Have You Been Watching...? Doctor Who: The Daleks In Colour (2023)

 

Doctor Who, that familiar TV series with the time-travelling Police box TARDIS and its quirky alien pilot The Doctor, turned 60 years old in 2023. To celebrate, the BBC broadcast a re-edited and re-jigged version of its seminal 1963 adventure The Daleks. The Daleks themselves, alien mutants in miniature individual “battle-tanks", were to become an iconic adversary to the Doctor and it made sense for this adventure to be the first to undergo such a transformation. Plodding along at 7x25 minute black & white weekly episodes, the story is now condensed to a mere 75 minutes, and now it’s in colour for the very first time.

Until now, the only way to see this story in colour was via the 1965 heavily adapted movie version starring Peter Cushing, as the genial grandfather Dr Who, which runs for only 5 minutes more than our new TV edit. This one features the original TARDIS crew of William Hartnell as The Doctor, Guinness World Record holder William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jaqueline Hill as Barbara Wright and Carole Ann Ford as Susan.

If you are completely new to the concept of Dr Who, then this may not be the best jumping on point as literally nothing is explained about our lead characters. In context, the series was heavily serialised in the sixties, with every episode leading on to the next so there would be no need to explain at this point, which would have been episodes 5-11 of the original run.

This new special edition opens with a new version of the classic theme tune, which sounds slightly faster and with new additional sound effects and a technicolour hue. The story then begins in true Wizard of Oz style with a short black and white scene before developing into colour. The story itself is basic enough, The Doctor and the crew come across a technologically advanced city on an alien world, occupied by the Daleks who are at war with the peaceful Thal race. The war ended hundreds of years previously following the detonation of a neutron bomb. In the intervening years, the Daleks have mutated and reside in their metal casings, while the blonde Thals have become peaceful farmers. On the verge of starvation due to their crops failing, the Thals are trying to get help from the Daleks, hoping they too have evolved into peaceful beings. Spoilers - They haven’t (hey, it’s been out there for 60 years – it’s not really a spoiler).

The Doctor we see in this adventure, is not the same as the one we have grown to know. He doesn’t want the teachers around and is sneaky and manipulative. The circumstances he creates to get to view the city is the whole driving point of our plot, and people die because of the decisions he has made. The two teachers have no choice in their situation. It all leads to very strange and somewhat uncomfortable situation. It will be a while before The Doctor mellows to his new companions.

The work on this project is fascinating, and there are pros and cons to this experiment. The source material is 60 years old. It wasn’t the best material from the outset, but the cleaning and colouring has worked very well. It’s not sharp and glaring or in high-definition, but it does have an almost “dream-like” sheen on the image. The colour choices are bright and bold, and it’s clear why this story was the one given the colourisation treatment. The crew behind the scenes have gone for a very sixties style suitable to the time it was made. Long term fans can moan that the Tardis console is, in fact, green in real life and the floor wasn’t blue, but that takes away from the sheer joy of this project. The episodes have been given a very modern “editing” style, with fast shots and flashbacks. Sometimes, these don’t quite work as well as they’d hope and it only feels like minutes ago since we saw the clip that’s being “flashed back” to. The musical score and sounds have been re-done, seemingly with modern TV sensibilities, resulting in it being quite overbearing at times, and drowning out the actual speech. Some effects have been updated, so now the original Daleks do indeed fire laser beams.

It's a very strange experience, especially if you are already well familiar with the original version. Apparently, the whole idea was to re-cut the episodes as a “modern” episode would do it. In this respect, then the experiment is a success! The lengthy script from Terry Nation (Blake's 7, Survivors) has been chopped right back and pretty much all of the padding removed making it rattle along at a lightning pace, very reminiscent of modern episodes. 

There are hints that this may be the first of many re-versions of old Dr Who Black and White episodes. Hopefully, this one can be seen as a starting-off point, learning what works and what didn’t and lessons can be learned, but overall, this is a wonderful new addition to Doctor Who productions and an extra-special treat for the anniversary.

Year: 2023

Availability: BBCiplayer from 23^rd November 2023

Rating: 7/10

 

 

Have You Been Watching...? The Creator (2023)

 

I was looking forward to the Creator, directed and co-written by Welsh director Gareth Edwards. He also directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (one of the best Star Wars movies) and co-wrote and directed Monsters (2007).  The trailer looked great and the pedigree good. Can the movie live up to the hype?

The cast is led by ex-American footballer and son of Denzel, John David Washington (“Ballers” TV Series and BlacKKKlansman), as Joshua Taylor and tells the story of the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and how it goes wrong, leading to the destruction of Los Angeles in a nuclear explosion. While the US abandons AI and actively destroys all AI forms, the rest of the world disagrees and continues to co-exist with AI forms, as police and numerous other forms.

It's an interesting story and certainly plays to current concerns around the rise of AI, and indeed the opening sequence is a fantastic potted-history of what leads up to the movie. However, from this point on, the storey devolves into a generic “golden child” trope.

The American troops are hunting Nirmata, the creator of the AI, and believe she has created a weapon. Josh is undercover as they believe his wife is the daughter of Nirmata. Josh genuinely falls in love with Maya (Gemma Chan from British dramas Bedlam and Dr Who) and she is pregnant with their child. After a botched US army operation, Josh’s cover is blown and Maya is believed to be dead with her unborn baby.

Fast-fowarding five years, Josh is recruited again to hunt down Nirmata and a weapon they are believed to have created. Josh eventually finds out the “weapon” is, in fact, a cyborg-child called “Alpha-O”, with technology far in advance of what’s already known and accepted. Alpha (renamed “Alphie” by Josh) exhibits the ability to control technology, seemingly by her mind. Thus the plot becomes one of keeping the Golden Child away from the baddies.

This is a shame as the movie suggests a wonderful backstory and attempts as world-building, but it feels like it’s being skimmed over. Some of the plot threads don’t join together and there’s a lot of things happening that seem to happen for plot’s sake than genuine development. Characters appear to say something relevant to the plot then are killed off with no development and simply there as exposition. In spite of this, the effects and cinematography are absolutely excellent. I expected this as I can apply the same to Rogue One, but this is the movies only saving grace. The characters are simply cyphers with little to no characterisation or development. I found myself literally not caring about any of them and this meant that despite looking great,t he movie is a chore to watch and lacking in originality. With a running time of over two hours, there’s a lot that could have been excised and told the same story. That excised time could’ve been spent developing the main characters. This is so bad that I can’t even recall any characters name beyond the core three (Josh, Maya and Alphie). The ending of the movie involves so much bizarre decision making that I couldn’t believe what was actually happening on screen and it removed me from investing in the story.

Alphie is played by a young actress called Madeline Yuna Voyles and she is very good with the material provided, and the rest of the cast (including Ralph Ineson who is utterly wasted in this movie) play their roles adequately.

Very much a case of style over substance, The Creator is a bit of a dud, unfortunately.

Year: 2023

Rating: 3/10

Availability: Currently available to rent or buy digitally through the usual outlets.

Have You Been Watching...? The Swarm (Der Schwarm) 2023

What would we do, if one day, our seas turned against us? That’s the intriguing premise of this German produced (and mostly English language) adaptation of the book by German author Frank Shatzing which came out in 2004. The screenplay is by Steven Lally, Marissa Lestrade, Chris Lunt and Michael A Walker and it's directed by Barbara Eder, Luke Watson and Phillipp Stolzl.

The series tells the story, over 8 episodes, of how mankind faces an increasingly dangerous threat from our very own seas. Marine life that is normally docile and friendly, suddenly turns threatening and deadly (in spectacular ways). Mutant sealife causes an epidemic of disease, death and destruction and our seas turn tsunami, wiping out thousands of people.

The series is a truly global affair, and this does make it distinctive from its US contemporaries of big-budget high-concept thrillers.  The cast is multinational, including Sweden’s Alexander Karim (The Wheel of Time), Belgium’s Cecile DeFrance (The Young Pope), Germany’s Leonie Benesch (Around the World in 80 Days) and Oliver Masucci (Dark), Canada’s Joshua Odjick (Three Pines), Japan’s Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo, Snake Eyes), Finland’s Krista Kosonen (Blade Runner 2049), and England’s Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Years & Years). This wonderful cast are all extremely competent in their roles and clearly committed to the bizarre tale unfolding around them. For our foreign language cast, it’s commendable they perform so much in English and it’s good they get a few scenes in their own first language.

The series is produced by German broadcaster ZDF, with French Television and RAI, with Austrian, Swiss, Swedish and Japanese co-producers. It is the most expensive German produced, English language TV series ever made. The source material being a book is clearly evident in that there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of padding. Everything that happens in the story happens for a reason and fuels what comes after. Our main protagonist is Benesch’s Charlie Wagner, a German researcher stationed in a lighthouse on the Shetland Islands. Through her we are gradually introduced to the other cast and events. Despite some great set-pieces, the series does move along at a snail’s pace, which does hurt the pacing somewhat. However, by the time the ending comes along, we have a better idea of what is happening although some plots are left unresolved. This is possibly down to adapting the material for a potential ongoing series. However, a second series is yet to be confirmed.

The cinematography is truly breathtaking and shows off all the global locations to their full advantage and the special effects are fantastic. There are numerous deaths and the stakes are high but with a small core cast, we don’t get a true feeling of the oncoming apocalypse. That being said, it is wonderful to see a non- American led drama series of this nature and it adds flavour to the genre. At 8 episodes, it’s easy enough to binge watch, but personally I enjoyed pacing the episodes out over a week. While initially broadcast in Europe earlier this year, Now TV have the series available to stream, so do try to avoid spoilers! This is well worth dipping your toes into (but mind the crabs!)

Year: 2023

Episodes: 8

Series: 1 (to date)

Availability: streaming on NOWTV at the time of writing

Have You Been Watching...? Zombies Of Mass Destruction (2009)

 

Zombies of Mass Destruction (aka ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction and even "Zombieworld" in some territories), directed by Kevin Hamedani, is one of those movies that I’d never heard of until I was researching some new movies to watch during the Halloween month of October. I'd read a synopsis and it certainly sounded interesting and I’d watched the trailer, which again looked good. I could not, however, find it anywhere to stream so found a copy on DVD and purchased that. It wasn’t expensive, so I thought if it was terrible, it wouldn’t be such a great loss. It's a purchase I'm very glad I made!

Set in 2003, the movie stars Janette Armand as Frida Abbas, a Princeton University dropout who returns to the small island town of Port Gamble. At the same time, another ex-resident Tom Hunt (played by Doug Fahl) arrives with his boyfriend Lance (Cooper Hopkins) with a view to come out to his mother over dessert. These two storylines seem innocuous enough to the viewer, but there is a reason this movie is set in 2003. This is the era of post 9/11, the Iraq war, George W Bush is president and the fear of terrorism is at its peak. Heavy topics for a low budget zombie flick.

The people of Port Gamble are small minded and hold bigoted views. This plays significantly in the stories of Frida, Tom and Lance. The locals all seem to believe Frida and her father come from Iraq, despite her frequent reminders they are from Iran, a completely different country and that she herself is born and raised in America. Tom relates to Lance that a boy he had a crush on in school was outed and had a terrible experience, so he has been terrified of coming out since (the couple now reside in New York). As all this is happening, slowly, some of the residents are becoming zombified. It isn't made clear how this is happening, or the root cause (no chemical waste in this scenario) but you don't need to know how. 

The movie is a very low budget affair (the biggest name cast member appears to be Russell Hodgkinson, who played series regular “Doc” in Z Nation), but don't let that put you off.  This movie is great! There are some decent special effects and the script is hilarious. There are copious amounts of gore and humour throughout, although it takes a while to get going. Once it does, there’s no stopping it. I found myself laughing so much one minute and squirming at some of the gore and the situations our heroes find themselves in, the next.

Despite being a zombie horror movie on a low budget, there is something really sweet about it. The viewer finds itself rooting for Frida, Tom and Lance as their situations get worse by the minute. Yes, there are very uncomfortable moments when the trio face the prejudices against them, but they are without doubt the heroes of this adventure and the voices of reason in the face of small-mindedness. In the era of post 9/11 and the associated paranoia that came from that, the movie is a breathtaking reflection on that time told from the perspective of those being persecuted. Not all of the townspeople are so petty and there are clues that Tom’s homosexuality is not quite the secret he thought it was.

The cast are extremely competent in their roles and at less than 90 minutes long, it gets rolling quite quickly. It’s definitely worth investing in and you won’t be disappointed!

Year: 2009

Availability: in the UK, appears to be on DVD only

Rating 8/10  

 

Have You Been Watching...? Dead (2020)

 

Antipodean movies don’t tend to get much exposure over here in the UK, but sometimes one comes along that stands out from most. Films such as Australiens, Housebound and the Wyrmwood movies are all great genre movies with that wonderful bizarre humour that tends to only comes from Australia and New Zealand, mixed nicely with the drama and scares.

Dead was released in 2020 and stars comedian Thomas Sainsbury, whom you may know from the “What we do in the Shadows” spin-off “Wellington Paranormal” as hapless Constable Parker. I recently came across this on the usual streaming services and it was well worth the investment.

The movie tells the story of Marbles (Sainsbury), a stoner who can see and communicate with ghosts. Whether he likes it or not. One day, he comes across the ghost of Police Officer Jayson Tagg (Hayden Weal), recently killed in the line of duty and minus his pants (which means poor Weal spends the entire film in his undies). Together, they try to catch a serial killer who appears to be bumping off young gay men. While this sounds like it should be serious stuff, the movie doesn’t hold back from playing it for laughs.

As the buddy-cop friendship develops between Marbles and Tagg, the copper’s reasons for being so steadfast in his attempts to catch the killer are teased out bit by bit. Their investigations lead to them to an array of quirky oddball characters and bizarre plot twists which also involve zombies.

While some of the jokes do fall a little flat, there is plenty to enjoy in this light-hearted and very silly romp. However, it is a romp with a lot of heart and leads to a cheesy, yet very sweet ending.

There have been a lot of movies lately that built up a concept only to fall flat on it’s face, and I’ve written quite a few entries which haven’t been over complimentary where this occurs. “Dead” might not be the biggest, incredible movie of all time, but it is one of the few recent movies that has made me laugh out loud, smile at the right moments, and just make me feel warm and happy inside.

The movie is definitely Sainsbury’s vehicle, and he leads the it well portraying Marbles as someone with this incredible gift that doesn’t really want it but helps people anyway. Weal deserves kudos for portraying Tagg as this funny, affectionate and dedicated copper, with secrets of his own, and doing it ALL without trousers.

Written by its two stars and directed by Weal, they know exactly what to do in order to get the most from each and every shot. The love and care for the material shines through.

If you like Antipodean cinema and genre movies in general, you would do well in investing time with this one. It might not rock your world, but you won’t regret it.

Year: 2020

Availability: digitally to buy or rent

Rating: 7/10

Have You Been Watching...? Jury Duty (2023)

 

One of the “phenomena” that has taken off on the internet is that of the “social experiment”. This involves “influencers” setting up situations with the public and then posting the films online. Think a less-funny Beadle’s About (if you were watching me say this, I'd be doing little air quites for those terms...). Most of these simply serve to promote their content creators rather than be genuine social experiments. TV has had a go too, with programmes such as Big Brother looking at everyday folk under the microscope of TV cameras. None of these come anywhere close to Jury Duty.

When I first heard of Jury Duty, an Amazon Freevee Original first broadcast in early 2023, it was compared to The Office. With not being a fan of The Office, I gave it a miss as that type of Docu-comedy doesn’t appeal to me. What a mistake that was. The series came up on one of those recommended images that appear, and for some reason, I gave it a chance.

What I’m about to write now is NOT a spoiler. In fact, it appears right at the very beginning of the first episode. The series is about a documentary being made around the jury at a trial in an American court. Except it’s fake. All of it is. The trial, the officers and the jury are all actors. Except one: 29 year old Solar Panel contractor Ronald Gladden, and he has no idea. As a member of the public, Ronald answered an advert for potential jurors to take part in the programme all the while believing it to be real. The crew are being given “unprecedented” access behind the scenes of a trial in court, documenting everything from the selection of the jury through the trial itself, to the verdict. But it is all dramatized. The only thing that is not planned is Ronald and his reactions to the developing situations. This requires the production team to be 100% switched on to change things at a moment’s notice in case the game is given away. The team have no way of predicting how Ronald will react, and if he guesses, the entire scheme is over.

What follows is one of the most wholesome and joyful programmes that I have ever sat through. From the selection process, the jury is made up of a group of the most bizarre and yet still believable people and the viewer watches as Ronald tries to fathom how to work with these people and the workings of a genuine trial. The series also features Hollywood star James Marsden (Enchanted, X-Men, Hairspray and many more) as a truly exaggerated version of himself. Despite everything that’s thrown at him, Ronald remains the bastion of common sense and normality amongst all the chaos around him and he comes across as a likeable, and very genuine young man. I defy any of you to watch the final episode without a lump in your throat or tears in your eyes.

The series drifts from each bizarre situation to the next all built around the trial Yes, indeed, the cast and crew sat through hours of a fake trial every single day. Thankfully, the trial itself takes second place to the jury and the show doesn’t linger on the courtroom dramas too much beyond what you need to know to understand the dilemmas the jury finds itself in.

Each episode lasts approximately 25-30 minutes and there are 8 episodes in total (although on Freevee, there are way more than that listed as the last batch are behind the scenes episodes). This makes binge watching very easy but it’s much more fun to spread them out.

I enjoyed the series immensely. The cast are fantastic and don’t let their guard down at all (how they do this is revealed in the behind the scenes and they all deserve awards for their commitment!). For a star like James Marsden to agree to send himself up in the way he does is also commendable and he is hilarious throughout. It’s also very easy to forget, as you’re watching, that this is meticulously planned so a huge credit to the crew for being able to commit to and produce such a feat of television. The writers, the camera crew, the production team and everyone has pulled together to create this masterpiece. It’s no surprise to find it nominated for 4 Emmy awards. As enjoyable as the programme is, the sad thing (while also being a good thing), is that this can be the only series. With the cat out of the bag, anything else can only ever be a retreat or inferior copy as any unsuspecting stooge will hope to promote themselves in the way that Ronald inadvertently did. I hope you do look in on this series as I believe you will enjoy it as much as I.

Year – 2023

Series count – 1

Episode count – 8

Availability – currently streaming on Amazon Freevee

Have You Been Watching...? Maneater (2022)

 

There are movies that are good, and there are movies that are bad. Maneater, a recent entry into the “Sharks are bad, m’kay” category, is a whole new category all of it’s own. 

I enjoy creature feature movies, where there’s a monster wiping people out left, right and centre. 1975’s seminal entry “Jaws” took this very subject and turned it into one of the most frightening and intense movies ever. Even though, shockingly, the antagonist only appears in the film for a total of about 5 minutes, the rest of the film is taken up with an increasing sense of dread. But that's a different movie...

Maneater follows Jaws' opening scene with the first death happening quickly, although in Maneater’s case, it’s within seconds of the film starting. Thus begins one of the strangest movie experiences I have ever had. 

The cast is led by ex-Neighbours cast member Nicky Whelan (Pepper Steiger, when she trod Ramsay Street in the early 2000s), as Jessie a woman whose wedding is cancelled but goes off on the honeymoon anyway with a bunch of her pals. Interestingly, while they all act like kids on spring break (and at one point Jessie herself is even called “kid”) none of them look under 40 (Whelan is actually 41) which makes the decisions and actions of the characters unbelievable. Even suspending belief, although we are told various things about their backgrounds, none of the cast act anything more than bland and one-dimensional. 

Unfortunately for the movie, the budget appears to have been non-existent, and the shark appears in terrible CGI and rubber form. In one scene the cast are gathered on the boat, with it’s crew, discussing the various sea life they can observe. Sadly for the viewer, the camera remains on the cast throughout the scene. Whether this is scripted this way or not, it results in the viewer hearing what’s being seen by them, but not getting that experience. Not only that, the scene drags on and becomes somewhat uncomfortable and painful to watch.

As our shark starts gnawing its way through our cast, it’s quite easy to tell who is going to be next and there are no surprises. In fact, the best and only surprises are the deaths of our cast that DON’T happen by being shark treats. One of them, a character whose hands tend to flap a lot, is dispatched in such a way that I found myself laughing out loud at how hilariously funny it was. Another disoatched body makes a fleeting re-appearance, but our cast do NOTHING to assist, even CPR. One of the cast survives it’s encounter with the shark only to be tended to by the worst first-aid in history, that I expected the character to beg the shark to come back and finish the job. It would be quicker and better.

Needless to say, the movie ends with sharky meeting a sticky end. However, that’s not the end of our movie. Oh no, not only have we endured 90 minutes of this, our movie ends with the promise, or rather threat, of a sequel in a scene so forced it feels like it was made simply to bump up the runtime.

So, while some movies are good, and some are bad, Maneater falls into that rare category of being neither. It firmly belongs in the “ridiculous” category. After 90 minutes, I didn’t love it, yet I don’t hate it. 

It just….exists.

Year: 2022

Availability: to buy or rent from digital retailers

Rating: 2/10