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The Dalek Extermination of Earth

I have a certain fondness for the LEGO games, so when I found out LEGO were going to be taking on my favourite TV series as part of LEGO Dimensions I was more than a little excited. Especially when it turned out Doctor Who would be getting a level pack - a level that's designed to show what a LEGO game based on the franchise would look like by providing a level. There's no better time to review the Doctor Who level pack than now, when LEGO Dimensions are about to announce new content for the game.

As you would expect for a LEGO game, the story's pretty basic so there's no complex paradoxes here. The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) arrives in a future London where the Daleks have launched a wide invasion. In order to stop the Dalek invasion, he must travel back to Victorian and 2015 London (where a familiar junkyard can be found) before using a teleporter in future London to arrive on the Dalek spaceship and fight Davros (Julian Bleach). What's really cool with this story is how it combines a classic series feel with a new series vibe. You basically have the timey wimey element of the Moffat era with a plot that bares obvious similarities to The Dalek Invasion of Earth (which the game developer Traveller's Tales lovingly poke fun at themselves with by calling it 'The Dalek Extermination of Earth'). This kind of feels like how that classic 1964 serial would have looked like if it had been a LEGO animation with a big budget. Obviously Davros wouldn't have been included considering he wasn't introduced until Genesis of the Daleks but apart from that you could imagine this is what the production team would have gone for with LEGO's resources.

There are so many nice references to the show throughout this videogame level too, such as the I.M. Foreman junkyard and all the Doctors in the LEGO recreation of the current title sequence. Davros even appears in his Remembrance of the Daleks look. There is no doubt about it that Traveller's Tales are massive fans of the show. One moment that many other Whovians like myself are sure to love is when you have to rescue Clara Oswald from a K1 Robot from Tom Baker's debut serial as the Doctor 'Robot'.

LEGO is the perfect fit for Doctor Who too. The LEGO games often rely on puzzle solving and this is fitting with the TV series. The show does, after all, encourage the use of brains over brawn in order to solve situations. It's probably the best way to do a Doctor Who game that feels appropriate for the show. One part of the game requires you to move the Doctor around a Pac-Man style maze and hit four red buttons in order to hack a computer terminal. It may sound odd written like this but these Pac-Man mazes offer a lot of fun and variety to the gameplay, which some would argue the LEGO games need after using their successful formula for so long.

The most amazing thing about the Doctor Who level pack, however, is that not only do you get a level but you get every incarnation of the Doctor. That's right: as well as Peter Capaldi you get William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and even John Hurt. Each Doctor has their respective TARDIS console rooms too. William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's are in black and white! This is only a small portion of the LEGO Dimensions game but the attention to detail is incredible. The Adventure World (basically, a hub world) itself has Present Day London, Skaro, Mars, Trenzalore and even the Cybermen's second home planet Telos.

Every voice actor used for the characters is from the series too. Peter Capaldi voices the Doctor, Jenna Coleman is Clara, Michelle Gomez is Missy, Julian Bleach plays Davros, Nicholas Briggs voices the Daleks and Cybermen, Neve McIntosh voices Vastra, Dan Starkey is Strax and they even have John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness. This allows for a very authentic take on the TV series, meaning it actually feels like playing in the world of the TV show recreated in LEGO. Even the other Doctors have voice clips taken from the TV series, when they could easily have been left mute like other characters in the game such as Bart Simpson.

Overall, The Dalek Extermination of Earth is a brilliant LEGO Doctor Who level pack for the fantastic game LEGO Dimensions and one any Whovian should buy. It's an authentic LEGO take on the series full of many fan references and voiced by actors from the show. The gameplay is relevant to the series' theme of brain over brawn and the story nicely acknowledges the classic series serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth. I hope at some point we get a fully-fledged Doctor Who videogame or at the very least some more NFC minifigures (Strax has seemingly leaked out as one who will be playable at some point) as it would be a shame if this and the Cyberman fun pack were to be the only LEGO Doctor Who videogame content.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Harry Potter was announced for LEGO Dimensions today and seeing as I reviewed LEGO Doctor Who (The Dalek Extermination of Earth) it only makes sense now to look at LEGO Harry Potter. Specifically, the first LEGO Harry Potter videogame with the movies' storylines was released. The game I played was for the Nintendo DS, so I will be referring to the handheld game console version rather than the home console take on the franchise.

LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 followed Harry's first four years at Hogwarts, from Hagrid dropping Harry off at the Dursleys to Cedric Diggory's in Goblet of Fire. It was the first game to introduce magic to the LEGO series as a gameplay mechanic but contrary to belief, it wasn't the first LEGO Harry Potter videogame. Two Harry Potter videogames were released as part of the LEGO Creator series; a series where players created LEGO environments and minifigures. The Travellers' Tales LEGO Harry Potter series is the more fondly remembered though and quite right too.

LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 was released before voices in LEGO games were introduced and it worked well for this particular license. There's a certain charm to the miming that isn't present in the voiced games. It's fun to see Professor Quirrell/Lord Voldemort miming his annoyance at Harry finding the Philosopher's stone in his pocket. It also brings out a lot of Traveller's Tales' humour (important when the narrative of the LEGO game follows the films as opposed to providing a standalone story). I particularly loved seeing Lord Voldemort wearing Harry Potter's glasses during a Goblet of Fire cutscene. The miming would have no doubt made it easier for translating the games to non-English speaking countries so it is a surprise that they eventually decided to introduce voices as the miming works remarkably well.

Whilst the characters don't speak, the game is the first LEGO videogame to introduce written dialogue. This type of dialogue has since returned in LEGO Dimensions' Simpsons hub world due to Twentieth Century Fox's restrictions imposed on the Simpsons license and it's a nice compromise for when voices aren't an option. I like being able to tap Vernon Dursley and reading his speech or seeing what Percy Weasley has to say. It doesn't quite work in a LEGO videogame like LEGO Dimensions where majority of the characters are voiced but in a game where everything is mimed it's refreshing to see some dialogue by the characters.


The spells are a great addition to the LEGO videogame formula too. I particularly find casting Wingardium Leviosa (the levitating spell) fun, but it's nice being able to cast Lumos (the spell for casting light) and of course Expecto Patronum (repelling Dementors). Casting spells is executed nicely with the DS version, where you use the touch screen to trace a given shape across the screen. It's a great way of utilising the Nintendo DS's features rather than simply making it a carbon copy of the PSP version. Not so successful with the touch screen is the idiotic decision to make it so you have to tap on the screen to jump. It just feels clumsy and I would much rather have been able to press one of the buttons to jump. Why would you even make that a touch screen control? It makes no sense.

The hub world is also a bit limited. You only get one small area to walk around - the Room of Requirement - and there isn't really a lot to do other than play/freeplay the levels and create your own character. Whilst I do understand that there is hardware limitations with the DS compared to the PS3 it is a shame they couldn't have included some quests to complete. Since the DS version of LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, hub worlds on handheld LEGO games have improved though - although I've yet to play it, it was announced that the 3DS version of LEGO Marvel's Avengers has New York as a full-fledged videogame hub comparable to the console versions - so Traveller's Tales have learnt since their early handheld games.

Overall, LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 is a charming LEGO videogame; it utilises spell-casting with the Nintendo DS's touch screen abilities extremely well and the miming was always one of the highlights of the early LEGO videogames. I also like the inclusion of written dialogue that provides a refresher from the mimed pieces. However, the idea to make jumping a touch screen mechanic was an extremely stupid one and the hub world is a bit too limited in its approach. It was a strong start for Traveller's Tales LEGO Harry Potter though and there's a reason why people remember their LEGO Harry Potter games over EA's LEGO Creator Harry Potter series.

Planet of the Dead

The most notable thing about the Doctor Who special Planet of the Dead is that it is the first Doctor Who episode to be shot on HD. Whilst The Next Doctor is included as part of the Bluray release, it is an upscale rather than an actual High Definition picture. It is also the first story of the new series to be credited to two writers - Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts. Neither are on top form here though.

In Planet of the Dead, thief Lady Christina De Souza (Michelle Ryan) steals the Cup of Athelstan from a museum and makes her getaway on a London bus, where she meets the Doctor (David Tennant). The bus passes through a wormhole and ends up on the planet San Helios: a planet that has become a vast wasteland since being invaded by a bunch of flying alien stingrays. The bus driver and passengers must learn to survive on this planet whilst the Doctor and Christina search for a way back. Nothing particularly memorable happens (other than a fun sequence clearly inspired by Mission Impossible where Christina drops down the Tritivore ship's (which crash landed on the planet) engine shaft on a winch in an attempt to claim a crystal used to power the sup and a pair of anti-gravity clamps) but this isn't by any means a bad story. It just doesn't stand out, especially when bookmarked by great episodes like The Next Doctor and The Water of Mars.

It's a shame given it was aired during a period for the show when there wasn't much Doctor Who on TV (although there has been much less Doctor Who this year than there was back then). When there's only four episodes, the quality needs to be significantly higher and this episode didn't quite live up to the expectations you would expect from a special Doctor Who episode. It's neither Russell T Davies or Gareth Roberts' best work; having said that, it's not as bad as their respective weakest episodes Love & Monsters or The Caretaker.

The surprising thing about this episode is how forgettable the episode's alien species are. The stingrays are just your generic mindless alien menace, whilst the Tritivores don't do a great deal other than stand about chirping. You have to give credit to costume designer Louise Page because the Tritivore design is brilliant and I fully believe they would have been more popular if they had been given both more to do and more of a personality. We aren't really given much reason to care about them or see their stance on anything.

It was a great idea by the BBC to have an Easter Special of the show though and it is something I wish they had made a regular part of the show like the Christmas Special. There's something about the idea of a Doctor Who Easter Special that really works; maybe it's the fact that some compare the Doctor's regeneration to resurrection and therefore draw religious connotations to the source material but it just feels right. And the Doctor eating an Easter Egg is pretty cool (or is that just me?).

I also like Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina De Souza. Lady Christina De Souza has to be one of my all-time favourite one-off Doctor Who characters and one that really should have been a companion. Michelle Ryan's portrayal made me wish the Doctor to agree to invite her onboard at the end of the story. In fact, a series with the Doctor travelling with a burgaler would have had great potential; I could imagine their relationship being similar to Batman and Catwoman in DC's iconic Batman comics, where they typically have a love/hate relationship. Whilst Batman disapproves of Catwoman's burglaries he is often found working alongside her and there's even been a romance hinted between the two characters. It would have been entertaining to see the Doctor and his companion have a similar relationship (although admittedly it may have been a little similar to River Song).

David Tennant has a lot of chemistry with Michelle Ryan, so it was a shame they didn't work together more. They naturally bounce off each other throughout Planet of the Dead and the chemistry is nearly comparable to David Tennant with Catherine Tate. Hopefully Big Finish may give them a Tenth Doctor Adventures series between Planet of the Dead and The Water of Mars where the Doctor changes his mind about not inviting her to travel with him as I'd love to hear the pair back together again. Pretty much anything could have happened during the Special's gaps, after all.

Overall, Planet of the Dead is a pretty average episode of the show and not a great example of Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts' writing. The Tritivores and Stingrays are forgettable Doctor Who monsters, despite a great costume design for the former. It was a great idea by the BBC to make an Easter Special though and Michelle Ryan makes for a brilliant one-off companion in Lady Christina De Souza. David Tennant and Michelle Ryan have a lot of chemistry and it's a shame they didn't get a series together.

Grey Gardens

You could say the 1975 film Grey Gardens and the BBC's 1974 documentary The Family were ahead of their time, given it was a documentary in the reality genre that is so prominent today. Equally, you could also say it was the beginning of an abomination for the Media Industry that saw the likes of The Only Way Is Essex and Made In Chelsea emerge onto the scene. My stance is on the latter and I really don't understand why this film became such an inspiration for terrible reality television shows.

The film follows the lives of eccentric old mother Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, who live together in a rundown mansion in New York. I say 'eccentric' but it's not really the fun kind of 'eccentric', it's just the pair doing a lot of weird things that don't really make sense. You can tell the director Ellen Hovde is trying to manipulate the footage so we think 'OMG, they're so funny' but it just doesn't work and it feels like the poor ladies are being exploited for entertainment when they may need medical attention for their odd behaviour. Maybe they even have a mental disability of some sort that affects their behaviour? I'm not entirely sure shoving a camera in their faces was right to do.

It's not even like the material is interesting. The entire film is boring because nothing really happens and I'm not sure why I should care about these two over other people they could have filmed. It's not even like they seem representative of the film's audience; they're too lost in their own world for that. They're simply a poor choice of subjects; personally I would rather have seen the life of Ellen Hovde; it would have been a lot more interesting to watch a film director's day-to-day life working on the production of a feature-length film. In fact, that would make for a much better ITV reality series than the dreadful Only Way Is Essex. ITV, if you are reading this and you decide to use my idea: I want royalties.

The biggest crime this film makes is going on for too long. There's one hour and thirty four minutes of this ****; during that running length, you're lucky if you don't fall asleep. The film feels dragged out over this running length and it would have worked better as a one hour one-off television special. I don't even know why you'd decide to make this a movie.

Ever wanted to see a Don't Tell The Bride film?

No?

Thought not.

There's a reason why reality shows aren't feature films and that's because they're tacky, cheap to produce content that really don't hold up as movies. The only exception is I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, which I absolutely love and is certainly not cheap given the use of Ant & Dec as presenters and the Bushtucker Trials. Even I'm A Celebrity wouldn't work as a film though, unless they adapted it into an original screenplay about Chris Pratt taking on snakes in an underground coffin whilst trying to earn meals in an apocalyptic wasteland ruled by Ant & Dec. By which point, it has somewhat deviated from the source material of the TV series.

Overall, Grey Gardens is boring reality trash that wrongfully exposes its subjects for the sake of entertainment when they may have a mental disability which influences their odd behaviour. This abomination should never have been a film. There's a reason why 'I'm A Celebrity...The Movie' doesn't exist and that's because reality television does not lend itself to the movie format. If you desperately need sleep, then watch this movie. Otherwise, stay awake and don't bother.

I thought that at the time. It was a fun runaround. Not terrible, not amazing.

That was lousy.

I remember quite liking the Tritivores. The stingray things just reminded me of Pitch Black.

You know this is basically taken from the character that would have replaced Ace, don't you?

The design was brilliant, the execution on the other hand was poor.

Yes, I heard about that. It's a shame it has never been used as a companion idea; I'd love to see the Doctor's morals tested by having him travel with a thief.

Yeah, Raine Creevey was the character. I've only heard Thin Ice of the "Season 27" audios Big Finish did, which I liked well enough, so I've not heard Raine yet. But that was about four years ago and I'm not sure I ever will.

The Ark In Space

The Ark In Space is arguably a Doctor Who serial that has had some influence over the 2005 revival. It was the first serial to have a setting - the Nerva Beacon - which the Doctor returns to later in the series to find one of his major enemies - the Cybermen in Revenge of the Cybermen - have appeared. Fast forward to 2005 and the Doctor arrives on Satellite Five in The End of the World, then in The Long Game and finally returns in Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways to find the Daleks are behind the 'Game Station' (Satellite Five's new name) company the 'Bad Wolf Corporation'.

The Doctor's initial appearance on The Ark In Space is quite simply brilliant. The Doctor (Tom Baker) arrives with his companions on the Nerva Beacon after Harry (Ian Marter) gave the helmic regulator 'quite a twist'. Pressing a switch, Harry accidentally traps Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) in a control room with little oxygen. Sarah recovers on a couch she finds and is teleported into a chamber, where she is placed in cryogenic suspension among future survivors of the human race. One of the humans awakes - Vira (Wendy Williams) - and begins reviving Sarah and the others. They soon discover a Wiirn invasion onboard the ship and the TARDIS crew work to stop it before beaming down to future Earth for the next serial The Sontaran Experiment.

Whilst yes, the bubblewrap is clearly bubblewrap on Noah's (Kenton Moore) hand the special effects in this serial are generally very impressive for a shoestring budget. It's amazing how they managed to create the human suspension chamber room on such a minuscule amount of money:

It is hugely convincing and to me even rivals some of the production sets on the new series. Even the shot of the Nerva Beacon in space is visually impressive:

I have no idea why they decided this serial needed replacement effects on the DVD releases because it's on the higher end in terms of the classic series' special effects. There are much worse classic series effects that didn't get replacement ones if they really needed to create replacement CGI effects for classic series serials.

The monsters of this serial are equally brilliant. The Wiirn is a great idea; they are basically intergalactic vermin who have sabotaged the base whilst the humans have been asleep. However as they are from space they are more intelligent than your standard vermin and have the capability to talk. Their insectoid look like all the best Doctor Who monsters makes them appear closer to home and the idea that these creatures could sabotage the surrounding environment whilst you are asleep is a generally unnerving one. I could imagine many kids after this serial aired probably went to bed worried that the Wiirn would appear and try to sabotage the electronics.

I love the Doctor and Harry Sullivan's relationship with each other here too. It's definitely Tom Baker at his best. They clearly have a somewhat fractious friendship (in fact, I'd say there's rivalry between them over Sarah - not in a romantic way though) but deep down you can tell the Doctor cares about Harry (even if he is a bit of a dick to him at times, especially during the helmic regulator line). Ian Marter does well with the material he is given, however it's never particularly strong compared to the stuff Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen are given to say. The problem with Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan is that he just feels like he's there. This is likely because they wrote his character thinking somebody older than Tom Baker would be playing the Doctor and that there would need to be an Ian Chesterton-style character to take part in the action sequences this Doctor wouldn't be able to do. Tom Baker was cast and the rest is history.

I do really like Kenton Moore as Noah too. You really feel for him when he discovers his hand has turned green, signifying his slow metamorphosis into Wiirn kind. He appears like a tragic figure, despite his rather antagonistic behaviour towards the TARDIS crew. As I said earlier: yes, it's bubblewrap but who cares? Who says bubblewrap can't be deadly? By using your imagination, that bubblewrap in your house could easily be signs of a Wiirn infection.

Overall, The Ark In Space is a classic series serial with brilliant monsters in the Wiirn and impressive special effects for the classic series. It also features great companion chemistry between Tom Baker and Ian Marter as the Doctor and Harry Sullivan and an amazing performance by Kenton Moore as the tragic Noah. If you never watch this classic Doctor Who serial, then you must be in cryogenic suspension.

I remember reading that, at the time, bubblewrap was a pretty new invention and so wouldn't have been that familiar. Also, people are right when they talk about Kenton Moore's use of the 'glove' in making the scenes with Noah's mutated hand very disturbing and alien.

It's funny actually that the Wirrn costumes aren't even as sophisticated as the Zarbi! I remember thinking that the Mutts of The Mutants were what the Zarbi could have looked like if done better.

Close to home can be good, i.e. the giant maggots of The Green Death, but I think when you have aliens who just have an animal's head on an actor's body it doesn't look that great, and harks back to the primitive science fiction of classics like Flash Gordon. At least in Survival there was a more interesting reason for the Cheetah People than that.

I keep meaning to mention — are we the only Doctor Who fans on Movie Forums ? It seems like it's just you and me talking about it.

That's a good point. Now you mention it, I think it was mentioned on one of the documentaries on the Special Edition DVD.
Yes, it's very effective. I like how the Philip Hinchcliffe era pushes the boundaries with what the show could get away with too. The body horror with Noah's hand and later his face are among my favourite classic series scenes.

I actually think the Wiirn look alright, although a new series update of their look would be nice if they were ever to return. At one point I would have doubted a Wiirn new series appearance but after the Zygons returned in Day of the Doctor and became a recurring threat, I think if a future showrunner was to feel that strongly about bringing them back it could happen (providing there's a good story to be told, of course).


I think Russell T Davies is the best at the 'close to home' approach to be honest. The Judoon, for example, have become among the new series' most iconic creations and I think a lot of it is due to their resemblance to rhinos - whilst it's unlikely any of us see rhinos on a day to day basis most of the audience will have seen them at a zoo at some point and even if you haven't, we're all familiar with what a rhino looks like.

I'm not sure, although I wouldn't be too surprised if we are. There aren't many movie connections to Doctor Who other than the Peter Cushing films, TV Movie and arguably Day of the Doctor and Deep Breath.

Mamma Mia

I don't think there has ever been a Eurovision winner quite like ABBA. They have produced some of the world's most memorable songs, from Money, Money, Money to Thank You For The Music. It's no surprise that somebody decided to turn them into a musical; a film version was also inevitable.

Mamma Mia is set on a greek island, where broke mother Donna's (Meryl Streep) daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to get married to Sky (Dominic Cooper) and wants her father to be at the wedding. The problem is, she doesn't know which man out of three is her Dad. In order to find out, she sends invitations to them all and the three potential fathers arrive for her wedding.

I don't usually like romantic comedies but in my eyes this is a fun, good-natured exception to the usual tacky romcoms. It helps that it adds something new by combining it with the musical genre; the ABBA songs work well with the film's plot as they all fit in seamlessly. Some may find it a little cheesy but if you're just after something fun to watch when there's nothing on TV you can't really go wrong with this movie.

The movie has a great cast too. Meryl Streep adds a lot to the comedy with her portrayal of Donna and Julie Walters and Christine Baranski are a lot of fun as her best friends Rosie and Tanya. The standout by far is, however, Amanda Seyfried as Sophie. Whenever she is onscreen, she has a very captivating presence and is by far the most interesting character in the film. She is a big part of why this film works so well; Amanda Seyfried gives a very sweet and believable portrayal that gives the film its heart that it needed to be the success it was.

The problem with the cast, however, is that they just can't sing. The exception is Amanda Seyfried, who gives a stunning version of the song Honey, Honey but the rest are poor. The worst offenders are Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan (who plays one of the potential fathers, Sam), who sound like a cat being tortured with a flaming matchstick whenever they try to belt one of the famous ABBA songs. It seems like whoever did the casting based it purely on the strengths of the acting rather than taking the singing into account and that's not a good idea when the film's a musical first and foremost. You end up having to mute the sound whenever they begin to sing then unmute it immediately after.

The cinematography is also very basic. There's nothing special really about the way it is shot; there isn't a great variety of shot types. It's mainly a lot of mid shots, although the framing is occasionally interesting such as this nice two shot below:



There's not been a great deal of thought put into the cinematography, especially when you compare it to other musicals like Les Miserables or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's basically shot in the style of an average non-musical comedy rather than totally utilising the musical format.

Overall, Mamma Mia is a fun movie based on ABBA songs. The acting is great and it adds something new to the romantic comedy by combining it with the musical genre. However, the singing is terrible and the cinematography is a little basic. It is a very entertaining film though and definitely worth your time.

Could be, yeah.

Yeah, it's fantastic. I don't think The Ark in Space has aged particularly well from my point of view – I don't rate it as highly as I used to – but it still has a lot of great parts. It's a great shame that Philip Hinchcliffe in a sense paid for pushing the boundaries in a way that Barry Letts didn't. I always thought it was weird that Robert Holmes, who loved body horror, never bought into the Cybermen for their potential in that area.

Well the Zygons are maybe an unfair comparison because they always looked fantastic. It's just one of the best monsters, visually. The Wirrn would be a great one to revamp. I loved the fact that when Alister Pearson did his Target novelization cover, he showed the Wirrn – clearly a man in a suit – warts and all in a full figure painting.

I wondered whether Davies thought that a simplistic, back to basics approach to sci-fi was best as it's what the public could easily latch on to. Aliens with animal heads, or the Flash Gordon idea of lion men and hawk men are definitely comparable as they were simple to comprehend. I don't know whether he was conscious of doing this but as you say with the Judoon they appear to have become popular for precisely these reasons.

I just like something a bit more involved, like the Hath, which don't look exactly like something from our planet. Even the Ood were that step further than just a kind of Dr Moreau monster.

Sad, really if true.

Yeah, it is strange. I also find it weird that the Cybermen never returned during the Jon Pertwee era. The 3rd Doctor facing the Cybermen would have made for brilliant television.


Whatever his thought process was, it worked. As much as I like Steven Moffat, it's interesting to note that Russell T Davies has (arguably) created the biggest number of iconic monsters compared to Moffat.

I love Mamma Mia, and I agree that the singers aren't great, but (with the exception of Pierce Brosnan, who shouldn't sing EVER), they're not as bad as you make them sound either. I saw an interview with Pierce Brosnan, and he said that when he accepted the role, he didn't know that it was a musical. The only thing that he knew about it at the time was that Meryl Streep was already signed on, and he wanted to work with her, so he signed on without even reading the script.

__________________
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

That explains a lot about why Pierce Brosnan is so bad. Why did nobody tell him it was a musical?

What would they be? The Slitheen, the Ood, the Judoon? Any others?

Gotham - Season One

Gotham's season finale is airing here in the UK tonight so I thought it would make sense to take a look back at the first season of the show. If you don't know what Gotham is, think of it like Smallville: a show that takes a DC superhero and shows a time where said hero was still a child.

Gotham is arguably a more appealing premise than Smallville ever was though. Rather than Smallville's decision to make a young Clark Kent the central protagonist, Gotham follows one of the most iconic Batman characters Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), who at this point in time is a rookie police detective rather than a commissioner. He teams up with his partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) to solve crimes. Season One had a more episodic structure compared to the current season and as with Agents of SHIELD's first season, it didn't quite work. I tend to think of U.S. dramas like British soaps: they tend to work better with a serialised approach and open narrative due to their length on air than in a '...of the week' format.

There were some nice character arcs in the first season though. Barbara Kean's (Erin Richards) surprising transition from sweet fiance of Jim Gordon to psycopath, for example. The beginning of Edward Nygma's transition to becoming the Riddler was good too. I say 'the beginning' because it wasn't completed until season two. Robin Lloyd Taylor as Oswald Cobblepott was entertaining too in his progression from low-level thug to his 'King of Gotham' position in season two.

The introduction of the villains in season one is also, however, it's biggest downfall. It feels like the show introduced too many of the iconic Batman villains at once. In the first season, already you have Penguin, Catwoman (played brilliantly by Camren Bicondova), the Riddler, possibly the Joker (it's still not clear if Jerome, played by arguably Gotham's best child actor Cameron Monaghan, is the Joker even despite and Two Face (Nicholas D'Agosto). I would rather have seen the show stand on its own two feet without Batman villains overshadowing its first season. Gotham's first season didn't really need quite so many of them; Selina Kyle seemed necessary and Oswald Cobblepott was a great inclusion to the first season but Edward Nygma working in forensics at the GCPD felt forced, Jerome could have been kept back for season two and Nicholas D'Agosto was forgettable as Harvey Dent.

On the positive side, there were some brilliant narrative developments in the first season. The idea to have Jim Gordon demoted to working at Arkham Asylum was a great idea and helped develop Jim's character more from 'boy scout' to a character more flawed. It also saw the introduction of a new love for Jim who Ben McKenzie had much more chemistry with compared to how he appeared alongside Erin Richards as Barbara. Morena Baccarin was introduced as Lee Thompkins in the episode Rogues' Gallery and was immediately more convincing as Jim's girlfriend. It was no surprise when I later found out they were an item in real life.

Another big success for Gotham was the amazing chemistry between Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue. The two actors bounced off each other nicely throughout the season and feel like natural friends. It's their partnership that made season one of Gotham really worth watching.

The highlight of the season for me was by far Sean Pertwee as Gotham. I would go as far as to say he is the best screen version of Bruce's butler Alfred there has ever been and ever will ever be. He is absolutely perfect as a more action-orientated take on the iconic character (not too dissimilar to Jon Pertwee's Doctor, actually) and was season one's unexpected star of the show. I haven't seen Batman VS Superman but I doubt Jeremy Irons is half as good as him.

Overall, the first season of Gotham was a mixed bag. It had some nice character arc and great character developments but the episodic approach didn't quite work out. There was also the introduction of too many Batman villains and it would have been nice to have seen some of them held back for season two. Ben McKenzie's chemistry with Morena Bccarin and Donal Logue was brilliant though and the first season of the show introduced the best version of Alfred there likely ever will be.

The Sisters of Plentitude, Cassandra (as much as I don't care much for her), the Scarecrows from Human Nature/Family of Blood, ..

The Sisters of Plentitude are seen as iconic?