Starring: David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, John Simm, John Barrowman
Written by: Russell T Davies; Gareth Roberts; Helen Raynor; Stephen Greenhorn; Chris Chibnall; Paul Cornell; Steven Moffat.
Directed by: Euros Lyn; Charles Palmer; Richard Clarke; James Strong; Graeme Harper; Hettie Macdonald; Colin Teague.

So another Christmas appears and heralds another new DVD box set from the good Dr. The first two series were very much landmarks in the Whovian universe, so this third season was under the microscope from the very start.

First, a new companion was on the scene, in the form of the very likeable Freema Agyeman (as Martha Jones) replacing Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper who had trotted off to pastures new) and secondly how on earth could seasons 1 & 2 be equaled?

Well, the bad news is that series 3 fails to equal the glories of the Ecclestone and first Tennant seasons, but it’s not a total disaster (and that’s the good news).

Sure, as with all Who seasons, there are some clunkers (in the form of episodes like ‘Gridlock’ ‘Daleks in Manhattan,’ ‘Lazarus Experiment’ and ‘42’) but on the whole the series scrapes through on the quality of ‘Human Nature,’ ‘The Family of Blood,’ the superb ‘Blink’ and the rather luvvie and wonderfully OTT ‘Shakespeare Code.’

While infinitely better than it’s gratuitous, nasty, but oddly compelling older brother Torchwood, series 3 seems to be the victim of the franchise’s success.

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Starring: Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan
Written by: Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer with additional material by Alexei Sayle
Directed by: Geoff Posner
Now this is interesting…

First shown in the UK in 1982 this series was instrumental in bringing a surrealist, not to mention wonderfully original, style back to British comedy. Not since the fondly remembered Monty Python back in the early 70s had a comedy show had such an anarchic vibe to it and been genuinely funny at the same time.

The show is about, although no one episode has a truly followable story-line, four students, (violent metal/punk loon Vyvyan (Edmondson), sad paranoiac Rik (Mayall), hippie Neil (Planer) and Mike The Cool Person (Ryan)) who attend Scumbag College (although they never go to any lectures or classes).

There are 12 episodes on two discs and a whole third disc of special features which go to explain how the series was produced, although only Planer from the cast and Mayer from the writing trio appear, disappointingly.

With musical guests such as Motorhead, Madness, Amazulu and many others, The Young Ones was a blast of fresh air at a time when Britain was stale and its TV comedy was in even worse condition.

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Canadian Prog masters Saga have been around for what seems like my whole lifetime. When I just a young rock fan in London in the mid-late 70s, the Toronto quintet were heavily tipped by the British media to be the next “big thing,” following in the footsteps of that rock behemoth Rush.

Now while they didn’t exactly pull up any trees, apart from, for some strange reason, in Germany and Puerto Rico, Saga have gone on to release some of the most influential Prog musings ever released (check out the superb albums ‘Silent Knight’ and ‘Heads Or Tales’ and you’ll see what I mean).

Now with 30 years behind them, comes ’10,000 Days.’ With singer/founding member Michael Sadler calling it a day after the tour that’s supporting this album, whether Saga will continue is anybody’s guess, but now they’re asking potential new singers to drop off audition performances on You Tube, it seems likely they will push on. Whatever the situation, ’10,000 Days’ is an album of great songs, great playing and crisp, clear production.

So let’s have a look at the album’s nine tracks and see what’s going on here…

1. Lifeline: After the opening of a repeated, speeding up keyboard figure, the band crash into a lively starter. As is usual with Saga, it’s a fine song embellished with some fine rhythm section interplay and crowned with some wonderful Ian Crichton lead guitar work. Nice start.
A-

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Starring – Jane Horrocks, Janet McTeer, Jodhi May, Geraldine James, Steven McKintosh
Written by Sally Wainwright
Directors – Simon Curtis, Declan Lowney, Catherine Morshead

Spread over five weeks on PBS and, from October 30th, available on a 2-disc Acorn Media DVD set, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard weaves an intriguing spell and is, at times, a wildly entertaining mix of laugh-out-loud comedy, superb drama and a little soap thrown in for good measure.

Starring the irrepressible and daring Jane Horrocks (Little Voice, Absolutely Fabulous) as Ros Pritchard, this six episode mini-series is a new take on the old little guy does good story (made especially famous by the wonderful 1939 Capra-classic, Mr Smith Goes To Washington), updated for a modern UK viewing audience, and is now garnering good figures for the superb PBS “Masterpiece Theatre” series, from an increasingly appreciative American audience.

After breaking up a scuffle between two local candidates outside her grocery store, Ros shouts that “I could do better than you lot” to the applause, cheers and general egging-on of reporters and on-lookers.

Seemingly within hours, and with no small amount of hoopla from a delirious media greedy for a new angle for a dull election, she is the head of a new political party called The Purple Democratic Alliance.

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The Other Conquest (La Otra Conquista)
Starring: Jose Carlos Rodriguez, Elpidia Carrillo, Inaki Aierra and introducing Damien Delgado as Topiltzin
Written, Directed & Edited by Salvador Carrasco

The Mexican film industry is very much in a growth spurt right now. With directors like Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth), Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams and Babel) and Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men), it is now an incredibly prolific hit machine and is gaining huge respect around the world for its quality of subject matter , cinematography and, of course, direction.

The Other Conquest is director Salvador Carrasco’s first feature and although it is a lush, wonderfully shot piece, there’s no real cohesion or logic to the story, but I’m getting ahead of things here…

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Into Great Silence
Directed by Philip Groning
(Zeitgeist DVD)

Made by German documentary film maker Philip Groning, “Into Great Silence” is a beautifully shot, not to mention intensely respectful journey into the lives of the monks that live in the Carthusian Charterhouse/Monastery in the French Alps (the place that produces the Chartreuse liqueur).

Into Great Silence is a study of one of the most intense demonstrations of faith. The monks at this Catholic Charterhouse live in absolute silence and this documentary, which clocks in at 162 minutes, apart from one or two moments, is conducted in silence. It may be almost three hours long, but it seems timeless and maybe that’s the effect Groning wanted this documentary to have.

The brothers of the order are discreetly observed and we are allowed join them in their lives of quiet contemplation. While they worship God, the cameras observe the daily routines and rituals. From something as simple as picking vegetables, to getting a haircut, to the nightly observance of prayer called the “Night Office,” and the initiation of two novices, although we are not offered any names or given a reason as to why they joined.

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Jekyll
BBC America DVD
Starring: James Nesbitt

BBC America is really starting to make waves. What with shows as diverse as Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Dr. Who, and Hotel Babylon, the audience reaction and viewing figures are consistently going in an upward direction.

Jekyll, which debuted on the cable channel in late summer this year to almost unanimous critical approval, is now out on a shiny, sparkly 2-disc DVD set; and a more entertaining package it could hardly be.

Starring the unreasonably talented James Nesbitt (of Murphy’s Law fame), it retells the tale of Jekyll and Hyde in a modern setting and with no small amount of style across six pulsating and furiously paced episodes.

Nesbitt’s portrayal of the troubled Dr Jackman, and his brutal, child-like and sex-driven alter-ego Hyde (who also has a healthy penchant for the blackest of humor), is generous, touching tragic, utterly believable and not easy in this particular genre.

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BBC America
Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles

Created by Dr Who’s latest visionary, Russell T Davies (also famous for the UK version of Queer as Folk), Torchwood is a series full of questions, but very few answers.

Sure, it’s pretty standard fare as far as storylines go: aliens invade earth through a gash in time and space, a heroic team of scientists investigate and kill, or capture, said baddie aliens and all is set right with the world.

Now, while that isn’t strictly the plot with every one of the thirteen episodes, what strikes you first about Torchwood is how badly written it is. The plotlines are clumsy, premises are shoehorned in to either up the ante or slow everything down to a near stop, the actors look bored with the material and more interested in their costumes and the direction for pretty much the whole sad debacle is slipshod and reliant on either dodgy effects or sexual forays that really don’t belong in the scene and are just used for pure titillation.

John Barrowman, who revisits his charming Dr Who character, Captain Jack Harkness, here is probably the only thing that could save this whole series from being relegated to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, Russell T Davies has ousted the charm in favour of a hollow interpretation of Harkness, all bluff and bluster and no empathy, rather than fill out the promise Barrowman’s character had shown in his brief appearances in Dr Who.

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The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster
Blue Corn Music Records

With her previous four albums, Austin-based singer/sometime songwriter Ruthie Foster has carved her own furrow, full of soul and meaning (not to mention that incredible voice).

The problems on “The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster” can’t all be down to Ruthie, however. Most of the blame for switching off the heat in Foster’s music must land at the feet of producer Malcolm “Papa Mali” Welbourne.

He has given Foster a sound that just doesn’t work in this instance. Foster’s MO is a sweet soulful brew, something that should be sipped and savoured, while Welbourne’s version is an undrinkable, bitter sludge.

The music has lost all direction, subtlety (apart from “Cuz I’m Here”) and, more crucially than that, Foster sounds lost in the midst of having a good time (which is not usually a problem if you produce something worthwhile at the end of that good time).

Sure, the musicians are all of a superb standard, with drummer George Sluppick producing a uniformly brilliant set of performances, but a Ruthie release is about soul and feel, and that’s something that’s sadly absent from this album.

After her classic, aforementioned, releases “Runaway Soul” and “Stages” it’s difficult to fathom where this record actually came from. Foster is without doubt one of the most talented singers in most of the free world, but this collaboration with Welbourne was a massive miscalculation on Foster’s part (one has to presume) and it has produced a truly, and heartbreakingly, unlistenable 40 or so minutes.

Foster could have sat alone in a studio, with an acoustic guitar and that voice, and produced a way better album than this without the dubious help of Malcolm “Papa Mali” Welbourne.

Such a pity she didn’t.

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Written by Palladino64 - Visit Website
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For those of you who have no idea who or what Dr Who is, then it’s a little difficult to explain. The Dr of the title has been a semi-regular fixture on BBC TV for some 44 years. The series started with the first Dr, played by William Hartnell in 1963, with the first ever episode airing the day after John F Kennedy’s assassination, and has drifted in and out of the British public’s viewing consciousness ever since.

Now, with Scottish actor David Tennant at the helm of the TARDIS, the series seems set to continue for some years to come and the future is looking decidedly bright for the good Doctor.

All the episodes in this DVD set are beautifully written, filmed and acted with genuine passion and reverence. Highlight episodes include ‘The Girl In The Fireplace,’ ‘The Satan Pit,’ the emotionally charged ‘Love & Monsters’ and the awe-inspiring finale ‘Doomsday’.

For those among you who demand quality from your TV Sci-Fi, then look no further than Dr Who. An absolute masterpiece.

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Written by Palladino64 - Visit Website
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