire in one sitting without dying or saving! Also feel pretty proud when I beat arcade games like X-Men, Alien vs. Predator, Time Crisis 2 and 3, The Simpsons, and Metal Slug.

New games vs. old games - which is better?

Man... you got the nostalgia and classics... but damn, new games are legit with graphics and realism... Though I don’t know, some sports games are too legit these days. Like I just want to pass and shoot, not get fouled or foul others for trying to steal the ball. Chill out on that stuff. I do have a lot of fun throwing in retro PlayStation 1 games and Sega packs and playing them with my son, and I got a Vita so I can play some old PS1 games on the road. Resident Evil 2 is probably my all-time favourite game, so I guess old games win. But games of today are amazing. Just different times, but both amazing. I’m glad I grew up at a time where I could witness the evolution.

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ROLL FOR DAMAGE

Photo: Mikey Smith

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rime makes an interesting and popular subject for board games.

Heists, crime bosses and the like all form a strong narrative for games that require strategy and bluffing. You can pretty much take any fun game mechanic and paste some sort of crime-related thing onto it. Mobster movies are an especially good source for drama and tommy gun-related fun.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps inevitable that Francis Ford Coppola’s classic movie series The Godfather would get used as inspiration for some table-top fun. In fact, there are two games that are officially licensed as Godfather games, though alas, they aren’t called Part One and Part Two. The Godfather: An Offer You Can’t Refuse is a social deduction game. Or to put it another way, a game of ‘spot the traitor’. If you’ve ever played Werewolf (in which you try and work out who’s secretly the werewolf), then you you’ve got the gist. The plot is that you’re a mafia family and some of you are traitors.

Various roles are handed out and you have a mix of characters here. Like all of these games, the trick is to get into character; you can be a loudmouth or a sneaky cop, but if you play the role to the hilt, you’ll have fun. Each round someone gets eliminated and when the dust settles it’s easy to work out who’s done what.

For example, the accomplice can place a gun in front of another player, tempting them to commit a grisly deed, or the saboteur,

who will take someone with them if they’re eliminated. There’s also the hit man, who can take out the Godfather in one move, but if he gets it wrong, goes out himself.

The game has some nice features; for example, the Don has a horse’s head card so they indicate who they want whacked next. More interestingly, it has the sort of accessibility that games such as Coup, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Secret Hitler don’t. There’s something about the appeal of the Godfather movies that gets people immediately into the role. Everyone has a

ED FORTUNE GUIDES YOU THROUGH THE REALM OF TABLE TOP GAMING

Brando impression and given the simple mechanics, all the players have fun. NonSopranos fans may want to take a look at BANG! for similar Western-themed shenanigans. It’s a pretty tense but easy to get game.

On that note, I recommend that you follow up a game of The Godfather: An Offer You Can’t Refuse with a game of Cash ‘n’ Guns. We’ve talked about it before in these pages, but for those of you who need a refresher; Cash ‘n’ Guns is a bidding/bluffing game with foam guns in the box. A pile of loot is spread out on the board, and then everyone places a ‘bullet’ card face down in front of them. Some cards say blank, some say bang and only you know. You then point your toy gun at another player, all at the same time. It’s Mexican stand-off time. You then decide if you’re going to risk being shot.

Survive the round, get loot. Rinse, repeat.

What we’ve discovered is that if you play Godfather first, it gets way messier and a lot more fun.

The second Godfather game is called A New Don and is a bit more involved. It’s an area control game, so each of you are trying to assert power on the streets of 1950s New York. The goal is to become the next Kingpin, obviously. Each player rolls dice, and those dice correspond to numbers on the board. You can only take control of an area that sports a six if you’ve rolled a six, for example. You can, however, negotiate with other players for their dice.

So it’s sort of Yahtzee but with a big map of New York as the score board,

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or King of Tokyo without the monsters.

There’s no victory point track here though, you’re literally taking territory. Spare dice can be spent on creating mooks, who can help you take control of other turf.

Thing is, this is a mobster game. Kick someone off their turf and they get a ‘favour’. Favours can be spent to change and manipulate dice, or make rolls that you can use to bribe other players. Stay top dog for long enough and you get more power, and so on. It’s a tight yet simple game, and again, one prone to many, many movie impersonations.

If you prefer your game with a lot more negotiation and lots of random chance, you may want to ditch the Godfather brand and take a look at Bootleggers. It’s a stronger ‘territory grabbing’ game, and it’s much more brutal. However, a run of bad luck can absolutely batter you into the ground.

Of course, if this sort of thing has really gotten to you, there’s always the excellent UK LARP Tommy Guns & Temperance. It’s very small scale (it won Best Small LARP in 2016) so space is always limited on these sort of things. Games are running in April and December and it’s a predictably costume-heavy affair.

On the subject of UK LARP Awards, the organisers behind them are currently accepting nominations, so pop online and let them know how you feel about LARP. You can also nominate stuff like Escape Rooms, if that’s more your thing.

In other news, Wizkids has announced Wave 30 of the Star Trek Attack Wing game.

These are re-paints of older models, and include the U.S.S. Reliant, the Romulan I.R.W. Valdore and the Klingon Empire receives the updated I.K.S. Koraga. These look a lot better than before; a lot of the older models

were so awful that we had to repaint the ships we own at the STARBURST Gaming Thunderdome, and as you may know, we use trained monkeys to paint our pieces and it was still an improvement. The new models look so much better, so well done.

CARD GAMES FAMILY GAMES Lair MINIATURES Wizkids is also launching Sidereal BOARD GAMES Enter the Wyvern’s at ROLE-PLAYING COSPLAY LIVE ENTERTAINMENT TOURNAMENTS SPECIAL GUESTS Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the UK ND TH Games Expo Elysian Quadrant in August. This appears to2 TO 4 JUNE 2017 BIRMINGHAM Readers with long memories will be an intergalactic trade negotiation game; SPONSORS TICKETS FOR ADULTS recall that£13.the Roll For DamageMAJOR crew no single world can thrive on their own, soYOUNG ADULT (11 TO 15 YEARS) £8. FAMILY £35. were atGOUK Games Expo last year 10’S AND UNDERS FREE. it’s all about co-operation and negotiation. and we’ve been invited back. ASSOCIATE We’ll SPONSORS Wizkids tends to produce really neat WWW.UKGAMESEXPO.CO.UK be there, and you should be there as themed games, and this blend of co-op and well, especially if you are currently competition could be really good. designing your own game.

And finally, Kingdom Death Monster has Those seeking to expand their beaten Exploding Kittens to the title of ‘Most skills and looking to get their games funded Kickstarter’. Whereas Exploding into the market should be well catered Kittens was fun for all the family, Kingdom for. UK Games Expo has a really cool Death can be best described as very, very thing called The Wyvern’s Lair, which adult. Filled with beautifully detailed models is a way for new games designers of ladies with very little clothing on and to get vital advice from experienced really gross-looking monsters, Kingdom professionals... UKGE is looking for Death is certainly an acquired taste. hundred-word pitches from games Detailed and challenging it may be, it’s a designers; it could be you. game with a setting that puts many off. On The titular wyverns will be a panel the other hand, very few miniature battle of games professionals who will assess games feature genital mutilation, so if that’s and evaluate the games. This is a your thing, knock yourself out. We don’t chance for new talent to show off their have a copy of the game at STARBURST ideas to people who work for games Towers, and probably never will. producers such as Mayfair Games, Anyway, until next month, keep rolling Inside the Box, and Osprey Games. those dice.

Now in its eleventh year, the event is so large that it has to be hosted in both Birmingham NEC Ed Fortune can be contacted at and the nearby Birmingham Hilton. ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com and The UK Games Expo is set to be tweeted at @ed_fortune. He’s always the table-top gaming event of the interested to know what games you are year, with everything from X-Wing playing. Unless it’s Monopoly. Because Tournaments, to Ticket to Ride friends don’t let friends play Monopoly. It’s National Championships. Attractions never fun, not even in clown costumes. include wargaming, card games, LARPing, RPGs, and live events amongst much more

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WATTO’S

EMPORIUM

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

Mighty Morphin Merch

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As you will most likely be aware of (heck if you aren’t after this issue you’ll never be), the first full trailer for Dean (Project Almanac) Israelite’s reboot of Power Rangers is here and the film nearly is, too. And after an issue of mighty morphin, unconvincing monster outfits, and hypnotic ooze, hopefully you will be agasp in a nostalgic whirlwind, recalling those childhood years of fighting over which colour Ranger you’d be (apart from pink, of course - although we never got the issue there, pink is a very slimming colour). However, allow us to add to that nostalgic joy with some Rangers merchandise we found fighting crime online! With a new film comes a new look and as the Rangers have dropped the old colourful full body gear for some very metal-laden new duds, these new range of figures from the Vinyl Pop series, found over on forbiddenplanet. co.uk, have picked up on the new tech Rangers. These figures ought to look rather slick sat on your desk fending off, we dunno, psycho pencilo (or some other villain with a name that borders cool and lame), and better yet, they come in five different colours as well!

Although some of our favourite pieces were to be found over at Redbubble.com, where we uncovered gems like Steven Reeves’ brilliant 8-bit Power Rangers shirt that is decorated by an 8-bit incarnation of the Red Power Ranger alongside the mighty Megazord, all in an affectionate and rather sly tribute to Nintendo, so much nostalgia in one item! Also eye opening (or rather helmet lifting - seriously, how did they see in those things?!) is Toonfused’s shirt that chooses to ignore the skin-tight outfit wearing heroes and instead focus on the impractically (and yet awesomely dressed) villains. This shirt sees the shouty mug of Rita Repulsa (who will be appearing in the new film in a completely different incarnation), Goldar (who featured in the recent trailer and looked a tad like a melted gold angel), the mighty Lord Zedd and Rito Revolto... talk about an off-putting family photo!

2017 VINYL POP POWER RANGERS - BLACK, RED, PINK, YELLOW, BLUE – £9.99 EACH AVAILABLE FROM FORBIDDENPLANET.CO.UK 8-BIT POWER RANGERS – £17.02 USUAL SUSPECTS T-SHIRT – £19.45 BOTH AVAILABLE FROM REDBUBBLE.COM

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Here’s Logan at You Kid This month sees James Mangold’s hotly anticipated Logan hit the screens; the send-off for Hugh Jackman’s incarnation of the Adamantiumclawed mutant, and the long-craved adaptation of Millar and McNiven’s Old Man Logan stories. The more we see of the slashing, slicing, and dicing in the trailers, the more we think Mangold just might have made the ultimate Wolverine film... finally. Only time will tell, until then get your sideburns ready and head on over to grindstore.com to get yourself dressed for the occasion with this intense and stylish Logan shirt that carries more than a touch of a ‘don’t fuck with this guy/girl’ vibe about it. Maximise that effect with a cigar and battered old jacket, just don’t go the whole hog of using cutlery as makeshift claws... trust us, it is not a look that can be pulled off!

MARVEL WOLVERINE ZOOM FACE BLACK T-SHIRT - £14.99 AVAILABLE FROM GRINDSTORE.COM

Batman Brick-gins

Since we saw The LEGO Batman Movie, the new brickbuster hit from Chris McKay, we haven’t been able to stop thinking about it (no really, it is becoming a problem at work referring to ourselves constantly as Batman), so we kept an eye out for any Bat-Brick merchandise and found lots to keep our Bat credit card (‘never leave the cave without it’) busy. The best of which might be this pricey but fantastically designed Arkham Asylum Lego Set from shop.lego.com, which is the stuff of any kid’s (or adult - let’s be honest here) bat-filled dreams. The set includes numerous figures including Batman, Robin, Riddler, Joker, and Dr. Harleen Quinzel but better yet there are various rooms including interview rooms and cells for you to create and innovate and tell your own stories with! And following that piece of kit, we found this old school Batman shirt that loudly and proudly names our most recent Batman actor in the ‘66 logo. No, we are not talking about Affleck (though he is behind the cowl again in this year’s upcoming Justice League), we are talking about the talented Will Arnett, who provides the impeccable vocals of the caped crusader in LEGO-ised form. “He’s Batman!”

ARKHAM ASYLUM SET - £139.99 AVAILABLE FROM SHOP.LEGO.COM/EN-GB/ BATMAN 66 ARNETT DC DARK KNIGHT JUSTICE LEAGUE LEGO MEN’S T-SHIRT - £14.95 AVAILABLE FROM CLOUDCITY7.COM

MERCH

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PAUL MOUNT’S

This month, we take a look at the life and times of the BBC’s SHERLOCK as its fourth and potentially final series sees its heroes confront their greatest enemies yet in a trio of hugely divisive new episodes…

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hat next, wondered fans of the BBC’s headline-grabbing hit Sherlock as its fourth brief threeweek series shuffled off in a blaze of confusion, frustration, and irritation last month? Have we seen the last of this latest snazzy reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Great Detective and his trusty chum John Watson? Critics and (some) fans alike seemed pretty much united in their belief that the show has long since moved away from its origins, in 2010, as a very smart and modern take on characters who first appeared in print as long ago as 1887 and who have long since passed, quite rightly, into British fictional folklore legend. Sherlock is, of course, the brainchild of current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat and his friend/fellow Who writer Mark Gatiss; there’s no doubt that, when they crafted the first series for its 2010 transmission, they captured a very special magic, a TV lightning-in-a-bottle that doesn’t come along very often. But sadly, as can so often become the case, the show’s success turned it from a witty, knowing 21st century reimagining into a Frankenstein’s Monster, as its writers allowed themselves to be taken in wholeheartedly by the ‘legend’ they were themselves creating and turned the simple pleasures of a Sherlock Holmes series into something smug, selfreferential, self-satisfied and - fatally - nothing like as clever as it’s come to think it is.

For Doctor Who fans who have endured six years or more of their hero, also under the control of Steven Moffat, being aggrandised and dismantled and randomly (sometimes desperately) refigured to the imagined preference of an audience that is slowly losing interest, the similar fate which has befallen Sherlock

perhaps doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. It takes a very special creative talent to take a sledgehammer to not one but two beloved British cultural institutions, to lay waste to decades of cherished characters and their iconography and to rewrite them to your own preferred self-important paradigm.

It takes a very special arrogance, too, to ignore the growing waves of public disaffection with your efforts and just carry on your own sweet way because… well, just because you’re so much more

SHERLOCK

damned clever than the plebs at home and it’s their own fault if they’re too stupid to really appreciate how witty and ironic and iconoclastic you’re being. It helps, too, if you’re surrounded by a shield of acolytes who worship the very ground you deign to tread upon and who will gaze down from their Ivory Towers at those who find your work just a little bit irksome and spout shallow homilies about subtexts and post-modernism and how their hero really isn’t interested in telling good oldfashioned stories because he’s really far too smart for that. Moffat and Gatiss (sole writers of this year’s run of Sherlock) have effectively killed the Sherlock golden goose this year - but hey, that’s okay, they created the show (if we can really ascribe ownership to a series that merely refashions and repositions characters created over a century ago) so they can do what they like. But perhaps they shouldn’t be so blasé about doing what the audience doesn’t like. The first rumblings of discontent regarding Sherlock began back in Series Three in 2014 and this year those rumblings have become a veritable earthquake of rage and fury as the show finally suffered the same fate as all those that bear the name of Steven Moffat on their credits; they disappear into a black hole of their own selfimportance, throwing aside the fresh, original qualities that drew audiences to them in the first place because the writer thinks it’s his right, above all else, to show just how witty and imaginative he is and how he really doesn’t have to abide by the normal, traditional tents of simple storytelling.

I’m sure Steven Moffat is a very nice man and I’m sure he’s great fun at parties.

But wind him up and set him to writing a TV drama script and that’s where the

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problems start. This has surely never been more evident than in the most recent run of three feature-length Sherlock episodes in which Moffat (and Gatiss, for he must share the blame) created a trio of episodes that too often defied both logic and common sense, utterly eschewed even the most basic rules of narrative and regularly presented character beats and twists of such absurdity and unlikeliness that I really wouldn’t have been surprised if Moffat’s played-out Weeping Angels didn’t pop up at the end as a Big Bad reveal just for the hell of it. Because that’s happened elsewhere recently, of course…

What’s really frustrating is that it really needn’t have been this way. The first series of Sherlock, way back in 2010, was scintillating television. Moffat and Gatiss intelligently reinvented literary icons by dragging them into the twentyfirst century and bringing all the modern technological contrivances we take for granted - mobile phones, blogs, texts, t’interweb - into the arcane, musty world of street-slogging detection. Married by a breakout performance by Benedict Cumberbatch as the re-envisioned Sherlock alongside Martin Freeman as Watson, this was thrilling, inventive telly that exploded out of the screen and both demanded and deserved the accolades immediately heaped upon its brilliance.

Cracks started to show in the second run – Gatiss’ reworking of Hound of the Baskervilles was a bit flat – but by the third series, the show had gone quite mad.

Moffat and Gatiss had been swallowed up by their own press and decided to make the show smarter, sassier, and denser than their audience really wanted or needed. Moffat, for his part, pushed Sherlock’s character down a zany-wackyMatt-Smith-as-the-Doctor blind alley, which made the two characters and performances interchangeable and equally irritating. Out went absorbing, layered plots and in came ‘stories’ that obsessed

with the lives of Sherlock, Watson, and Watson’s new lady friend Mary. Any actual detection was shoehorned in at the last minute or else shamefully sidelined in favour of another witless bon mot or snappily edited montage of Sherlock being terribly clever and not a little bit smug.

The show’s nadir came with last year’s ‘Abominable Episode’ New Year special that, you’ll recall, largely took place in Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ and thus was pretty much a waste of ninety minutes of the viewers’ lives.

With rumours growing that this year’s fourth series would be the last Cumberbatch’s stock, in particular, rising

SHERLOCK - THE ABOMINABLE BRIDE

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SHERLOCK

far faster than the BBC are ever likely to be able to keep up with - hopes were high that Moffat and Gatiss might be able to reign in some of their flights of fancy and bring the series back to its first-year basics. But by now, Moffat’s assertion that this is ‘a series about a detective, not a detective series’ has ironically given both writers licence to forget utterly about Holmes as a detective (except for extreme and unlikely instances that required massive leaps of logic in the name of keeping the story hanging together) and focus instead almost exclusively on the character of Holmes, his backstory, his family and friends and their backstories, the twists and turns of their colourful lives. Observant viewers will recognise that this is pretty much exactly what Moffat has done with Doctor Who; it’s no longer much of a series about the adventures of a mysterious wanderer in Space and Time, it’s now, all too often, a series about a mysterious wanderer in Space and Time. Moffat has dug deep into the Doctor’s unseen, unspoken history, his past, and his origins to the extent that there’s nothing left for us to wonder about, no mysteries to be uncovered because Moffat has decided that it’s been his job to put his stamp all over bits of Time Lord mythology that were always best left as just myths. [Moving on – Ed] Yet despite the clear failure of Sherlock’s fourth series to work as populist drama and the very distinct impression that here we have a show that allows its writers to indulge and pleasure themselves at the expense of the viewing audience, there is still much to admire and enjoy in Sherlock, not least from the rich production and often-ripe performances.

It’s just a shame that we have to work a bit harder and dig our way through Moffat and

128 Gatiss’ pretentions and obsessions and utter disinterest in telling the sort of story they must know the core of their audience really want. Most of the viewers enjoy the modern-day trappings of the series and really that’s enough; sadly, a succession of BAFTAs and OBEs and a baying crowd of fawning devotees telling them how utterly magnificent they are has twisted their priorities out of shape and forced them to make the series opaque, dark, and labyrinthine in the fatally mistaken belief that their characters are so interesting and fascinating that they are, in themselves, enough to carry ninety minutes of prime time drama. But that should never be the case; no drama should obsess over the minutiae of its characters’ lives to the exclusion of everything else, certainly not a series that trades on the name of

ALSO SCREENING

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IRON FIST

STAN LEE’S LUCKY MAN

The likeable James Nesbitt returns for a second run of the offbeat British detective show about a cop who wears a bracelet that grants him extraordinary luck in the most extraordinary situations. Throwaway fun.

Sky One from February 24th

IRON FIST

Fourth and final Marvel ‘street level’ superhero series (before The Defenders pulls all four characters together later this year) sees Finn Jones as Danny Rand taking on the mantle of superpowered kung fu-fighting Iron Fist.

Netflix from March 17th

WOLFBLOOD

Now far removed from the rural roots of its first three series, Debbie Moon’s imaginative children’s series, focusing on the exploits of young werewolf cubs living alongside humanity, returns for its fifth series. Leona Vaughan stars.

CBBC from March

a character whose reputation has been sealed across the decades by a very particular skillset in a very particular profession. Thus, Series Four begins with The Six Thatchers, Gatiss’ story that at least offers a nod in the direction of a bit of detective spade work before veering off into a garbled and fanciful plot involving John Watson’s five-minute-wonder wife Mary (a deadly assassin in a former life, remember) abandoning John and their new baby to race across the world pursued by a former associate she had apparently abandoned in the heat of some failed espionage mission or another.

An extraordinarily clumsily executed final sequence sees Mary hurl herself in the path of a bullet fired at Sherlock, whereupon she expires in the arms of her choking, blubbing husband. Second episode The Lying Detective sees Moffat hurling in more of his achingly cringey comic set pieces - Look, Mrs Hudson’s got a snazzy sports car! Look, Mrs Hudson listens to rock music when she’s hoovering! - before indulging himself in his usual habit of telling his story (there’s a bit of one in there somewhere) non-chronologically and, for the most past, nonsensically. The sublime Toby Jones is the episode’s real saving grace as he embodies the plausible, creeping menace of the psychopath-in-plainsight, a triumph of performance over often mediocre and hackneyed dialogue.

Much of the episode also predicates itself on Sherlock’s descent back into drug abuse and addiction, a condition handily forgotten and dismissed by the next episode.

Ah, the next episode! Series finale The Final Problem saw the climax of Gatiss and Moffat’s self-abuse of Sherlock. This was a ninety-minute scattergun of random scenes that barely had any connection with one another; bits of action and a few explosions, which gave the impression of pace and adventure (a Moffat staple in his too-often leaden and static Who work) before leading to scene after scene of what the writer often refers to as ‘urgent standing’ where characters - in this case Holmes, Watson, Mycroft, and Sherlock’s long-forgotten/not long-forgotten sister - stand around in a room yapping and talking and talking and talking. Then Watson falls into a well and gets out again, some dog bones clearly aren’t and, oh yes, Moffat has brilliantly double-bluffed his audience by bringing back Andrew Scott’s Moriarty (basically John Simm’s version of Doctor Who’s the Master by any other name) before revealing that the sequence is a flashback set before his death at the end of Series Two. As Moriarty’s presence adds next to nothing to the ‘story’ and the machinations leading to his involvement are beyond tortuous, we can’t help but think this is just another example of the Moff over-indulging himself by playing with his favourite toys long after they’ve become broken and useless and no longer fit for purpose. The Final Problem was, for many, the final straw, the episode where Sherlock has become redundant as a piece of television entertainment for

SHERLOCK

anyone but the people who make it and a few Moffat hangers-on who genuinely believe they’re a cut above the hoi polloi who are too simple-minded to appreciate the genius of it all. The fact is, for what it’s worth, I fully understood what was going on in The Final Problem; my problem, finally, was that I wasn’t even remotely interested in it as a character piece or as a piece of drama.

So what next for Sherlock? This is where I came in. TV ratings analysis is a dangerous game these days, but the fact that Sherlock lost over two-and-a-half million viewers between its first episode and its third this year suggests that the novelty has well and truly worn off and that the show is now coasting on the momentum of the success it enjoyed a few years ago when it was genuinely must-see, sit-up-and-take-notice TV, much as has happened with Doctor Who, whose own traction has been running down for several years. Audaciously, The Final Problem ended with a creaky beyond-the-grave video message from the late unlamented Mary telling Sherlock and Watson that it’s always about “the stories, the adventures” – a tongue-in-cheek nod from Moffat in the direction of viewers who, in truth, really just wanted stories and adventures but had to suffer the indulgences and we-know-better pomposity of writers who dared to tamper with greatness because they didn’t seem to realise the magic of the formula they had been gifted in the first place. Despite its cute ending, I suspect that Sherlock will return a few years down the line and I’d really like to think that Moffat and co. can finally give the audience what they want instead of what they want. But I think I’ve learned by now not to hold my breath on that one...

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.

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complete turn-off. It took a few days and the masses returned their verdicts, prompting one of the biggest second week drops in ticket sales in the history of cinema. Warner Bros had made a killing on opening week, but this drop-off scuppered their hopes of matching the box office gusto of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, and grabbing the magical $1 billion. The shit bag shuffle that followed is legendary. Within weeks, Man of Steel 2 was wiped from the schedule and replaced with Batman v Superman. Poor old Supes even lost top billing.

Over at Warner Bros, things seemed to be taking their toll on poor old Batfleck...

I

t’s been over six years since Zack Snyder was hired at the tail end of 2010 to take on the mammoth task of kickstarting the Superman franchise for Warner Bros. Seen as a crucial step towards building a cinematic universe for its catalogue of DC Comics characters.

This was viewed to be an essential part of any bid to plunder some of the mighty box office revenue enjoyed by Marvel Studios.

In years to come, the first stage of the construction of the DC Extended Universe will inevitably be viewed as one of the biggest misfires in movie history.

Providing future filmmakers with a cautionary tale about misreading public appetites, and the dangers of applying a template to properties that vary in tone and characterisation.

It all started out reasonably optimistically.

Warners and DC had great box office, and thanks to a stunning turn by Heath Ledger as the Joker, managed that elusive critical acclaim with the Nolan Bat Trilogy. I may have detested them, but mainstream cinemagoers lapped that shit up. Once Nolan chose to end The Dark Knight Rises so definitively, any attempt to world-build would have to come with a fresh start, and not a continuation from the Nolan Batverse. Superman was the obvious choice to head this up. After Bryan Singer had swallowed Kryptonite (amongst other things) with the misjudged Superman Returns, a reboot was the only way forward.

Watchmen had been reasonably well

received, and had a dark enough tone, so Warners felt that Zack Snyder was a safe choice. It was here that several flawed decisions set them on the wrong path‌ Whilst wanting a fresh start, the DC camp were still fresh from their greatest success story, and the darker tone of the Nolan movies was to be their inspiration moving forward - a tone that was not suited for some more outlandish DC properties. DC also went in the direction of the miniseries Kingdom Come when developing the screenplay, going with a Christ-like narrative of Superman as a god amongst men, which further cements the character in a very serious vein. To further distance themselves from the past, Superman was even banished from the title, and Man of Steel rolled into production - marking the beginning of the DCEU. Now there was nothing wrong with attempting an alternative take on Superman, which eschewed the camper aspect of the Christopher Reeve era.

Modernising the character was a given.

Making a movie that was pretentious, boring, and humourless was perhaps not what the waiting audience had in mind. I remember watching Man of Steel at a screening, and being frankly mortified at just how badly they had approached the character of Superman, turning him into a bit of a moping tosser. Everything, from the colour palette to the overlong and tedious CGI action scenes, was a

This must have seemed like a genius save at the time, adding a proven character and using the movie to turbo boost the journey towards a Justice League outing.

Unfortunately, they totally failed to understand what the problem was with the previous movie. I am still at a loss to understand the logic in continuing with the dark tone that had caused so much of the backlash. Instead, Warner Bros opted to keep Zack Snyder on board and hope that Batman, a last-minute addition of Wonder Woman, and some piss poor JL member cameos would somehow make this approach work. It was a baffling conclusion for them to make at a time when Marvel Studios were kicking ass with their lighter and more fun-orientated approach. It was at this stage that Warners and DC made their biggest mistake of all. Within a few weeks, they cobbled together a set of releases over four years that committed them to putting out a batch of movies to rival Marvel Studios, without even having one direct hit so far with the fans that they were expecting to pony up. Because of this decision, as Batman v Superman rolled, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Suicide Squad, and Justice League had to be rushed into production just to keep to the release schedule. Obviously, this meant basing them tonally upon the approach that had failed with Man of Steel, but was about to be perfected in the next movie. Make no mistake on this; from a business perspective Warners and DC had put themselves in a position where Batman v Superman simply had to be a hit both financially and with the expectant fan base. There seemed to be no contingency in place for failure.

Whilst dubious, I did have faith that with so much at stake, and with such a bold

130 line-up of releases imminent, that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would deliver. Myself, Martin Unsworth, and Andrew Pollard found out just bad things could get for the DCEU at the London premiere. As we left the screening, there was a palpable atmosphere of disappointment that I have rarely witnessed. Everyone has their own explanation of why this movie was so off the mark. Again, many were unhappy with all the Christ analogies. Some have also blamed the shortcomings on the removal

by Warner Bros at the last minute of thirty minutes of footage. Having watched this footage on the act of legerdemain that refers to itself as the ‘Ultimate Edition’ on Blu-ray, I can tell you that even more of Jesse Eisenberg’s Luthor could lead to you developing a twat phobia – you have been warned! There were many flaws, but I feel the main one was the tone. Again, Snyder confused dark with joyless, and in a movie that long, it was a genuine chore to sit through. For the second time in only two movies, they were faced with box office carnage on the second week. This movie simply had to work, and this failure left three movies contaminated with the same tonal DNA and approach that had now been confirmed to be poison both financially and critically. Warners and DC were in deep trouble, and it could be too late to rescue the situation.

The next few months were difficult. Snyder was not binned off, but his role was limited regarding the future movies. Geoff Johns and Jon Berg were put in charge of the DC Extended Universe, and recognising one of the correct elements so far, Ben Affleck was given a solo movie entitled The Batman, and given the director’s chair. Decisive moves, but three movies were already in trouble.

As is the case with any troubled production, leaks were constant. There were endless rumours that Justice League was in dire straits. Apparently, Affleck and Snyder were mortified at the public response to Batman v Superman, which was no shock to anyone who had watched Affleck being interviewed over the movie. The whole set of Justice League was said to be in a strange state of mourning, prompting an emergency meeting at which Geoff Johns actually told everyone to “Marvel it up!”. This led to a very stressful couple of months in which script rewrites were a daily occurrence. Justice League was being rescued, but it was being rescued on the fly. Not an easy task, as the movie was already two separate stories - Superman Reborn and The Steppenwolf Saga ‘Brundleflyed’ together.

Meanwhile, everyone at the DCEU was in a state of angst waiting for the next release.

Suicide Squad had been reshot and recut almost into a different movie. Trailer Park, the team behind the successfully received second trailer, had been asked to provide their cut, and it was this version that was eventually released. Those who have seen the original cut have confirmed that the released version was almost a different

movie. The recut had introduced more humour as a kneejerk reaction to the company-wide rescue of the DCEU. In this instance, it was another weird decision, as Suicide Squad as a property was actually suited to this darker approach! Director David Ayer just had to grin and bear it, unlike Jared Leto, who was happy to vent about his Joker ending up mostly on the cutting room floor. This pretty much suited me to be honest, but Leto himself properly spat his dummy out in public, leaving Warners with yet another problem as he is contracted for a whopping six further appearances. I must confess I did actually like some of Suicide Squad, and I found it to be the best of the three movies so far.

Meanwhile, over on Paradise Island, the magic word is discombobulated. On January 12th, 2017, Sasha Perl-Raver used that very word on the Schmoes Knows show to explain how the crew of Wonder Woman reacted to a post-production screening. Which is really tragic news as Gal Gadot was one of the few highlights of Batman v Superman. Apparently, Wonder Woman was tonally too dark (again), made disjointed by all of the ‘rescue’ tweakings, and lacking any narrative flow. Over on The Flash, the same inherited problems have the movie languishing in full-blown development hell, shedding writers and directors like hair follicles, as the Marvelling up process continues to put the project under strain. So far, it’s said goodbye to three directors and three scripts. Then just a few weeks ago, the news broke that it was going back to the drawing board with a page one rewrite under another new writer, Joby Harold. I don’t envy that guy…

With all this grief, are there any silver linings? Well, Justice League is considered to be fixable. Rewrites are constant, and Geoff Johns is confident something good will emerge, even at this late stage. There was also reason to be optimistic over Affleck’s The Batman. Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns had originally clashed over the direction of the movie, but had reached an understanding. The Batman was going to be tonally distanced from the Nolan movies. Affleck and Johns were also said to be enamoured with the three Arkham video games, and it was this tone and aesthetic that they were said to be aiming for, possibly with Batman trapped inside with all the inmates. A Batman adventure in the mould of Die Hard. Sounded good. It was ready to begin filming in spring 2017, for a release in 2018. Then Affleck started to voice concerns about the script not being ready, telling Screen Rant, “I have a script, we’re still working on it, and I’m not happy with it yet….” Warners were still committed to a 2018 release, and there seemed a possibility that Affleck might walk away. On January 8th, 2017, Warners put out a promo pic of the Justice League in an effort to calm the situation down, whilst it is rumoured they sat down with Affleck to sort this mess out. Something must have gone well as the following day, Affleck appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to

confirm that he was indeed still starring and directing The Batman. Later that same day, It was also announced that Warners had agreed to push back filming by a few months to allow time for the necessary reworking of the script.

Everything seemed OK until Affleck started to do the interview circuit to promote his rapidly-sinking gangster flick, Live by Night. Whilst trying to promote his pet project, constant questions over The Batman were provoking terse responses from him.

Then, whilst writing this column, the bomb dropped. Affleck had quit as director. Affleck explained that he “cannot do both jobs to the level they require” – actor speak that basically says that the script is a right old bag of wank. As this goes to print, Matt Ross and Matt Reeves are being discussed as replacements, with DC having a wet dream over the possibility of getting George Miller on board. Considering that Batfleck was the only element of success for Warners and DC from this utter debacle, the prospect of him walking altogether must surely be a major worry, as Affleck only signed on for Batman v Superman and the two Justice League films. In many ways, The Batman is the only pure and untainted movie on the horizon, and if a working DCEU is going to emerge from this toxic cauldron then I feel this film is the best bet they have.

It is genuinely breathtaking how badly this entire enterprise has unravelled. Every time you felt it could not get any worse, both Warner Bros and DC seemed to have a pathological obsession with failing.

Witnessing this mess concurrent with the success of Marvel Studios has been a real eye opener. When it comes to wasting both talent and money, I doubt we will ever see anything like this again.

I always loved DC Comics as a child. I was never one of those Marvel-obsessed readers. I saw the value in both, and I was in awe of the sheer history of DC Comics, with its legacy dating back to the 1930s and a gallery of villains unsurpassed even by Marvel. It is an absolute disgrace that in an era where indie filmmakers are scratching around on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to raise a few grand to get started in the business, Warners and DC with their limitless access to finances and professionals can take a squat and dump out shit like this. Even now I just hope they salvage something from what has turned into a total embarrassment for everyone involved.

There is simply no excuse for this waste of such a rich legacy.

Jordan Royce can be contacted at jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com Twitter: @JordanMRoyce and hosts the StaRbuRSt Radio Show with every Wednesday 9pm until 11pm GMt on Fab Radio International – www.fabradiointernational.com also available from itunes as a Podcast