What do you get if you cross War of the Worlds with The Sixth Sense and set it in the 8th Century? You get the series finale of Sky1’s Sinbad.

After encountering the middle-eastern equivalent to the Bermuda Triangle, Sinbad and friends find themselves at the land of the dead ready to find Sinbad’s brother, Jamil. But that would be much easier said than done, as the land of the dead is protected by giant guardians who transfix their captors in dream like stances with a blinding light, hence the War of the Worlds reference.

Sinbad winds up being one such victim, and sees for himself what life would be like if he never existed with neither his friends or his brother recognizing him. Worryingly for Sinbad, this situation is not too far from the truth.

Having followed the crew to the land of the dead, Taryn finds herself in a bit of a sticky situation but you can’t have much sympathy for someone who willingly tracks her enemies who outnumber her five to one. As a result of her poor planning, she is forced to bring Sinbad back from his dream and reveal his real identity, which is where The Sixth Sense plot line comes in.

It turns out that Sinbad is a child of the land of the dead, having ended up there before his birth making him both dead and alive. While this is a nice twist and at last tells us this real identity Taryn has been going on about, it does not do a huge amount for the immediate events in the episode but nevertheless is the sort of storyline we hoped for right back at the start of the series. It’s just a pity that it’s taken the entire series to reach a truly compelling story like this.

As well as Sinbad’s identity, we also find out the reason Taryn has been after Sinbad for so long. She is also looking for a lost relative in the land of the dead, in this case her daughter. They find the child easily enough but are stopped by a guardian.

Jamil, despite only appearing before Sinbad minutes before, takes it upon himself to stall the guardian while the others escape, and you cannot help but feel for Sinbad as he loses his brother for the second time. But at least the evil sorceress got her daughter back, eh?

It may have had its problems early on and it is easy to see why some critics have not taken a shine to it, but to those who stuck through the series it has been worth it for the many positives that have made Sinbad nothing less than very enjoyable.

Aired at 7pm on Sunday 23rd September 2012 on Sky1.

> Order the Series 1 DVD on Amazon.

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