Doctor Who - New series, new species part 21

Sarah Jane has made a return to the small screen (and even the big screen if you were lucky enough to get tickets to the special event) ahead of the next special, meaning some more Who action to fill the void.

Even the Doctor himself is set to make an appearance in this week's show, but before we get to all that let's have a peek at some of the new alien races the series has introduced so far.

Veil










When I saw the title 'Prisoner of the Judoon' I worried that this episode might just be casual reuse of an existing alien and not exciting, but thankfully the Judoon were well used, and 'Androvax the Annihilator' their prisoner made the episode very exciting and watchable. When it possessed Sarah Jane it was conveyed by some excellent acting on Elisabeth Sladen's part. His nihilistic background and reasoning behind his genocidal acts made him interesting beyond the usual 'bad guy' routine, which the series does quite well such as the child kidnapping Kudlak in series 1, though unlike him Androvax was unrepentant.

He also rebuilt a ship based on plans of a ship found in Nevada at a 'Dreamland' base, couldn't have anything to do with an animated series of the same name could it, hmmmm?

Veils were an intriguing species with powerful abilities and unique characterisctics. While outwardly appearing to be reptilian, sporting scaled, razor sharp teeth and even a forked tongue, genetically they have no significant link to reptilian species. They developed the use of particle reticulation to hide within the bodies of others, notably doing so in others smaller than themselves, a little girl, and strikingly different, a fish based species. While in the bodies they 'possess' the bodily functions of the person and can access their memories, though the mind of the captive can still be active and compete for control. They also can stun a victim through touch, leaving them in a trance like state until woken up. Tragedy beset the Veil race when ecological changes to their planet caused it to freeze overm killing all Veil members on the planet, the only known Veil to escape was Androvax, who waas travelling at the time. He vowed to teach all planets the 'way of the universe' - he destroyed 12 worlds and attempted to destroy Earth before capture by the Judoon. His sentence is execution, if carried out it may end this race once and for all.

Eve










This race is as yet unnamed - I'm tempted to call the Kyrptonians because of the Superman references in Eve's story, but I will refrain and stay slightly disgruntled at the lack of name. The species was intriguing, with her looking human and yet demonic with red skin, pointy ears and dreadlocks. The perception of the character changed subtly throughout the episode, from villain to hero to possessed puppet and finally to a confused child who was a bit of everything. The backstory and use of intelligent spaceship. The introduction of 'future Rani' telling the story made the story and it's consequences event more powerful.

Eve belonged to a powerful race with incredible abilities, they were able to percieve timelines, control equipment and even people with their minds. The ability to percieve timelines made them sought after by both sides in the Time War, 'ship' made reference to many of them being 'exterminated' in the conflict. Some members of the species sent their children away to protect them, sending them in intelligent ships that could watch over them and help them control their abilities. Eve's ship was damaged and unable to help her, but Harry befriended her and kept her safe in a fairground. She also became friends with Sam, and after reading his mind asked him to bring Rani to help her, Rani was angry at Sarah Jane and wished she wouldn't interfere, hoping to solve the mystery herself. After Sarah Jane was able to harness a black hole (the ship's fuel) Eve was able to leave with Sam and Harry, as they did Ship granted Rani's wish and erased Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde from existence, leaving her alone and crazed in Bannerman road. Fifty years in the future Adam, the son of Eve and Sam who had human appearance, but Eve's abilities came back and restored the timeline.

That's it for now, for more info keep an eye out for A Podcast of Impossible Things, a new episode coming soon discussing the Doctor's appearance. Also, for more alien fun check out Monster Hunt of the SJA site.

Flashforward

OK this an alert kind of thing alerting you all to a new show called 'Flashforward'

The first episode aired last week for Brits and I think the week before for Americanos I think. Basic plot is that the entire planet blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which time they all see their future, with everyone seeing the exact same time and date, roughly six months in the future.

Agents are assigned to unravel this mystery as well as deal with the global disaster caused by countless car crashes and injuries resulting from the blackout.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know - here's a trailer to show you more.




If you're UK it shows Monday nights at 9pm on FIVE, you can catch up on Demand Five

SF Masterworks # 13 Martian Time-Slip

It's been a long time since I've read this so to attempt a review would be perhaps a little foolish, buy I've never made it my aim to be a reviewer on this site, but to write about things I enjoy and to share them with you all. One of the things I do enjoy is reading classic Sci-Fi and in particular Philip K Dick, whose gigantic presence in the Masterworks list marks him out much better than my vast appreciation could. Anyway, I do think you are entitled to a review of sorts, and so I'm going to be cheeky and borrow one from www.sfsite.com who have an excellent database of the masterworks series - hope you don't mind guys (I also pinched the image from there!)

"First published in 1964, this is recognized as one of Dick's better novels. Although he was certainly a man of vision with consistently brilliant ideas, his writing style is not at all consistent. Sometimes, it seems to me that Dick's writing reads like a translation from another language. Perhaps this aspect contributes to some of the humour in this novel, for it has some very funny moments.

Jack Bohlen is a repairman on a desolate, dry Mars, inhabited by poor colonists and the remnants of the poorer native population, the Bleekmen. Jack's bored wife is addicted to barbiturates. His father is a ruthless land speculator. His neighbour's young son, Manfred, is an autistic with untapped paranormal abilities. His new boss, Arnie Kott, has a virtual monopoly on the available water on Mars. Arnie wants Jack to devise a contraption to communicate with Manfred in order to capitalize on the boy's theoretical ability to glimpse the future.

It's an odd setup, but the payoff is stunning. The same scene in Arnie Kott's dwelling, the same moment in time, is played over and over again, each time shown from a slightly different perspective. Which interpretation of reality is really real? Are any of them? It's a chilling, haunting, beautiful piece of writing." - by Neil Walsh

A lot of the detail is foggy in my mind, but it was still an excellent read, bringing classic PKD themes such as colonisation and precognition, but giving them a fresh and original context. The Martian setting was entirely believable and I can still catch glimpses of the more memorable scenes in my head as I write this. The autism angle made it particularly interesting for me, but what really captivated me was how engrossing and believable the world and characters were - which is also a typical PKD trait. It is typically mind bending and yet easy to follow and while it isn't my favourite of the authour's works it isn't because it's bad, it's simply that some of his books manage to be even better than this one - quite an achievment considering this is a "Masterwork"

I can highly recommend this one to you, and I'll try and keep up with these posts and I'll do another book soon and...guess what? It's another Philip K Dick!!

OK, that probably says just as much about my reading...but we'll ignore that eh?

Power Trip Conflict : Round One

This is my attempt to add a bit of original prose to this blog to motivate myself to write and to hopefully make my blog a more interesting read. This is a tie in to my Heroes based Power Trip articles and features a conflict between two Heroes who remain the same each time, but the power of the good guy changes dependant on the power most recently discussed, as for the power of the bad guy well...you'll see! It's not Shakespeare, but I hope you enjoy.

He looks different in real life. The skin’s a little lighter and he’s not as big, but I the future’s not interested in details, just facts. For example he is standing on the edge of the roof with feet wide apart; he is wearing a bizarre red coat and the sword he appears to be holding is in fact floating just behind his hand – that’s the stuff that matters. An artist knows what symbols his work conveys and so I know what he is trying to tell me. The feet wide apart, edge of the rooftop stance shows his belief that he is a fearsome warrior. The coat is a taunt, you could follow it anywhere, but he does not fear the Police or the army or any of their metallic weapons so he is content for them to know where he is and tremble. The sword is to give a fool’s hope, that maybe he is just a man with a blade, and you don’t see the power holding his weapon until it’s too late.

Like I say, it’s all in the details. You’ve got to really study a picture to know what it’s about. You see the glint of the sun off a billboard, the angle of a crane, the position of birds in the sky. You have to take it all in to understand what the painting tells you. I see it all now, in more beautiful colour than I could ever paint, in motion that my easel could never capture. I see it all, and know to duck just in time.

My study rewards me, the blade flies over my head but, as I knew it would, flies round and returns to its owner. Twice more the blade flies out, but I’ve already seen how and where it’s going to come. It’s very tempting to just watch, to see my work flow out in real motion, but if I stood and got my head cut off then it wouldn’t be what I’d painted would it?

The painting said I’m unarmed and so I am, standing here trying to face down a monster with nothing but my fists. Thing is, I figured out quite quickly that he has control over metal, can make it do what he wants. Just as I think it he rips up a metal railing with a gesture as if to prove me right. This time I run, alarmed at the speed with which he can move such a heavy object. It crashes down just behind me, but I’ve gotten close enough to land the punch I knew I would. It’s even more satisfying than I thought it would be, knocking him to the floor with blood spattering from his mouth.

It leaves me distracted long enough for the next picture to be fulfilled. Paintings only convey things through sight, they don’t prepare you (to take an example) for the pain of a sword penetrating your body. I knew I couldn’t escape it, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t hurt this much. Well I guess this is what they call facing your destiny. I fall back, making those horrible gurgling sounds you hear in films. But I know this happened for a reason, people will know of my gift and it will save them.

A red coat is easy to follow, especially when you can see the future. I’ve painted it, the whole chase, where he tries to hide, the way he tries to fight back, and the plastic cased chemical weapons they use to bring him down. I donated my paintings to the police yesterday so they will know what to do. I can’t hold my head up any longer, but I can see the helicopter catching the sunlight, just like the picture.

Minor Note: The Voyage of the Damned aliens will be discussed when series four starts as there weren't many species in the special, however the articles will resume when Torchwood starts in January

Power Trip 1 - precognition

Well I've finally managed to get round to it so let's hope this thing works eh? Inspired by the show Heroes I will look at the various powers given to different characters and look at how they impact the show and where they originated from. This is by no means definitive and will no doubt have missed important figures in comic book history. These articles are designed more for me to give my opinion on things, which I have not been doing enough of.

The first "Hero" to be featured on the show, Isaac Mendez has a truly unusual gift that impacts all the other characters, though they seldom feel his influence. Isaac paints pictures, and what he paints comes true. At first he believes this to be influenced by drugs and so becomes dependent on them, driving away those close to him in his search for answers. This gift doesn't give him combat powers and so immediately struck as unusual for a superhero show and made Heroes interesting viewing.

The power of precognition brings an added element, that of destiny. The heroes aren't just going to get powered up, mask their identities and save the world just like that. There is a path to be taken, and glimpses of that path are shown in Mendez's paintings. However there is a certain paradoxical element in this as the Heroes accept their destiny, and yet their mission is to thwart what was laid out as a vision for the future. I think this is quite representitive of a modern mindset, we like the idea that we have a destiny and a purpose in life, but we also want the freedom to be able to change it as we see fit. People often speak about having a destiny but being able to change it, yet if you can change it then it wasn't destiny at all. This was displayed in Mendez's demise where he accept's his death at Sylar's hands, but at the same time is confident because he has revealed how to stop the bomb.

I stated in my nnouncement that I would refer to the Bible and I will do so here. I also have no intention of being politically correct and so will adress the word of God with the authority and superiority I believe it deserves. Precognition has it's roots in God, who is all seeing and all knowing and, since he created it, can see all of time and knows how and when everything will happen. God chose to reveal the future to his prophets, often in dreams or "visions", who then would pass it on to the people. People have a massive interest in the future so it's no wonder a superhero was given this gift.

Precognition often featured in mythology, the Oracle at Delphi being one posessor that springs to mind. In olf mythology the future was often set in stone, and though the hero might try and thwart what was written or spoken, his fate would always come about as said. Occasionally the hero's fate would be delivered through his efforts to avoid it, giving that extra bit of irony. Bringing it forward a bit various philosopher and thinkers have claimed to have knowledge of events to come, the most famous of who is Nostradamous who'se predictions are still being debated today. With Horoscopes and fortune telling a very popular industry even in a skeptical age it looks like seeing the future is a power many desire to posess.

Moving on to comic books and popular fiction now where precognition has not played such a dramatic role, but is still a presence. With comics being an ongoing and widly divurging medium having the future all mapped out probably isn't such a good idea, yet some characters like Madame Web of Spider-Man, Destiny from X-Men and the film incarnation of Elektra have had some for of precognition. Moving from comics to film and the most famous prognosticators are the Jedi and Sith from Star Wars. These enhanced beings can gain glimpses of events to come, but hold to a changeable destiny since "always in motion is the future." The most prolific use of precognitives I've seen in modern writing has been in the work of Philip K. Dick, the best known example being Minority Report where 'precogs' are used to prevent murder. Precogs feature in many of his writings using their powers for anything from stoping aliens to predicting market changes for businesses.

I started this idea with an eye to shooting down the Heroe's crew claims to be unlike anything else, but I have to commend the show on presenting the superpowers theme in a new way, something that seemed almost impossible. While seeing the future is a popular theme it is used well in the show, and since I don't personally know of any other character that uses painting to see what happens next I will have to hand that to them as an original creation.

Well that's it, I have a tie-in project in mind to do with this so hopefully you'll read more soon but for now, goodbye.