ISSUE
04 MAY 2018
Teletronic Magazine
THE ONLINE
The online e-zine of Television Heaven
MAGAZINE OF TELEVISION HEAVEN
Endeavour
Can the success of this prequel eclipse the original series?
American Gods “A feast for the senses”
The Crown Stunning Netflix drama
Game of Thrones The worldwide viewing phenomena explained
Twice Upon a Time Three Doctors and a regeneration — Oh, brilliant!
PLUS
Classic TV show reviews; Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Time Tunnel as well as
Westworld
Broadchurch
Pointless
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A Netflix original
Teletronic - May 2018
THE CROWN With a second season of The Crown ordered quickly by Netflix as soon as the first season finished, and with Season Three already in production, it is clear that royalist fervour has gripped viewers across the world even those who would usually describe themselves as devoted republicans. The Crown is a lavish and opulent series, rich with historical detail, which charts the early personal and political life of Queen Elizabeth II. At the heart of the series is Claire Foy, recognisable the world over for her crisp diction and poise. Foy plays Elizabeth with the same verve and regal demeanour she brought to the role of Ann Boleyn in the 2015 drama Wolf Hall. She is accompanied by Matt Smith, who plays the Queen's husband Prince Philip, and their sometimes tense and often surprising relationship is the glowing heart of this show. For many viewers, the glorious garments worn by the cast are a reason to watch The Crown in its own right. The show's costumes were created by Michele Clapton, who has won an Emmy and who also designed costumes for Game of Thrones. It's highly plausible that Foy's dresses are responsible for a substantial part of the $130 million (or £80 million) that are said to have been spent on the series). The Crown works by both visually and gesturally recreating historical moments with as much accuracy as possible, from the sumptuously sparkling and ruched gold dress worn for the first Christmas Message to be televised, to the cobalt blue gown paired with white elbow gloves and a sapphire brooch and necklace set that Foy wears when representing the Queen's meeting with Jackie Kennedy (played by Jodi Balfour). Even the tie with its heart pattern worn by Smith in season 1 is an almost exact replica of the tie actually worn by Prince Philip when he stepped off his royal jet, reunited with his wife after a round the world tour lasting several months. The Crown is recommended for anyone seeking glossy, regal entertainment. It brings us a carefully-curated human side to state institutions that is as sweet and starched as a slice of Victoria sponge. The show presents a very particular view of history, though, and those who feel themselves saturated with on-screen depictions of the rich and famous (perhaps having only just recovered from Downton Abbey, which finished in 2015 after six series), may prefer to switch off – or, alternatively to content themselves with spotting the (very rare) moments when a brooch in a different place here, or a brand name swapped there, indicates a difference between the TV series and the events it so meticulously depicts.
L Salzman 2018
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An HBO Original
Teletronic - May 2018
Westworld First aired in October 2016, Westworld is a science-fiction series which focuses on a fantasy theme park modelled on the American Wild West. Here, well-heeled guests can pay vast sums to indulge in their own private fantasies with a taskforce of incredibly lifelike androids who believe they are real people, known as hosts. The storyline is loosely based upon the 1973 film of the same name, which was written and directed by sci-fi legend Michael Crichton, and concerns itself with the awakening sentience of the hosts and their subsequent revolt against their human overlords. It is cowritten by Jonathan Nolan (brother of blockbuster director Christopher Nolan) and Lisa Joy and is produced by HBO, with a number of reputable names, including J.J. Abrams and Jerry Weintraub, serving as executive producers. From the outset, we are thrust into the artificially authentic charms of Westworld. It’s telling that the first character to which we are introduced is not a “newcomer” (the term used to denote guests of the park, aka living breathing human beings) but rather Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), the oldest host in Westworld. She is being interviewed by head programmer Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), ostensibly for the purposes of checking that she is functioning normally before being redelivered to Sweetwater, the town in which she resides. It transpires that each host is given its own predetermined narrative which intertwines with other characters in the park, but that these can be derailed through interactions with the newcomers. The newcomers are able to instigate all manner of activities and events of their own making – including sex with hosts and simulated murder of hosts – but that the hosts are not able to harm them. While Dolores narrates her own thoughts and experiences in the opening scene, we are introduced to William (Jimmi Simpson), a first-time visitor to the park and Logan (Ben Barnes), a repeat visitor and William’s soon-to-be-brotherin-law, who has a tendency to rub him up the wrong way. We also soon meet Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the co-creator of the park, Teddy (James Marsden), a gun-slinging host with a heart of gold and a hankering for Dolores, The Man In Black (Ed Harris), a long-time visitor who has been coming to Westworld since it opened and is now on the hunt for a new game, Maeve (Thandie Newton), a host who serves as the madam of the whorehouse in Sweetwater, and a whole ream of other characters, some of which are robots and some real. As well as learning more about the interconnected storylines at play and the participation of newcomers in these, we also realise that there is an entire network of technicians, designers, scriptwriters and programmers working to patch up hosts after they have been “killed”, reroute storylines where applicable and make sure no hosts are malfunctioning. The trouble is, it soon becomes clear that several of the hosts are indeed malfunctioning. Our first glimpse of this comes when Dolores’ father Peter (Louis Herthum) finds a photograph dropped by one of the newcomers and begins glitching. When Peter is taken in and interrogated by Ford, he responds by telling him “These violent delights
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Westworld
Teletronic - May 2018
have violent ends”. This phrase is a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and will become something of a refrain for the show before long, acting as the catalyst for Dolores to begin remembering her past narratives – and start upon new ones. Indeed, it’s this phrase which sets in motion the chain of events which will awaken all of the hosts, as Dolores later utters it to Maeve and causes her to become more self-aware. From here, things quickly escalate as both Maeve and Dolores take it upon themselves to learn more about the truth of their situation and strike back against their creators. But is it an unplanned revolt, or one intended to take place all along? Westworld makes for engaging view for a number of reasons. Firstly, there’s the delicious juxtaposition of a futuristic world where AI has advanced so much that androids are indistinguishable from humans, with the rugged beauty and harsh violence of the American Wild West. Secondly, there’s the sci-fi aspect: the writers ask pertinent questions about the direction in which our manipulation of technology is heading, as well as if it will ultimately be capable of manipulating us. The series also questions the validity of our basest impulses and desires, all the while indulging them onscreen for our entertainment. As such, it’s quite a metaphysical examination of the potential of modern technology and the morality of the human psyche. Quite aside from these intellectual intrigues, it’s also just good old-fashioned entertainment, as increasingly complex characters, superb performances and satisfyingly frequent bouts of bloodshed and sex keep our attention piqued and our appetites whetted. On the other hand, the duality of certain timelines, characters and story arcs can make it a little difficult to follow. With characters appearing simultaneously in more than one timeline, different actors playing the same character and the same actor playing different characters, it sometimes overwhelms the viewer. It’s a smart enough show to run rings around the competition on other networks and streaming services – but at times, it’s in danger of running rings around its audience and, most concerning of all, even itself. Keeping track of which character is doing what and in which timeline can be exhausting stuff, and there are times when it veers dangerously close to incoherence. Nonetheless, by the end of the series the writers have coaxed the tension up to boiling point, so that the finale gives us not only an incredible “Oh my god!” moment but also sets the stage for season two, where it can be expected that the real action will begin. With that in mind, it’s little wonder that the series received such widespread critical and popular acclaim. Not only did it garner largely positive reviews from critics across the board, but at the time of writing, it’s also the most watched first season of any original HBO series. The first episode of season two was aired on April 22nd, 2018 and just over a week later, a third season was publicly given the green light. It is therefore safe to assume that the violent ends to these violent delights won’t be coming to a definitive conclusion anytime soon.
Review: Jonathan Sweet 2018
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British Crime Drama: Endeavour
Teletronic - May 2018
Endeavour
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uch was the success of the ‘Inspector Morse’ series over a period of thirteen years and 33 episodes between 1987 and 2000, it was perhaps a brave or some might say foolhardy decision to create a spin-off series featuring Oxford’s finest in his formative years. But the success of Endeavour and the performance of Shaun Evans as the young Detective Police Constable Endeavour Morse may yet eclipse the original.
Endeavour is of course not the first spin-off as Lewis saw Kevin Whately continue his role from Inspector Morse. With John Thaw’s Morse having been killed off in the final episode of the original series, to take the story one step further it was necessary to go back, so a trip back in time was necessary. Endeavour is set in the 1960s with his early years being explored in more detail. Endeavour Morse (his father named him after Captain Cook’s ship) studied for a degree at Lonsdale College of Oxford University but never took his exams. After a brief time with the Royal Corps of Signals whose former real-life members include Colin Dexter, the author who wrote the original Inspector Morse novels which were adapted for television, he finally joined the police force and was stationed at Carshall-Newton. We now find him at Oxford City Police having been drafted in for the pilot episode to help deal with a double murder. He is only two years into his career but already becoming disillusioned with law enforcement. On the point of handing in his resignation Endeavour is talked out of it by veteran Detective Inspector Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) who takes him under his wing as his unofficial ‘bag man.’ Life isn’t always easy though as he gets shot at the end of the first series and must also cope with the death of the father he never really received much love from. The shooting is a cause of the stress and paranoia he often feels and causes him to drink more, and bit by bit we learn how he became the character seen in Inspector Morse. His lack of luck with the ladies is also a theme in Endeavour. He falls for nurse Monica Hicks after his latest work-related injury and gets attention from Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) who is the daughter of his boss who he proposes to at one stage, but it never works out for him.
Roger Allam as DI Fred Thursday
Sara Vickers as Joan Thursday 5
British Crime Drama: Endeavour
Teletronic - May 2018
Several issues are dealt with in the series including gang warfare, racism and corruption, the latter leading to him ending series two in jail after being framed for the murder of Chief Constable Standish. Promotion looks inevitable but isn’t always that easy for him, especially when his Sergeant’s exam papers mysteriously go missing. It’s not until series four he becomes a Detective Sergeant and wins the George Medal after an incident at a Nuclear Power Plant. When he does finally become a DS he realises it’s just the same as before but with more work to do. Series Five sees him working with a new partner, DC George Fancy, but it’s not an easy relationship. Morse struggles to chat with him but the two of them have hardly anything in common. His love-life continues to be a mess with the arrival of Claudine and the return of Joan. The latter is a problem as she refuses to get close to him again, but the series ends with us wondering if she’ll accept his latest offer of a coffee. The scene for the sixth series is set with the news that he’ll be moving to a new police station and the creation of the now familiar Thames Valley Constabulary. Endeavour has been a huge success and as more detail of his early days are revealed, more relationships and motivations are explored, the series goes from strength to strength. Shaun Evans, who had previously been seen in Teachers, Silk and Ashes to Ashes, wisely decided not to try to imitate John Thaw’s portrayal. Indeed, the two actors neither look nor sound like each other, but this is not to the detriment of Endeavour because there is a 22 year gap between this and Inspector Morse, enough time for him to mature into the character we were originally introduced to, and Evans manages with ease to capture the essence of the character. As in the original series Colin Dexter appeared in a number of cameo roles before passing away on 21 March 2017, aged 86 years. There are many references to the original in Endeavour with characters from Inspector Morse either appearing or being referenced throughout the series. Another nice touch is the appearance of the recurring character Dorothea Frazil, a reporter on the Oxford Mail, played by Abigail Thaw, John Thaw’s daughter. It may be up to series six now, but Evans says of his role, “There is no point in being lazy. You haven't got time to rest on your laurels." One feels there’s a lot more to come from this show.
Article: Steve Ashfield 2018 6
Amazon Prime/Starz: American Gods
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Teletronic May 2018
AMERICAN GODS
ased on the Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel of the same name, American Gods cleverly incorporates classic and modern pop culture with a mythical fantasy storyline. This unique and engaging show premiered on Starz and Amazon Prime in April 2017, and its current run is 8 episodes long with fans avidly waiting for Season 2 to hit their screens. American Gods is an ambitious series, following the exploits of Shadow Moon, a man with a past he’d rather forget. Recently released from prison, Shadow is all set to lead a quiet life when he learns is wife has died. A bizarre chance meeting with the mysterious Mr Wednesday on the flight back from his wife’s funeral is just the start of what soon becomes a fantastic, violent and often poignant journey. There’s a lot to take in with this first season of American Gods, and the series itself is visually stunning, offering a sensory overload of psychedelic proportions – with an incredible soundtrack to top it all off. Mr Wednesday is portrayed as suitably enigmatic by the excellent Ian McShane, whilst Ricky Whittle as Shadow aptly handles playing an accidental anti-hero. Gillian Anderson’s Media is a prominently outstanding character as she portrays David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe in some of the more surreal scenes! Everything about this series is a feast for the senses as the old gods and the new gods walk amongst us and begin to clash over who should reign supreme. American Gods isn’t the first novel dramatization from Neil Gaiman, but it’s certainly one that has captured lovers of this kind of series. A clever mix of horror, drama, humour, and a strong cast with a great narrative has earned American Gods positive reviews from critics and viewers alike. If you’re a fan of something dark yet entertaining with a storyline that holds the imagination, (along the lines of American Horror Story, Constantine or Lucifer), American Gods is sure to appeal to you.
Article: Sunday Simmons 2018
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UK Crime Drama
Teletronic May 2018
Broadchurch
The hauntingly beautiful setting of Dorset provides the backdrop for the hugely successful ITV series that is Broadchurch, a gripping crime drama located in the rural idyllic setting of a pretty English town, where the tranquillity of village life, the close knit community and friendly townsfolk is shaken to the core by the brutal murder of eleven year old Danny Latimer. The comparison of splendour and cruelty is reminiscent of the Wessex of Thomas Hardy, where Jude and Tess struggled for survival, in the tranquil beauty of the countryside amid the brutality and barbarity of humanity. Contemporary Wessex is no less beautiful and no less cruel in this gripping and dramatic series. From the outset the viewer is captivated by the breath taking shots of the cliffs which serve not only as a background but also as a metaphor for the dualism that is Broadchurch as the community is torn apart by suspicion, secrets and lies. Innocence and guilt, hope and defeat, comedy and tragedy, good and evil is at the heart of Broadchurch. It succeeds in drawing the viewer into the story, into the lives of the villagers, into the awful grief of Beth Latimer in series one, into the gripping court case in series two, and into the terrible suffering of rape victim Trish Winterman in series three. In series one we are introduced to the main protagonists; local police officer Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) is begrudgingly teamed up with newcomer D.I. Alec Hardy (David Tennant), a man dogged by illness and past failures who has an abrupt manner that does nothing to endear him to his colleagues. Beth Latimer (Jodie Whittaker) is the mother having to face every parent’s nightmare, the cold brutal murder of her young child and the effect it has on her mental health as well as the relationship with her husband, Mark (Andrew Buchan), who is unable to supply an alibi for his whereabouts on the night of Danny’s murder. Broadchurch is a deliberate, slowly unfolding ‘who-done-it’ which, in the best tradition of Agatha Christie; the English rural setting, the close knit community, the layers of veiled secrets which are shockingly revealed, the numerous viable suspects, the plot twists and red herrings, grip the viewer from the outset. Compelling too are the stunning visuals. The incredible camera work utilises filmic techniques; dramatic shots of the magnificent coastline from every conceivable angle, highlighting both beauty and danger; incredible shots of scenes filmed in reflections, emphasising the seen and the unseen and the uncertainty of all between; carefully choreographed scenes of conversations many of which are naturally divided by a door or a hallway, and montages reminiscent of Hitchcock, convey the increasingly fractured relationships, suspicion, hostility and loss of trust in Broadchurch. All set to an evocative and atmospheric musical soundtrack. The only certainty is uncertainty as the viewer becomes engulfed in the investigation, and grapples with the evidence presented, the dramatic plot twists, the furiously fast-paced and unpredictable unfolding of events. This, in contrast to the seemingly slow-paced day-to-day life of Broadchurch, in a village where nothing is at it seems, and everyone has a secret to hide. Broadchurch arrived on our screens to critical acclaim and resounding success, receiving numerous awards and unprecedented audience figures. Broadchurch with its haunting beauty and its terrible savagery, its idyllic setting and its hidden secrets, its violence and its struggle for justice remain in our minds long after the credits have rolled, and long after the waves have rolled in to the Dorset coastline.
Review: Tanya MacDonald 2018
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Doctor Who—Twice Upon a Time
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Teletronic May 2018
Twice Upon a Time
he Christmas 2017 offering Twice Upon a Time was the end of an era for Doctor Who. Both showrunner Steven Moffat and the incumbent Doctor Peter Capaldi were filming their final episode. Twice Upon a Time featured two regenerations, the return of old companions and of course the arrival of the first Female Doctor.
The tenth series of ‘Nu Who’ as some prefer to call it, had ended with the Doctor about to regenerate after an explosive battle with the Cybermen, Missy and The Master but this time round he seemed reluctant to enter another life. He arrives back on Earth at the South Pole, just at before the final scene of the First Doctor story The Tenth Planet, where the Doctor returns to the TARDIS and collapses on the ship’s floor. As this story opens the First Doctor, “the original, you might say,” is on the verge of regeneration but for him it’s a whole new and frightening experience. The First Doctor’s final words in the original script for The Tenth Planet back in 1966 were reportedly to have suggested that he didn’t want to regenerate, but then director Derek Martinus decided to cut the line. In 2017 Steven Moffat returned to this idea and exploited it further. Two Doctors reluctant to change for reasons not yet explained gives Moffat the opportunity to explore regeneration in a way that it had not been explored since David (Doctor Ten) Tennant’s last story The End of Time. His last line “I don’t want to go” echoes throughout the final scenes of this Twelfth Doctor tale. The idea to use the First Doctor in a full story came about after the impressive performance of David Bradley as William Hartnell in the 50th Anniversary docudrama Adventures in Time and Space. Bradley does look incredibly like William Hartnell, and any difference is explained by the Twelfth Doctor saying, ‘Your face, it’s all over the place’ and blaming it on the upcoming regeneration. The Doctors suddenly realise that time has frozen when they are joined by an English army captain snatched from a moment of life or death in the trenches of the 1914-18 World War. The soldier is played by Mark Gatis, himself no stranger to the series having written episodes and even playing the Doctor in a comedy sketch with David Walliams. The trio make their way into the Twelfth Doctor’s TARDIS and his predecessor is immediately shocked at what it now looks like, fearing he may have been burgled! When different regenerations of the Doctor meet it’s never a comfortable situation, and Moffat not only exploits the opportunity of having the two Doctors clashing but also uses it for moments of comedic interplaying.
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Doctor Who—Twice Upon a Time
Teletronic May
At first mistaking Capaldi’s Doctor for just another Time Lord, the First Doctor finally realises he’s meeting a future incarnation and disappoints his successor by saying he had hoped he might get younger in future lives! In return, the Twelfth Doctor isn’t always that pleasant towards his former self referring to him at various times as ‘Mary Berry,’ ‘Mr Pastry’ and ‘Corporal Jones’, whilst conveniently forgetting that he is talking to a younger version of himself. But in reference to the pre-politically correct equality inadequate era of the 1960s, the current Doctor is horrified over his earlier self’s sexist behaviour regarding women cleaning the TARDIS and his later threat to spank Bill Potts as she dares to say the word ‘arse.’ To be fair, having recently watched the First Doctor’s adventures, he was never that bad. I can’t imagine him trying to get Barbara to tidy the TARDIS, he was only chauvinistic towards women when disciplining his grand-daughter Susan (but he did give Dodo a slight spank in The Gunfighters). Just why a time-traveller should have such antiquated views in today’s more enlightened times doesn’t quite make sense. Neither does his not being the most technical of Doctors, he hates the sonic screwdriver and sunglasses, and yet this is someone who’s travelled through time and seen vastly superior alien technology. We can only blame the regeneration having an effect on his memory!
With all three characters now in the TARDIS and after accidentally telling the army captain that he was fighting in World War One, (explained swiftly by “Spoilers,”) the ship is lifted into the sky and hoisted to the Chamber of Death where they meet a Glass Woman, a seemingly computer-generated character, that tells them how their task is to extract people from the moment of their impending death and receive their “testimony.” The Doctors are told by Testimony that it wants the soldier who was accidentally taken out of time at his moment of death (hence his arrival on the South Pole) and offers the Doctor in return his former companion and friend Bill Potts who had died in the previous episode. As is the case with Moffat’s time as showrunner, characters rarely stay dead in this show, but the Twelfth Doctor is unconvinced this is the real Bill. There are awkward moments when the Doctor is referred to as “The Doctor of War.” The First Doctor refutes the title and so Testimony treats him to a visual display of the wars his upcoming selves will have in the future, or past, depending on which Doctor’s point of view you’re looking at. The Twelfth Doctor doesn’t say a word to his predecessor when shown these wars and explains it away with the great line “To be fair, they left the jokes out.” The Doctors, the Captain and ‘Bill Potts’ make their escape and head to the First Doctor’s TARDIS. Eager to find out more about Testimony, they head to the planet Villengard. Just how the antiquated TARDIS reaches it scheduled destination isn’t explained as previously the First and Second Doctors had no way of setting destinations and getting there. The trip to Villengard has the purpose of accessing the best available database but that just happens to be the Dalek Hivemind controlled by rogue Dalek Rusty from the series 8 story Into the Dalek. The Twelfth Doctor finally learns the truth about Testimony and realizes there’s no evil plan and that the pilot and its ship were created on New Earth, designed to extract people from their timelines at the moment of their death, and archive their memories into glass avatars. ‘Bill’ is one such avatar, created from her memories. Harking back to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Moffat has given us another story where “everybody lives.” 10
Doctor Who—Twice Upon a Time
Teletronic May 2018
The Doctors agree that the Captain should be taken back to the First World War to fulfil his destiny. However, the present Doctor has one last trick up his sleeve and instead of taking him back to the exact point he left they return him to just minutes before the famous Christmas Truce thus saving his life, somewhat contradicting the First Doctor’s words to Barbara Wright in the Aztecs story “You can’t rewrite history. Not one single line.” The Captain makes one final wish –for the Doctor to keep an eye on his family. The Captain’s name? Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, the father of the Doctor’s close friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Thankfully the Doctor doesn’t tell him how the Brigadier will die and be turned into a Cyberman. With the captain safe, it’s time to return to the main Christmas dish of regeneration and two portions. The First Doctor finally agrees to regenerate which is a relief to all his successors. He heads off to the South Pole for a far gentler regeneration than awaits future Doctors. Now alone and still undecided if he wants to regenerate The Doctor is visited once more by Bill’s avatar. Still refusing to concede that she is truly Bill he is reminded that it’s memories that define a person and as if to prove it she restores the Doctor’s own memory of his former companion Clara Oswald (do we assume that Clara has now passed on too?) Returning to the TARDIS the Doctor struggles with his decision to change yet again before deciding "One more lifetime won't kill anyone. Well, except me". This is followed by one last soliloquy imparting advice to his next self. That doesn’t include tips such as don’t wear high heels when running away from a Dalek as he has no idea the Thirteenth Doctor will be female. It might please the First Doctor though as he’d now expect a very clean TARDIS. Time for explosions and regeneration and the first clue we get to the significant change is when the Doctor’s ring falls off the now thinner finger of the new Doctor. Those anticipating a long speech from the new Doctor Jodie Whittaker are to be disappointed. She simply utters “Oh brilliant” in a Yorkshire accent – well every planet has a Yorkshire. No smooth regeneration though as the TARDIS throws a wobbly. The doors open, and the new Doctor is dragged out into outer space plummeting towards Earth. And that’s the end of the Moffat/Capaldi era with another story that seemed to have everything, and the kitchen sink thrown into it. The lack of a real villainous threat is disappointing and some of the characteristics of the First Doctor are puzzling but it’s an enjoyable enough if sentimental story which was received generally well by critics and fandom alike. And while we still haven’t seen much of Jodie Whittaker’s new Time Lord, a few descriptions of her character have been released, with co-star Sharon D Clarke suggesting this is a “fun and ass-kicking version of the Time Lord.” What would the First Doctor say about that!
Steven Ashfield May 2018
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Fantasy Flashback: Classic TV Review
Teletronic May 2018
The Time Tunnel Conceived by Irwin Allen and Shimon Wincleberg, The Time Tunnel was Allen’s third production following Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and Lost In Space, and along with his fourth series, Land Of The Giants, it helped establish the former journalist as the foremost producer of science fiction adventure series in the USA during the 1960s. The series is now remembered as a one-season ratings failure. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Irwin Allen was born in New York on 12th June 1916 and studied journalism and advertising at Columbia University. In 1938, he joined the staff of 'Key Magazine' as editor and soon went on to produce a one-hour radio show for the station KLAC, writing producing and narrating a programme, which ran for eleven years. His success in journalism brought him an offer to write a regular Hollywood column 'Hollywood Merry-Go-Round' for the Atlas Feature Syndicate. His entry into the world of television was not far behind, and with the medium still in its infancy, Allen pioneered a celebrity panel show which, like his newspaper column, was also called Hollywood Merry-Go-Round. In the early 1950s Allen moved into movies producing the RKO comedy Double Dynamite starring Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx, who remained his friend for many years after. In 1952 he won an Oscar for a documentary feature The Sea Around Us. More nature films followed under the banner of his own company, Windsor Productions. The Animal World (1956) featured prehistoric special effects by Ray Harryhausen. He also went on to produce The Story of Mankind for Warner Brothers, which he co-wrote with Charles Bennett, and which boasted an all-star cast including Ronald Coleman and Vincent Price and was also notable for being the last film in which the Marx Brothers all appeared in the same feature. In 1960, Irwin Allen moved to Twentieth Century Fox Studios to produce the successful The Lost World with Claude Raines, Michael Rennie, and David Hedison, before producing the film version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine and Peter Lorre. In 1964, Allen produced a TV version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Richard Basehart and David Hedison at the helm of the atomic submarine Seaview. The following year, Allen introduced the space family Robinson to US viewers, in the classic Sci-fi series Lost In Space. It wasn’t long before the series became a huge international hit. When The Time Tunnel was conceived in 1966, there had been precious little about the whole time travel concept on US television. Although the subject had been covered in various anthology series such as The Twighlight Zone and The Outer Limits, these shows normally jumped into the future to take a look at scriptwriters’ ideas of what the world would be like in years to come, and travelling into the past to meet historical characters was normally used for comic relief.
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Flashback: Classic TV Reviews
Teletronic May 2018 The Time Tunnel concept may well have been inspired by the prolific US sci-fi writer Murray Leinster (the nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins), who had written a novel with the same title in 1964, one of only 1,500 short stories and articles produced over the course of his career. (Leinster went on to produce a novelisation of the TV series and two novelisations of Irwin's Land of the Giants).
In the opening story, a top-secret U.S. government program, codename: Project Tic-Toc to build an experimental time machine known as the Time Tunnel, is in danger of cancellation when a government official threatens to pull its funding. The reason being the costs of the project are now approaching those of the entire U.S. space program, and is showing no signs of success. In a last ditch attempt to save the project from closure, a young physicist, Dr. Tony Newman (James Darren) turns the machine on and sends himself back in time. Newman finds himself on board the Titanic, just hours before the doomed liner is set to hit the iceberg that will sink it. Back at Project Tic Toc, the Time Tunnel team of scientists manage to get a ‘fix’ on Newman’s position in time and can watch events unfold but are unable to interact with the physicist. Fearing for Newman’s life, Dr. Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) enters the Time Tunnel in order to warn his friend and colleague of the dangers ahead, and also to try and convince the ship’s captain to adjust his course, thereby changing history. But as all good science fiction fans know, the course of true history cannot be changed, and the two time travellers fail in their efforts to save Titanic. As the ship is sinking, the Time Tunnel scientists find a way to pull Newman and Phillips out of the time period and back into the time vortex, but they are not able to bring them home, just deposit them in another time period. Thus was the premise for the whole series, as the two adventurers tumbled (literally) from one period in history to another, allowing episodes to be set in the past and future - but always ending in a cliff hanger as a preview of the next episode, a tried and tested format that had previously been employed successfully on Lost In Space. It was an original premise and one that would be returned to again but with far more success in Donald Bellisario’s Quantum Leap. And although the producer of that series never actually acknowledged The Time Tunnel’s influence, it is hard to escape the similarities; a scientist catapulted into other time periods when his project is under threat, leaping from one era to another and hoping that his next leap will be ‘the leap home’. There was even a Doug Phillip’s type companion in the form of the holographic Al. The Time Tunnel got off to a good start. The initial launch episode ‘Rendezvous with Yesterday’, was well written, boasted a good guest cast (Michael Rennie and Susan Hampshire) and set the tone for the rest of the series by utilising library footage from a number of feature films which were superbly integrated into the series to give it a big budget feel. (The series won an Emmy Award in 1967, for its Individual Achievements in Cinematography. The award went to L.B. "Bill" Abbott, for his Photographic Special Effects). Shimon Wincleberg’s original script was revised by Harold Jack Bloom who made a number of minor changes such as the removal of Doug Phillips’ parents from the doomed ship, which may well have stretched credibility a little too far and caused a few raised eyebrows. The rest of the regular cast members included Dr. Ann MacGregor played by Lee Meriwether, Lt. General Heywood Kirk played by Whit Bissell, and Dr. Raymond Swain played by John Zaremba. The Time Tunnel was almost unique in the fact that the regular supporting cast almost never got to work with the two lead actors! 13
Flashback: Classic TV Reviews
Teletronic May 2018
The Time Tunnel first aired in the USA on ABC on 9th September 1966, one day after the debut of another sci-fi show; Star Trek. It was scheduled to follow The Green Hornet on a Friday night and faced stiff opposition. The Green Hornet did it no favours by being a thirty minute show starting at the same time as other networks were beginning 60 minute offerings such as The Wild, Wild, West (on CBS) and Tarzan (on NBC). Nevertheless, Time Tunnel held its own against pretty stiff opposition such as Hogan’s Heroes and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. all competing for the same target audience. In fact, the show did suitably well to be renewed for another season and 4 of these episodes were filmed before an abrupt cancellation. And this after the cast "renewal party" had already been held. The show was replaced by a Western series called The Legend of Custer allegedly after new management at ABC wanted to stamp their authority on the network. One executive was heard claim that ‘Irwin Allen's giving you phoney history lessons wrapped inside cheap sci-fi schlock. Custer was the real thing!' Far from it. The Legend of Custer became much derided by critics as well as pro Native American groups for showing a whitewashed picture of a notorious historical figure. And in any case, The Time Tunnel had already covered the subject in a far superior story entitled ‘Massacre’. The historical episodes of The Time Tunnel worked much better than forays into the future even if artistic licence was often taken with historical facts. The Titanic episode aside one of the highlights of the series was the episode The Day The Sky Fell In taking place on 6th December, 1941 and putting Tony and Doug in the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the day before Pearl Harbour is bombed. Other adventures threw them into the French Revolution, The Alamo and the Khyber Pass just prior to the infamous ‘Night of the Long Knives’. It was popularly believed for a time that in the final scene of the final episode Tony and Doug are re-deposited on the deck of the Titanic to begin their adventures all over again. This is not true and has come about as a result of US TV showing a trailer for the summer re-runs in 1967. Another inaccuracy is that The Time Tunnel often used old props from Lost In Space. In fact it was Lost In Space that benefited from The Time Tunnel’s props following the series cancellation. The Time Tunnel was initially shown on BBC1 in the UK and in the early 1970s was re-shown on ITV before moving to Sky in the 1980s. It then went back to ITV for a late night slot before appearing on both Channel 4 and the satellite channel Bravo. It also has the distinction of winning a viewers choice poll beating a double-bill of Batman and The Monkees on TVS. The series was re-shown on American television in the early-mid 1990s. In 2002 Fox showed interest in remaking this series and went so far as making a pilot episode, in which a government team goes back in time through a time tunnel to World War II in order to retrieve a bubonic plague carrying medieval monk misplaced by a time storm. However, this was later turned down due to similarities to Stargate SG-1. The complete series is available on DVD and includes a whole host of special features including interviews with the stars of the original series and the unaired 2002 pilot. SciFi announced on April 16th 2006, that it was going to create a new pilot for its 2006/07 season. Two of the producers of the Fox project, Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni, were said to be executive producing Sci Fi's pilot along with Irwin Allen's wife, Sheila. John Turman (Hulk) was reportedly writing. The series never went beyond a pilot script. Article: Laurence Marcus
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Gameshows and Quizzes
Teletronic May 2018
Pointless
There’s a moment during an episode of the joyous Car 54, Where Are You? when Gunther complains to his wife Lucille that he doesn’t want to watch a western that is currently on TV because it takes the edge off Wagon Train. I know how he feels. There are lots of quiz programmes cluttering up the afternoon schedules – Tenable, Impossible, Tipping Point, The Boss – but I don’t watch any of them because they would dilute my enjoyment of Pointless. Yes, as my wife never tires of telling me, I’m a Pointless man. When I watch Pointless my wife tends to leave me to it. This is because I spend most of the forty-five minutes shouting answers at the screen. The time I don’t spend shouting at the telly I spend wondering how big the coveted Pointless trophy is. It is regularly shown in big fat, loving close-up, as Keith Floyd would have said, but the viewer is left no wiser as to its proportions. It looks like it should be the size of a paperweight, like one of those little glass obelisks containing a 3-D image of the Blackpool Tower or, if you’re religious, the Virgin Mary. When they did a spoof episode on Not Going Out the trophy looked a fairly hefty size so, to clear things up, I think the big, fat loving close-up should have a handy ruler at the side of the screen to dispel any doubts regarding its dimensions. Pointless also provides a good opportunity to wonder at the televisual skills of its host, Alexander Armstrong. I like Alexander Armstrong and I feel I’ve seen enough episodes now to feel that I can get away with calling him Xander. He is too erudite to be called Sandy and, besides, as far as I am concerned there is only one TV Sandy and that is Sandy Gall. Whatever Xander does he does with the utmost conviction, except when he’s congratulating a jackpot winner to whom he always offers a half-hearted, one-armed embrace. I used to think it was because the BBC were deducting the winnings from his salary but I suspect now that it has something to do with his carefully-hidden microphone wires. The Pointless studio audience must be quite well-off because, whenever the jackpot stands at £1000, it never elicits even the tiniest ripple of applause. A paltry grand, the audience seem to be thinking, I wouldn’t risk damaging my jewellery for such a trivial amount. It might be an example of the north-south divide but I think such a prize is worthy of a twenty-one-gun salute. If I were to win a grand I would make sure everyone knew about it and you wouldn’t see me for dust as I set off on a lap of honour around Teesside. Unfortunately, I would have to do it on foot because my driving licence would not be welcome on Pointless. The reason for this is that my driving style is more akin to The Chase, similar to the one involving Steve McQueen through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt.
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Gameshows and Quizzes : Pointless
Teletronic May 2018
As well as being a talented presenter, Xander is a decent actor. How else does he manage to feign convincing surprise when an answer that is obviously incorrect gets its deserved allotment of one hundred points? The impartial viewer can only stand back and admire his tactful treatment of the, admittedly fictional, Mickey and Minnie, a couple from somewhere equally fictional like Beckindale. Xander would say something like: ‘So Minnie, you think that Winston Churchill was the first president of the United States. Let’s see first of all if it’s right and, if so, how many of the one hundred people surveyed said Winston Churchill.’ He then goes on to utter the astonished words ‘Oh no, it’s not right’ as the column turns red from embarrassment and breaks out in a big angry cross. While I am on the subject, I think the Pointless production team could have made more of an effort in choosing an electronic sound to accompany an incorrect answer. It is nowhere as effective as the classic raspberry effect that accompanied a wrong answer in Family Fortunes. I still miss Les Dennis’s jokes about radishes whenever a contestant failed to see eye to eye with at least one of the one hundred people surveyed over, say, a colour of the rainbow. I have often wondered who the hundred people are that are surveyed, and how the survey takes place. Many is the time I have been strolling through the Cleveland Centre, being a bother to no one, when a surveyor has sneaked up on me and asked for my opinion on something dreary like the need for a bypass to relieve traffic congestion on Marton Road or whether I think the end of the world is nigh. I have never been stopped by a surveyor kind enough to give me one hundred seconds to name as many Top 40 singles by Showaddywaddy as I could. I reckon I could name quite a few of these, starting with Three Steps to Heaven. This tune was also used, some time in the 1970s, to advertise gravy granules on television. Even when I hear the song and know that it’s poor old Eddie Cochran singing it, I always think of a troupe of brightly coloured teddy boys stirring some gravy because, as far as I am concerned, Showaddywaddy and the granules got there first. Skilled professional that he is, I wonder how Xander really feels when he’s waving adieu to a couple whose lack of knowledge demonstrates that they shouldn’t have been on the show in the first place. He’s the model of restraint and diplomacy as he bids farewell to the departing couple with the words: ‘And so, we have to say goodbye to Mickey and his wife Minnie. If it hadn’t been for that tricky matter of having to name the elements of the periodic table from their description in haiku, you would probably have made it all the way to the jackpot round. You’ve been brilliant contestants and we’re sorry to see you go. Have a safe journey back to Beckindale.’
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Gameshows and Quizzes : Pointless
Teletronic May 2018
In the spirit of in vino veritas, he should try presenting Pointless with a few pints inside him. At least then he’d have the Dutch courage to say what every viewer, or at least this viewer, is thinking when confronted with the likes of Mickey and Minnie: ‘And so, the time has come to say good bye and good riddance to Micky and his wife Minnie. I’ll never know how they managed to find their way to the studio in the first place. They probably thought they were going to see The Jeremy Kyle Show. Why people want to appear on a quiz show when they know nothing about anything is beyond me. As well as the debacle over the first president of the United States, and we even gave her the initials of GW to help her out, Minnie also thought Ontario was the capital of Canada. I don’t know why you’re laughing, Mickey. For the round in which we asked you to name a country that ends in two vowels, you said Narnia. By country we mean, of course, any sovereign state that is a member of the United Nations blah-de -blah-de-blah. When was the last time you saw the lion, the witch and the wardrobe at the UN, Mickey? Oh, and Richard, while I’m on a roll why don’t you shut the flip up for flip’s sake? You stopped being funny hundreds of episodes ago, shortly after you told the joke about your having won as many world motor racing titles as Stirling Moss.’ Fortunately, I wasn’t being watched by a couple of million viewers but I had a similar experience to Minnie’s when the issue of the capital of Nigeria cropped up in an episode a while ago. Lagos, I shouted confidently at the screen only to be told by Richard Osman that it was Abuja and has been since 1991. If I had been in the studio I would have earned myself a big fat hundred points but it provided a salutary lesson in not being too cocky, not that I’ll ever learn it. Xander has a point about Richard, though. In the good old days, he would sit quietly in the corner like the wise old owl. Now he comes across as the wise old owl’s younger brother, just flown in from the ‘hood with the cops on his tail and nothing on his mind but making mischief. No one can shut him up and, when he sets off on one of his nonsensical extended riffs about Ben Miller being the more talented one of the Armstrong and Miller partnership, you can write off the next five minutes’ viewing time and might just as well flick through the schedules to see what’s on the other channels, safe in the knowledge that you haven’t missed anything. I used to think that, if Xander ever jumped ship, Richard would continue hosting the show himself. He’s got so much on his plate, though, presenting The One Show on an irregular basis, fronting House of Games, Two Tribes and being the brains behind various television production companies, that he wouldn’t have the time. I think Les Dennis would be a good replacement host. He could even reword his Family Fortunes catchphrase to ‘If that answer’s pointless I’ll give you the money myself’. On the down side, quiz-wise, Mr Dennis is tarred with the ITV brush and I don’t think his jokes about radishes would go down too well at tea-time on the BBC. Should the unthinkable happen and Xander hands in his papers, perhaps it’s best if Pointless were to go the same way as The Weakest Link. Xander is a brother-in-law to Giles Coren, son of the mighty Alan Coren and brother to the even mightier Victoria.
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Gameshows and Quizzes : Pointless
Teletronic May 2018
I should imagine one of the appeals of being a boxing fan is that you can never know for sure who the greatest heavyweight of all time is. Would, for instance, the guile of Muhammad Ali be sufficient to nullify the power of Rocky Marciano? Would Jack Johnson be able to withstand an assault from Mike Tyson? It is a debate to frustrate and delight in equal measure. So it is with brainy TV families. I have often wondered if the more old-school Dimblebys would have too much up top for the younger, hipper Corens. The only way to settle it would be to see them go toe to toe in a festive fantasy edition of Ask the Family. I don’t know which clan would land the knockout blow but I do know that Robert Robinson’s manner would become less and less avuncular when, as would surely happen in such a high-stakes game, elder siblings persist in buzzing in on those rounds reserved for mother and youngest child only. Regardless of the outcome, I have fond memories of the late Coren père from his days as one of the team captains on Cabbages and Kings. Now, that was a quiz show. Taking its title from a line in Alice Through the Looking Glass, the questions in it were based on obscure literary quotations. Benny Green was another regular on Cabbages and Kings. Listening to him on Radio 2 on a Sunday afternoon he seemed a jolly soul but he always looked grumpy when appearing on the show. I suspect it had something to do with being outshone most weeks by Alan Coren. It can’t be good for the ego to be regularly bested at something you think you’re quite good at it. I am sure that Richard Ingrams was also in the mix somewhere, perhaps filling in whenever Benny Green felt like taking a week off. The show was broadcast by ITV, possibly on a Sunday afternoon. Can you imagine ITV broadcasting such a programme now? That’s a rhetorical question by the way because the answer is, of course, no. At the time of writing, ITV with the collusion of Alexander Armstrong are happily putting on, at peak viewing time, Teach My Pet To Do That (Xander, what are you thinking?) in which the nation’s pets are taught tricks such as answering a door at the sound of a doorbell. I have nothing against animals but I have a lot against ITV schedulers who think we want to watch dogs doing yoga at eight of the clock on a weekday evening. In the days when each ITV region had its own distinct identity, the programme would have been bunged on at different times, and different days of the week, depending on the region. As it would have been impossible to build up a solid fan base they would have had a good excuse to ditch it. Now that ITV is one homogeneous mass, there are no such crafty fixes. Cabbages and Kings was based on the BBC radio show Quote Unquote so I don’t know why it was shown on ITV and not the BBC. Perhaps the BBC thought they had enough high-brow quiz shows of their own with Call My Bluff, Ask the Family, Face the Music and Pets Win Prizes (sorry, that one was from a few years later when even the Beeb had started to dumb down). Nigel Rees, host of Quote Unquote, also presented the early episodes of Cabbages and Kings but I don’t remember him at all. The ones I remember were hosted by cheery Robin Ray who had every right to be cheery because he was married to the lovely Susan Stranks, for God’s sake. I spent many a happy hour as a kid admiring her work on Paperplay and Magpie. Cabbages and Kings is long overdue a reboot. It could alternate with Only Connect on BBC4. Xander could host, Giles Coren could captain one team, his sister the other and, best of all, there wouldn’t be a unicycling parrot in sight. I wonder if Susan Stranks could be persuaded to put in the odd appearance?
Article: Andrew Cobby 2018
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Classic Crime Drama: Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Teletronic May 2018
Agatha Christie’s
Poirot
T
hough the comparison between a classic British detective series and a sci-fi series may seem odd, Agatha Christie's 'little Belgian detective' Hercule Poirot is very much like Dr Who in that he has undergone numerous transformations over the years. Poirot has been played by actors ranging from Peter Ustinov to Orson Welles, each of whom has brought their own interpretation to the role. Nevertheless, many viewers insist that their favourite Poirot was captured by David Suchet in the long-running ITV series. Over a series of no less than 70 episodes aired between 1989 and 2013, Suchet brought out Poirot's eccentricities, humour, empathy and quickness of wit like never before. Christie is no stranger to marathon entertainment: her play The Mousetrap is well known to be the longest running play in London's West End, and can be caught any day that you please at St Martin's Theatre. Christie turned her hand to many kinds of writing, including poetry – though her slim volume of poems is largely ignored in the present day. For the majority of people, it is Poirot that has made the crime writer (whose bust is near London's Leicester Square) an enduring household name. Poirot's perennial appeal was down to a mix of reliable tropes (for instance, the idiosyncratic detective's references to his 'Little Grey Cells' or his pangs when he hears of a new death in town), and plot twists and little surprises. Each episode of the ITV series was based on one of Christie's short stories, with Poirot solving a new deadly crime each time around. Distinctive characters were introduced deftly and convincingly in a short space of time. From deaths at middle class flower shows to the murder of an heiress and the theft of her jewels ('The Plymouth Express', 1991), Poirot's intelligence never flagged, and combined with ingeniously contrived plots the series was absorbing to watch. Suchet has become synonymous with Poirot, though he has also starred in several other films, television series and theatre pieces, tending to gravitate towards thrillers and spy shows such as Reilly, Ace of Spies in 1983. Viewers were devastated when Agatha Christie's Poirot aired its final episode in 2013. Nevertheless, as Kenneth Branagh's recent depiction of the role showed in Murder on the Orient Express (2017), more and more actors are willing to take on this versatile role and there is no doubt that Poirot will rise again. Review: L Salzman 2018
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Sword and Sorcery: Game of Thrones
Teletronic May 2018
The worldwide viewing phenomena that is Game of Thrones made its debut on HBO in April 2011 and has since captured the imagination of millions of fans across the globe. Based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling series of novels, ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ has been brought stunningly to life over seven seasons to date, with the breath-taking climax to the series promised for 2019. In the mythical kingdom of Westeros, nine powerful families whose lives are intertwined through love and hate will fight to the death to seize the Iron Throne and ultimately rule over the Seven Kingdoms – by any means. It’s an intricately woven tapestry of medieval sword and sorcery, dragons, knights, kings and queens and acts of treachery and treason - and it’s taken the world by storm. At the forefront of the story are the Starks and the Lannisters, two very different but equally great families. Ned Stark is the King of the North, and from his home in Winterfell he rules with a fair hand with his wife and children stoically by his side. His is a family of hard workers, of honesty and loyalty, where even the highest ranking general fights side by side with his soldiers. The Lannister family rule Castley Rock in the south, and theirs is an entirely different dynamic. The Lannisters run on control and deceit, incest and greed, and woe betide anyone who tries to come between them and ruling the whole of Westeros. The Lannisters abuse their power over and over again...but you’ll find no spoilers here! So there we have the basics, but Game of Thrones is far more than the tale of rival families jostling for a place on the Iron Throne. The Game of Thrones world is vast, and the Starks and the Lannisters are just the tip of a very in depth iceberg. From across the water, comes the Mother of Dragons (I did promise you dragons!), Daenerys Targaryen, who also has claim to the Iron Throne – and she is an unstoppable force with a very strong army behind her. Some of the most stunning battles in the series involve Drogon and his siblings raining fire upon those below, so if you’re up for some proper medieval action then Game of Thrones ticks pretty much every box. 20
Whilst the battle for the Iron Throne is the main focus of this series, there’s also an ancient danger to confront in the form of the White Walkers. Over in the frozen North, the Night’s Watch guard ‘The Wall’ from the wildlings that roam the land there, but the army of undead White Walkers pose a far bigger threat. With the help of Jon Snow (Ned Stark’s illegitimate son) the Night’s Watch has its work cut out preventing the spread of the zombie like White Walkers!
The appeal of Game of Thrones isn’t difficult to see. It’s a soaring, epic tale with more twists and turns than a labyrinth. The battle scenes are full on and dynamic, there are characters you’ll love to hate and characters you’ll be loathed to lose. There’s nudity, gore galore, and the stories are so deeply intertwined it’s incredible watching them unravel as you slowly realise that nothing is ever quite what it seems. Boasting a stellar cast including Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Peter Dinkledge and Kit Harrington, Game of Thrones brings George R.R Martin’s often brutally graphic story to vivid life, allowing us mere mortals to disappear into an immersive world where dragons soar the skies and knights fight to the death. Where wine and women and the stories of old gods are still the way of the world. There’s very little to compare Game of Thrones to, as it really is a one of a kind, but if you enjoy films such as Conan, Beastmaster, or 300, then this will definitely be up your street. One thing though, NEVER choose a favourite character from Game of Thrones, because it rarely ends well! Review: Sunday Simmons 2018
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Teletronic Magazine
May 2018 The boring bit at the back.
Teletronic Magazine is the companion to Television Heaven – the classic TV review site. Visit www.televisionheaven .co.uk for classic reviews—including drama, comedy, single plays, articles, interviews and biographies on TV’s greatest hits and the people who brought them to your screen.
Credits Designer / Editor Laurence Marcus
Articles L Salzman Jonathan Sweet Steven Ashfield Sunday Simmons Tanya MacDonald Andrew Cobby Laurence Marcus
Follow Television Heaven on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Television-Heaven/225758692792 All articles in this publication of Teletronic Magazine remain the copyright of Television Heaven .co.uk and their individual authors and may not be reproduced without express permission. Submissions for future issues will be considered for publication but the publisher cannot be held responsible for unsolicited material. All articles express the opinion of the individual author. “And I am unanimous in that” said Mrs Slocombe. You can contact Television Heaven at televisionheaven@hotmail.co.uk Recommended Watching
Teletronic May 25 2018 22