Review: EOS 10

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EOS 10 Promo

In my effort to create a scripted podcast, I decided one of the best things I could do is go and find other scripted podcasts to listen to. In this pursuit, I came across EOS 10.

EOS 10 is a podcast created by Justin McLachlan. The title is the name of the space station where the show is set. The premise is that the chief medical officer on the station, Dr Horace Urvidian (Dan Berry) has become an alcoholic. Since Urvidian is a well-known figure in the Alliance (with a children’s book written about him.) his failure would be an embarrassment. To head this off, Dr. Ryan Dalias (McLachlan) is assigned to be his new chief of surgery. Ryan, the son of an admiral with a history with Urvidian, has experience with substance abuse, and convinces Urvidian to go sober.

In addition to the two doctors, the medical staff also includes Nurse Jane Johns (Natalie Cutcher), a snarky extrovert who likely became that way to survive Urvidian. She also pines for Dr. Osolong, a staff member who is mentioned but never appears, and also happens to be gay.

Rounding out the main cast is Levi (Charles Lipper), a deposed alien prince who now works at the station cafeteria. Levi is friendly, but a hypochondriac, hence his constant interaction with the medical staff. Levi is also not above going outside the law if he wants something.

This last trait puts the crew in contact with the recurring character Akmazian (Tim Torre). Akmazian is wanted by the Alliance as a terrorist, and has been hiding out in an unused section of the base. Akmazian claims to have been framed and tries to be helpful when he can, to get the crew, especially Ryan, on his side.

The only other recurring character of note is the Quarter Master (Chris Stinson), a two headed alien who for reasons unknown dislikes Ryan.

As there is no narrator, EOS 10 has to find ways to convey locations and situations while not resorting to the dreaded “as you know” trope. Fortunately, the writing is up to the task. It is helped along by being a clear pastiche of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, at least in set up. This fills in a lot of blanks in the back story.

One thing the show does very well is create a sense of space. This is from small things like background noise. All scenes on the station have a particular background hum. Scenes in the cafeteria have the sounds of people chatting and plates clinking. But there are other sound effects used to tell the story, like having the Quarter Master’s voice alternate between speakers to show which head is currently talking.

The story itself covers a few themes. One is dealing with addiction of course, as shown through Urvidian and Ryan and their straight forward cases, but also in things like Jane dealing with her obsession with a man that will never notice her, and Levi pining for his past life as a royal.

There is also a government conspiracy plot, thanks to interaction with Akmazian that slow burns in season one, and comes to the forefront in season two. The show also tackles other issues, such as the episode Antivaxx which, as the title suggests, deals with the anti-vaccination movement.

On the acting front the show does well, pulling it’s cast from actors working in the Washington D.C. area. They all do fine work, but Dan Berry and Charles Lipper stand out as Urvidian and Levi. McLachlan does a good job as Ryan, but at times he can come off as a bit too relaxed.

If you are looking for a podcast that tells an interesting story without being too heavy, I would suggest checking EOS 10 out. So far, two seasons have been released consisting of eight episodes each.

I give EOS 10 a grade of B. It should entertain Science Fiction fans looking for a podcast, but might leave some people behind.

Fanboy News Network Episode 30

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“Halloween Wrap Up with Jillian Venters”
Jillian steps in as guest co-host to cover various Halloween events.
Jeff and Jill take another look at Convention staffs behaving badly.
Jill tells of her Halloween event trip to California Including:
  • Halloween Horror Nights
  • Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween
  • Wicked Lit
Jeff and Jill give their thoughts on Crimson Peak
Jillian explains her obession with 1970s Gothic Satanic Romance novels.
Jillian’s tips for Halloween.
Jillian explains Lolita culture for Daniel

Horror Review: Let Us Prey

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Let-Us-Prey-3

Let Us Prey is an interesting film to review. On the surface it seems like a very generic horror film but, as it is with events in the film itself, looks can be deceiving.

Let Us Prey is set in a small, out of the way, Scottish town. Its police force consists of four officers; one of those officers, Rachel (Pollyanna McIntosh), is literally heading in for her first shift with the department when she witness a car hit a pedestrian. The driver, Caesar (Brian Vernal), stops and she arrests him, but the victim is nowhere to be found.

After getting back to the station ,she meets her commanding officer, Sgt. McReady (Douglas Russel), who seems intent on keeping the status quo and isn’t very warm to having Rachel in his department. Her fellow officers, Jack (Brian Larkin) and Jennifer (Hanna Stanbridge), are having an affair and seem to be pretty clearly corrupt.

Besides Caesar the police are also holding Ralph (Jonathan Watson), who is being held for domestic abuse, and not for the first time. Things get complicated when the man Caesar hit (Liam Cunningham) shows up at the station, battered, but apparently alright. After having Dr. Hume (Niall Gregg Fulton) examine the man, the Sargent decides to put the man in cell six, in part due to his refusal to identify himself, thus the character is referred to as simply Six.

After this, odd things start happening around the station. It becomes increasingly clear that Six is manipulating events and that each person in that station is not there by chance. It is up to Rachel, who has vague memories of meeting Six as a child, to figure out what is going on.

As I said at the top, Let Us Prey starts out as a very standard horror movie, with the introduction of the victims and then the slow thinning of the cast. What makes it stand out is that, as the plot unfolds, it starts playing with our expectations. Writers David Caims and Fiona Watson know who their audience is, and what they have come to expect, and use that knowledge to take the story to places that play with those expectations.

Director Brian O’Malley keeps the pace slow, but never dragging. When he does pick up the pace at the ending, he remembers that this is a horror film and not an action movie. The mood is also aided by the lighting, often coming off as if the whole movie is lit by the halogens in the station.

For the actors, this is clearly Cunningham’s film. Being the most recognizable of the cast (from his role as Davos Seaworth, the onion knight on Game of Thrones) Cunningham carries the film as the enigmatic Six. As the story moves on it becomes clear to the audience who Six is supposed to be, but the movie never comes out and confirms anything.

McIntosh manages to hold her own with Cunningham, as the film’s protagonist. Rachel’s history, showing she was kidnapped by a child murderer when she was a young girl, leads to a character who is determined to help others, but dealing with her own darkness from the event. All this leads to the final scene of the movie;  without giving away spoilers, it is unexpected, but McIntosh’s performance makes it stand out as a triumphant moment, where it could have easily fallen flat.

The rest of the cast is fine, but no one really stands out. They just play as figures in the game between Six and Rachel.

I give Let Us Prey a grade of B. Horror fans should enjoy the mood and how it plays with genre tropes, non-fans should still like it, but may be thrown by twists.

If you want to check it out, Let Us Prey is currently available on Netflix.

Fanboy News Network Episode 29

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Fanboy News Network Episode 29

“Horror Month and more”
Jeff talks about the Podcast “The Black Tapes Podcast”
Dicussion of They Live and how well it has aged.
Recommendations for good short horror on YouTube.
Jeff talks about attending Geek Girl Con.
News from NYCC
The flopping of the movie Pan and why this made Jeff and Daniel happy.
How the geek community came together to support Ahmed Mohamed.
Daniel talks about why he enjoyned the Martian and Jeff talks about why he is looking forward to Crimson Peak.
Daniel talks about reading the Fight Club II comic and his decision to buy the first issue of Dark Knight 3.
Jeff talks about his impression of the returning comic book inspired TV shows.
Discussion of the post-Secret Wars Spider-Man stories.
Daniel talks about the novel Ancillary Justice.
A quick plug at the end for the Kickstarter for Thea Maia and Jillian Venters Adult and kids coloring books.

Horror Review: Sapphire and Steel

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Sapphire and Steel has been getting some buzz amongst fandom lately. Neil Cross, the creator of the BBC series Luther has stated that he wants to do a revival of Sapphire and Steel as his next project.

For those of us who were getting into British Sci-fi shows in the 80s, this is an exciting prospect; however, I’m sure a lot of you have no idea what I am talking about.

So what is Sapphire and Steel and why are some of us excited about a reboot?

Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, and Sapphire and Steel were considered the holy trinity of British Science Fiction in the 80’s. Which is interesting because I, personally, don’t consider it Science Fiction; I think of it as horror. Sapphire and Steel is a British TV series created and written exclusively by Peter J. Hammond that aired from 1979 to 1982. It was broadcast on ITV, which was a commercial network in Britain that was often the main alternative to the BBC.

The premise of the series is that if a breach in the fabric of time occurs, other worldly operatives are dispatched to fix the situation before malignant forces from outside of time can take advantage of it.

Most of our knowledge of the operatives comes from the opening narration of each episode:

“All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.

Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.”

It is implied that this corresponds to the periodic table, but since none of the named operatives are named after elements we cannot be sure.

The series follows operatives Sapphire (Joanna Lumley) and Steel (David McCallum) as they investigate the breaches in time and work to correct them. The two are clearly not of this world. They can communicate with each other telepathically. Sapphire can manipulate time in a limited fashion, rolling it back, as well as having psychometry. Steel is super strong, has limited telekinesis, and in one episode was able to lower his temperature to near absolute zero to defeat a threat, but at the cost of weakening himself. In personality, Steel is cold and a bit rough in his dealings with humans, as opposed to Sapphire who is warmer, although this is implied to be a learned skill when Steel calls her a diplomat.

The time breaches are often caused by some anachronism in the area. An old nursery rhyme book, a party exactly recreating the 1930s, and a doctored photo mixing old and new elements. Once a breach has happened, Sapphire and Steel are dispatched and have to figure out why it happened, what it unleashed, and how to fix it.

Occasionally, in the course of an assignment a third operative will be sent in. The two other operatives we meet are Lead (Val Pringle), a jovial giant who can insulate Steel against the weakening effect of lowering his body temperature, and Silver, a technician who can transmute small bits of matter and can manipulate technology.

One of the features of the series that made it stand out (and makes it excellent horror) is that Sapphire and Steel’s main goal is sealing the breach. While they will attempt to save the humans caught up in it, this is a secondary goal and if letting a human die will ensure the breach is sealed, they will let the human die.

Since the series was on ITV it had what could kindly be considered a micro budget. Consider that Sapphire and Steel’s run was during the end of Tom Baker’s run on Doctor Who and the first year of Peter Davidson’s. People joke about the cheap effects of that era. Now consider that to Sapphire and Steel, Doctor Who’s budget would seem lavish. For most shows this would have been a problem, but Sapphire and Steel turned it into an advantage. Since each episode had limited sets, it was simply that during a breach no one could get out, which was usually Sapphire’s doing. The writing was also very good and made the episodes slow, but well-paced. Tension was built to the point that a pool of light on the ground, clearly created by a stage hand with a flash light, was nonetheless absolutely terrifying.

And then there was the acting. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum were already established when the series was made (Lumley from the New Avengers and McCallum from the Man From U.N.C.L.E.), but still years away from their bigger successes (Absolutely Fabulous and NCIS). In Sapphire and Steel they convey the otherworldliness of the characters and make them sympathetic even when having to make the hard choices their jobs require.

Sapphire and Steel was a serialized program, just as the original run of Doctor Who was. In all there were only six stories made, ranging from an hour and a half to three hours, depending on how many half hour segments each story required.

Be warned that some of the episodes can be very scary. One person online once said a story can go from “give me a break” to “Someone please hold me” with very little warning. And it is famous in fandom for having a downer ending in the final episode.

If you decide you want to seek out the series you are in luck. Shout Factory did a rerelease of the series in 2013. You can go to their site to find it, and the series is available from Amazon for about $26.00 as of this writing.

I am going to give Sapphire and Steel a B. I think horror fans who give it a chance will be pleasantly surprised, but I can see where the slow pacing and cheap effects could detract from others enjoying it.

Fanboy News Network Episode 28

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Fanboy News Network Episode 28
“Viva Santo”
Jeff and guest co-host Rich Redman kick off the October Horror theme month with a look at the Santo Movies, featuring real life wrestler El Santo fighting monsters.

Review: Flash Season 1

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The-CW-The-Flash

When last year’s TV season began, The Flash was one of the most highly anticipated shows amongst the geek crowd. When we looked at it here during the beginning of the season it was certainly living up to that buzz, but did it maintain that level?

Well yes, actually it did; no need to beat around the bush on that. But let’s look at how it managed that.

The one thing the Flash had going for it, from the start, was that it embraced its comic roots without shame. It also went against the grain for just about every other DC live action property by not going the grime and gritty route, instead choosing to have an optimistic hero who acted as a symbol of hope.

CW already had the required grim hero in the Arrow. One observation of the two shows is that in the CW DC universe, Superman’s role is covered by the Flash and Batman’s by the Arrow. One episode highlights is when Barry tries to emulate the Arrow’s grimmer way of handling things, only to have it blow up in his face.

One of the factors that influenced the story more than any other was the time travel aspect. Time travel was always a part of the Flash in the comics and the show did not shy away from this in the least. Like any show involving time travel there were questions about what the consequences of changing the past would be, and the creation of a plot hole or two. However, the overall execution was well handled.

So how did the characters evolve over the course of the first season?

Of course, as the main character Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) had the most growth. Starting out as enthusiastic but unsure of himself, Barry grew into a responsible hero who (when it came down to it) would make the choice of serving the greater good. Gustin nailed the character from the start.

If the show rested on Gustin’s shoulders, then his best support came from Tom Cavanagh. As Harrison Wells, Cavanagh portrayed a wonderfully complex character. As Wells, he was Barry’s mentor and a surrogate father figure, but in his true identity of Eobard Thawne (aka The Reverse Flash) he was Barry’s worst enemy who wanted nothing more than to destroy him. Cavanagh was able to portray Wells as both affectionate to Barry and the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs crew, while at the same time being a threat to them.

While Wells’ goal was to push Barry’s powers to greater heights, Barry’s foster father Joe West (Jessie L Martin) guided him on the path of the kind of hero he wanted to be. The father/son bond between Joe and Barry was easily the series emotional core. Joe cared so much for Barry that he was willing to have their relationship erased from history, if it meant that Barry could get his mother back.

Of Barry’s colleges It was interesting to watch Cisco Ramon’s (Carlos Valdes) arc over the season. Cisco had fanboy glee over Barry’s powers and being part of a team fighting supervillains. It was also interesting watching his bonds with Barry’s father figures. He worshipped Wells and took his betrayal hard. Conversely. over the season. Cisco had a growing working relationship with Joe, being his secret partner in investigating the truth behind the death of Barry’s mother. The revelation that he can subconsciously remember timelines that time travel erased directly opened a door to his (eventually taken on) identity of Vibe from the comics.

On the flip side you have Catlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) whom, thanks to a glimpse of the future, we got to see as her villainous alter ego of Killer Frost.  While she continued her role as caregiver to Barry when injured, the show steered away from having her fall for him, instead bring in her supposedly dead fiancé Ronnie (Robbie Amell), who was still alive, as his comic book alter ego Firestorm. She was also the most resistant of the S.T.A.R. Labs team to the idea that Wells was really the Reverse Flash.

Iris West (Candice Patton) suffered most of the season from being more of a plot motivation, for Barry, than an actual character. For the first two thirds of the season, she was defined by her relationships with Barry, her father Joe, and her boyfriend Eddie. It was only towards the end of the season, when she learned that Barry is the Flash, that she started coming out of that and showing signs of being an actual character. Hopefully in the next season they can build on that and give her some more defining characteristics.

Speaking of Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), for starting out as a bit of a cliché (romantic rival for Barry) he turned out to have an interesting arc. Half way through the season Barry and Joe let him in on Barry’s secret so that he could help with the investigation of Wells. Eddie was not happy that they insisted on keeping it from Iris. But he turned out to be a stanch ally and a tragic hero when he learned that he was the Reverse Flash’s ancestor, and that his romance with Iris was doomed to fail. His arc ended in a heroic manner and I, for one, am disappointed we will not be seeing more of him in season 2.

There were some notable guest and reoccurring characters that warrant mentioning.

Besides Ronnie, you had Professor Stein (Victor Garber) the other half of Firestorm. Garber is a great actor and brought both fun and gravitas to Stein. I look forward to seeing more of him both on the Flash, and in the mid-season spin off Legends of Tomorrow.

John Wesley Shipp, as Barry’s father Henry, was also a great part of the show. Although initially just a bit of stunt casting (Shipp played Barry in the 90’s Flash series), he did an excellent portrayal of a man accepting the bad hand he was dealt and just being happy his son was doing well. He made the pride Henry felt upon realizing that Barry was the Flash radiate.

And of course there was the other great nod to the old series of having Mark Hamill as the Trickster (the character he played on the 90s series, as well as doing the voice on the Justice League cartoon). Hamill is a fantastic actor and I hope we get more of him in the future.

In the end, I give the first season of the Flash an A+. It is the best comic book series ever and we can only hope that others learn from its example.

Fanboy News Network Episode 27

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Fanboy News Network Episode 27

“The podcast that almost wasn’t”
Jeff details all the things that went wrong in producing this episode
discussion on recent conventions
Burning man
Recent changes at Marvel Studios
DC’s 2 million dollar shortfall and what they are doing about it
Marvel is the wake of Secret Wars
Daniel talks about books

Review: Gotham Season 1

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GothamWith the second season premiere of Gotham just around the corner, I want to take this time to do my season wrap up review of the first season. If you want to check out my review of the first few episodes of the season you can go here.

So did the season improve as it went along?

Well, yes and no.

The problem that plagued Gotham (from the beginning) was its uneven mix of good, passible, and bad elements. As the season progressed the good elements got better, the passible elements improved, and the bad parts generally got worse.

Last time I started with the good, so this time lets lead with the bad.

From the beginning, Gotham’s biggest problem was that it did not know what to do with its female characters. None fared worse than Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith); as an original character, Fish had no predestined arc. This would not have been a problem, but most of her story was always a tonal shift from the rest of the show and would bring everything to a screeching halt. It got worse as the season went on, with a truly awful arc that took her out of Gotham and had nothing to do with the rest of the show. It was literally a waste of screen time. In the final episode of the season she met up with Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) and made the young girl part of her new gang. Since Fish was played like a version of Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman, if she had been played as a mentor to Selina early on, that would have made sense, be here it was too little too late. Fortunately, Fish was killed off in the finale, which can only help the next season.

The only complete waste of potential was Gordon’s fiancée Barbara Keen (Erin Richards). At first Barbara was just a bland girlfriend for Gordon, with the only tension that she had previously dated Rene Montoya (Victoria Cartagena), who wanted her back, causing friction between Montoya and Gordon. After that was resolved, Barbara left Gotham after getting caught in the crossfire of Gordon’s crusade against the corruption in Gotham. After a bad visit with her parents, she came home, took in Selina (and her friend Ivy), and generally showed signs of not being all that stable. Her season story ends with her actually going insane and becoming a murderer. I don’t mind that they are departing from her comic book depiction, I mind that her arc was so badly written.

As for Montoya, right after Barbara leaves town we never see her or her partner, Crispus Allen, (Andrew Stewart-Jones) again.

On the plus side, the show added Firefly vet Morena Baccarin as Dr. Leslie Thompkins. In the comics, Leslie was a college friend of Thomas Wayne and one of the few people to know Bruce Wayne is Batman as she was the closest thing he had to a maternal figure in his life. Here she is introduced as Jim Gordon’s new girlfriend and the new city corner, after a bad stint on the Arkham Asylum staff. While she doesn’t have a great arc of her own yet, she makes a good compliment to Gordon as she actively wants to help Gordon and understands what he is fighting for.

One character I did not really touch on the first time was Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), the future Riddler. At that time he was a walk-on character who provided exposition and would insist on making it a riddle to remind us how he ends up. His character ended up getting more of an arc when they had him develop a crush on a fellow staff member at the GCPD and kill her abusive cop boyfriend. The problem is that his parts of the story feel shoehorned in.

Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) had his arc improve as the season went on. A lot of that was thanks to having Bruce and Selina meet, as she was the only witness to his parents’ murder. This actually helped both characters as it gave both important interactions and set a lot of foreshadowing to their future selves. It also had romantic tension, which was handled well considering we are talking about two fourteen year olds. Bruce’s scenes were also helped by the presence of Sean Pertwee as Alfred. Pertwee continues to be one of the best things about the show and is arguably the best on-screen Alfred ever.

One of the best interactions that Alfred had were scenes with Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock. Not surprising, as Logue is another of the big reasons to keep watching the show. Harvey’s arc the entire season has been one of the corrupt cop having his former idealism reawakened. Logue plays the conflict perfectly and is always a treat when he is on-screen.

Since we are talking about the best things on the show, we might as well talk about Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor). The Penguin’s story was easily the most engaging as he was always actively working towards something. In this case that something was taking out all the Gotham city mob bosses and leaving himself on top. Taylor did an amazing job with the role, which was also the best written of the whole cast.

And that takes us to our star Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). I will say this, since I wrote the first review Gordon became less passive and started to truly drive for change in how the GCPD operated. So he is definitely more interesting now, especially with his relationship with Thompkins. Sadly he is stuck with a characterization that is just going to pale in comparison to the presence of Bullock, Penguin, and Alfred.

In the end, I am giving the full first season of Gotham a C+. As I said the first time, it is going to drive the long time Batman fans up the wall with its handling of the characters and story arcs. It probably does better with non-comic fans who are not as invested in the mythos, but even they still have to deal with the uneven mix of good and bad performances, writing, and characters.

The sad saga of Episode 27

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So episode 27 of the podcast was supposed to go up today. Unfortunately fate was against it.

First the microphone I have used since the beginning did not get along with my system after updating to Windows 10. So when Daniel and I got together to record we couldn’t get anything done.

Ok, so I got a new Snowball mic. It worked fine and in fact had better sound quality. Daniel and I got together again and this time recorded.

The next problem was that the labor day weekend got busy and I did not get a chance to edit. No problem, I would upload the recording to the cloud and edit on my lunch break at work. Sadly I made an error in that upload and corrupted the file beyond repair.

So no new episode this week.

I’ll have a new article up on Monday, and then after that Daniel and I will try take 3 on getting episode 27 done.

If fate allows.