‘The White Queen’: Episode 1 review
The obvious and inevitable comparison to BBC One’s The White Queen is that of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
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The obvious and inevitable comparison to BBC One’s The White Queen is that of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
Terry Nation’s script for the ‘Planet of the Daleks’ was a slice of traditional Doctor Who even in the early 1970s.
Reliant on many of his favourite elements such as inhospitable plant life, biological weapons and people hiding in Dalek casings, it acts as a sequel to his original Dalek tale and has been accused of being little more than a rewrite. We prefer to see it as a homage to those early days of black and white adventure serials.
300 director Zack Snyder’s take on the Superman origin story is an action-packed, visually stunning spectacle, complete with picture perfect cast and a brilliantly rousing score by Hans Zimmer. But, in sacrificing character for the sake of action, Man of Steel fails to plumb the depths. Though you may marvel at the display, there’s little here to truly resonate.
June’s entry in Doctor Who‘s Destiny of the Doctor series brings us to the Sixth Doctor and ‘Trouble in Paradise’ sees the Time Lord’s most colourful incarnation given a mission by the Eleventh; to collect something called an ‘omni-paradox’ and store its energy for later use. He is also after a coat and seems to regard the Sixth’s outfit as the height of sartorial elegance.
Effy, arguably the most iconic character of the Skins saga as the whole, and the only one to bridge two generations of characters, is the first of three old characters to be re-visited in this “where are they now?” final series.
Remember that awful anti-piracy ad from a few years ago? The one The IT Crowd mercilessly parodied, and which still blares at you when you set any 2006-era DVD a-whirring…
Set two years on from their separation in last week’s opening episode of Series 3, the four men – Baxter (John Simm), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Woody (Max Beesley) and Rick (Marc Warren) – have been exiled to South Africa under new names, and out of touch with their friends and family.
Ben Wheatley (Sightseers) continues on his winning streak with period psychological horror A Field in England.
So now we know why the BBC was so quick to announce a second series. It was a warning shot, to prepare us for the idea that the momentum of The Fall would carry on past 5 episodes, and that we’d all be left craving some more of that sweet sweet darkness like the Monday night drama masochists we are.
For want of a less tenuous way to link some of this month’s films, let’s call this first of two June horror blogs Part I of a two-parter focusing on the faded careers of once-stellar individuals now slumming it at the lower end of the Hollywood scale.