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Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord (2024)
Well it is improving, could hardly have got worse
A trip back to 1963 to see The Beatles, off to a good start and something I might do if I had a real TARDIS.
It starts well with the scene in the music room but sadly that's the high point and it goes downhill from the moment. Not sure who though Jinkx Monsoon could act but they were sadly mistaken in their view and like the preceding episode this is cartoonish.
The scene where the Doctor takes Ruby back to the present to show the devastated world if they don't defeat Maestro is taken straight from the Tom Baker episode Pyramids of Mars where Sarah Jane has the same experience but the villain is Sutekh. It might well be the best part of the story and it is lifted from a far better tale.
Doctor Who: Space Babies (2024)
It has to get better surely?
It is hard to know where to start. Seems to aimed at kindergarten aged children. The babies whizzing around in their pushchairs, Nan-E, it really was like Teletubbies in space. I had high(er) hopes from Russell T Davies after the sketchy writing Jodie Whittaker had been saddled with.
Just very very weak, bogeyman made from actual snot harvested from the babies. The space platform propelled by the fart gas of rotting nappies. Seemed like there must have been a competition to write and air the most ridiculous episode ever. If this is what the collaboration with Disney has wrought it would be kinder to put the show down now.
Doctor Who: Boom (2024)
Better than the preceeding episodes
I'd had hopes of an improvement after the first two frankly weak episodes and yes it was better Moffat delivering a story with a bit of tension albeit very little actual storyline, sadly the acting is still pretty wooden. I'd hope the two main characters get better stories/direction it's glossy but amateur hour.
The plot line still seems like it is structured for the hard of thinking, obvious telegraphed situations and reveals to come viz Ruby. The preaching is still present but to a lessor extent, they could have skipped the last scene in the doorway that was laying it on somewhat too thickly.
Serengeti (2019)
Ghastly soundtrack / faked storylines
I thought maybe it was me being a bit jaded so made a point of watching some episodes from another BBC wildlife series and not even in that case the incomparable Attenborough. Nope this is very poorly done with anthropomorphism on steroids and a cringe worthy soundtrack. The scene with the baboons and crocodiles might be real but honestly it looks like something from a Jaws remake, this could have been so much better with a bit of dedication and effort and less trickery.
This will almost certainly be one of the few such documentaries that I'll delete without watching all the episodes, enough is enough.
Missions (2017)
Starts in one direction, then heads off in another
Saw this pop up on Iplayer so now I've watched both S1 & S2 all the way through. Starts as a 'normal' space adventure but quickly moves onto contact genre. In S2 we head even further into the rabbit hole, I am hooked and disappointed there is not yet a S3.
Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020)
A terrible indictement of western hubris
What an absolute indictment of western (US & UK) political and military incompetence, out of control squaddies, dimwitted politicians all mixed in with religious intolerance on the local side. Sure as hell Saddam was an evil murdering despot but worse then Bush/Blair et al made it?
This is the story mostly told by the people who were there and the absolute devastation caused to the locals. Perhaps the most harrowing documentary I have watched in a long time but really do yourselves a favour and watch it.
Our World War (2014)
An excellent drama/doc
Got recommended this by a friend. It is now back on Iplayer and I am confined by lockdown. Have to sat this was one of the best I have seen for a long time. The stories picked to shine a light on small aspects of the great war were incredibly well done.
HyperNormalisation (2016)
A convicing linking of events from the 70s to now
A friend suggested this was worth a watch and defo if you've got the time it does make a convincing narrative for why today is so screwed up based on some interlinked events a generation+ ago coupled with weak politicians in the UK and US in the intervening years who were happy to pretend the world was simpler than it actually was. In short it traces the path from Kissinger screwing the Palestinians over in the '70s through the financial crashes to where we are today with huge swathes of the Arab world destabilised and the most unlikely inept leaders either side of the Atlantic.
Any readers of Private Eye will be familiar with some of the material and it does miss the manipulations of Saudi out of the equation.
Dracula (2020)
Started well but...
First off this is way way too long, 3 x 90 minute or so episodes, each one worse than the last. If we were to be fair #1 and #2 could give 5/10 but #3 was utter rubbish 1/10. The drift from the known story is so far I am surprised they have the cheek to still call it Dracula by Bram Stoker.
The War of the Worlds (2019)
Could have been so much better
Finally got around to watching, why the writers felt the need to so alter a good story that it bears but a passing resemblance to the original I am not sure, then they expanded their rather poor soap opera version to at least twice as long as it should have been. The cast tried but honestly they were fighting a losing battle.