Author: Eugene Glover

My friend over at Stalking Moon Comics was moving his store this last weekend^* (and that, in itself is a story equally as “amusing” as my iPod’s Tale) and I was helping out as much as a could, recovering from the flu as I was and all. On my way over on Monday night, at 35th Ave and Greenway, I passed a place called “The Codfather” which I could just make out said “fish & chips”, along with a large banner saying “Now open.”

I’m always on the lookout for some place that could make good fish & chips, although I’m usually disappointed. Arizona is just nowhere near enough to an ocean to get good fish.

Now, I’m the first to admit, I grew up in the desert, and I don’t appreciate much in the way of seafood, but I love fish & chips. When we went to the UK, one of the things I liked best was the fact that British fish & chips really are the best. We ate in chippies from London to Ft. William and only once did I get sub-par fish.

So, later in the week I returned to the Codfather at dinner time with the family. The first thing I noticed was that they emphasized that they were “English fish & chips” and the second thing I noticed was that the place was completely devoid of customers. Considering how busy the nearby restaurants were, that wasn’t a good sign.

Inside it’s clean, and decorated with few English-themed pictures, plus a wall mural of Parliament and Big Ben. The most important (or, more often, the most unimportant) piece of decoration was a New Times Best Fish & Chips of Phoenix 2005 award. Since the New Times is not always known for having good taste, the award is meaningless, but it did tell me the store was open longer than I thought, since those awards are given out in September, meaning the store has been open more than a year.

Their menu contains the obvious fish & chips, which come in the traditional cod, plus haddock, halibut, mahi-mahi, salmon and catfish. Haddock was common in the UK, more so up north, but I’ve never seen it in a chippie in the US. Their menu also includes other traditional British items such as saveloy sausages, battered sausages, steak & kidney pie, shepard’s pie & bubble and squeak.

I was there for the fish.

So how was it? For once, the New Times got it right – this was the real deal – an English fish & chip shop smack dab in the middle of the desert. We all had cod and you get 1 piece with the combo (fish, chips & soda), but it was an enormous piece of fish, fully 10“ or more long and at least 2” wide.

The chips were of that authentic, soggy British variety and when the whole thing was soaked down with vinegar it was great.

Some research after the fact reveals that the Codfather is run by a British ex-pay who trained in the UK as a fish fryer. You can’t ask for more authentic than that.

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^*He actually moved weeks ago, but I wrote this back then and for some reason for got to post it. 🙁

Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Restaurant, Review

The Mark of the Rani
by Pip and Jane Baker

Starring Colin Baker as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri

The Doctor and Peri are diverted to the early 19th century where not one, but two renegade Time Lords are out to do the Doctor mischief.

Summary

In a peaceful iron mining town in the 19th century, miners are being changed into violent luddites by a mysterious old woman running a bath house. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Peri arrive on scene after the TARDIS is dragged off course by a mysterious interference from another time machine. Unbeknownst to them, they are stalked by the Master, who has drawn them here to kill them.

The Master reveals the woman running the bath house to be the Rani, an exiled Time Lord scientist. She is uninterested in his feud with the Doctor and wants to proceed with her own business: Extracting the brain chemicals that allow humans to sleep. The process isn’t fatal, but has the side effect of making the victims violent and unable to rest.

The Master forces the Rani to help him destroy the Doctor.

The Doctor investigates the outbreak of violence and meets the famous inventor George Stephenson. Stephenson has called a meeting of some of the worlds greatest geniuses, and he Master wants to harness them to rule the Earth.

Analysis

Perhaps it is the fact that I just watched the appalling Ghost Light, but I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I recall doing when it first aired in 1985. I intensely disliked Pip and Jane Baker’s work back then, but this story really wasn’t that bad. Despite that, I’m not particularly looking forward to the release of Time and the Rani.

Some have said that the location footage is the star of this story, and while I wouldn’t go that far, it certainly adds a lot to the production value of the episodes. Colin Baker, at this point, had settled into the Doctor fairly well and struck a good balance between obnoxious and brilliant do-gooder.

Kate O’Mara plays the Rani just slightly over-the-top, but you might not notice it because of the completely over-the-top, pantomime Master as played by Anthony Ainley. Ainley’s portrayal of the Master is one of the most disappointing things in this story. Perhaps it was an intentional descent into madness for the character, but each successive appearance was more camp than the last. In this episode, he cannot even walk normally and is constantly sort of tip-toeing with his shoulders hunched over and wild eyes. At any moment I expect him to turn to the camera, put his fingers to his lips and say to the audience, “Be very quiet, I’m hunting the Doctor.” (Followed, perhaps by the sound of someone slapping their leg and shouting, “OH NO YOU’RE NOT!”)

The Master’s character really has no business in this story, and I’m sure he was added in as an afterthought. It’s a complete waste of his character and he is completely eclipsed by the Rani. No more is he a formidable adversary of the Doctor, but an insane caricature – a shadow of the Master past.

While the location scenes are nice and well put together, too often the studio scenes come across like a stage play, with lots of stilted dialog, particularly between the Master and the Rani. If I don’t know better, I would say it was two different directors.

There’s a tragic tale of the musician hired to score the story dying after only producing 20 minutes of music. His score was scrapped and a new one commissioned. The new one is not good, it drones and grates and sounds grotesquely, electronically anachronistic. Well, Doctor Who has never had great incidental music – and yet I keep buying the CDs.

Despite the fact that I enjoyed this one, I’m not letting Pip and Jane off the hook that easily, I do have a number of bones to pick with their script.

For example, who’s going to buy that the Master wants to “harness the genius” of early 19th century humans to take over the world. Surely the 19th century’s greatest brain is nothing but a drooling idiot by comparison to even the lowliest of Time Lords. What could they possibly come up with that wouldn’t be child’s play to the Master? (I’m sensing a theme there, because, as I recall, in Time and the Rani, the Rani is capturing earth geniuses for some equally idiotic plan.)

Why would the Master try to drop the Doctor’s TARDIS into the mine shaft to destroy it? Surely he, of all people, should know that something that simple could never harm the TARDIS?

The Rani, a brilliant Time Lord chemist, can’t synthesize a simple human brain substance? And she supposed to so brilliant and amoral, yet she wastes time to invent land mines which turn people into trees? (And don’t get me started about the scene where the tree reaches out to cop a feel from Peri… er… save her from becoming a tree, too.)

Still, despite all that, I enjoyed it. (Alright, I bristled a bit every time the Master was made look idiotic.) As I recall, I didn’t originally like the 45 minute episode format, but it plays well here. I’m more convinced than ever that the new Doctor Whos should adopt two-part episodes as the norm in the future.

Colin Baker is one of my favorite Doctors and yet, he didn’t get very good stories. It’s disconcerting to say that this is his best of those currently available on DVD.

Hand of Fear is waiting on my DVD shelf for viewing next.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Dr Who, Review

Little Storping-in-the-Swuff =» “The Invasion” Animated Episodes Review

The first “re-constructed” Doctor Who episode for DVD has been released in the UK. “Invasion” starring Patrick Troughton as the second Doctor battling the Cybermen in London with the first appearance of UNIT. They have combined the original audio track and new animation to re-create the missing episodes. While I have to wait a few months for release in the US, early indications are that the it’s good.

Simon at Little-Storping-In-The-Swuff writes:

(T)he episodes have been reanimated by Cosgrove Hall (who produced the BBCi Doctor Who: The Scream of Shalka serial).

The animation, in black and white, is impressive. It has a different “feel” to the live action episodes, and clearly the animation isn’t photorealistic and doesn’t resemble live action, but whilst it’s two dimensional the images have depth…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Review

Ghost Light
by Marc Platt

1989, Starring Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor
and Sophie Alred as Ace

Synopsis
The Doctor and Ace arrive at a Victorian House and lots of nonsensical crap and dialog get spread around like someone had a sprinkler attachment on their asshole.

Analysis
Seriously, I can only assume that Marc Platt is a pseudonym because I find it hard to believe anyone would take credit for this story. After three viewings I still couldn’t make head nor tail of what they were trying to accomplish except to waste airtime. In just three episodes, even the most hardcore Doctor Who fan would have to be convinced that it was time to put a bullet in the series’ head and let us all out of our misery.

If you’re buying Doctor Who DVDs, give this one a miss and save yourself 20.625in² on your bookshelf that you could use for something useful, like dust bunnies.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Review

Small Worlds
by Peter J. Hammond

The mystery of Capt. Jack deepens as the Torchwood team comes up against their most formidable opponent yet: fairies.

Summary

A quintessentially eccentric British old lady (QEBOL) stalks silently through the forest. She is hunting and finds a circle of glowing fairies, flittering around a stone circle. She takes a few photos and leaves. Her intrusion does not go unnoticed.

Meanwhile, Capt. Jack has a nightmare and awakes to find a rose petal. At the same time, the Torchwood monitoring systems notice freak weather patterns.

The next day, a pedophile attempts to abduct a young girl, but something invisible and unseen attacks him, attempting to choke him with rose petals. Jack and Gwen go to visit the QEBOL, who turns out to be a former lover of Jack’s “father” from the 1940’s. [Her name is Estelle, but I’m going to keep calling her QEBOL.] She’s a researcher into fairies, and she’s been giving a talk about her recent photographs. Jack asks to see all her photos and data and warns her that these fairies aren’t nice, sweet little creatures. QEBOL explains to Gwen that she and Jack have had disagreement on their nature before.

As the investigations progress, it is clear no one is safe from them and their pursuit of one young girl, their next “chosen one”.

Analysis

This story was by Peter J Hammond, creator of Sapphire & Steel and it shows: It plays fast and loose with the concept of linear time, features creatures “from outside of time” and doesn’t bother to explain the real nature of the antagonists. That might sound like a criticism, but it isn’t. There are very few TV writers who can pull that off and Hammond is certainly one of them. The episode is well written and constructed and isn’t nearly as “unexplained” as episodes of Sapphire & Steel. This may be the best episode of Torchwood yet.

In fact, most of the unexplained “mystery” in this episode does more to make the story of Capt. Jack more complicated rather than bog down the main narrative.

The QEBOL’s lover was, in fact, Jack himself. That’s not so much of a surprise as the Doctor first met Jack in 1940’s London. Although we know Jack was a renegade Time Agent, we never learned what Time Agents do. Perhaps I was reading something into it that wasn’t there, but it seemed in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances that Jack hadn’t been there more than a few months. QEBOLs explanation in Small Worlds makes it sound like he’s been there much longer.

Later, Jack reveals (to the audience, if not specifically to Gwen) that he was commanding troupes in 1909. Again, what does a Time Agent do? Would Jack as an agent or a con man have spent enough time in 1909 to take command of troupes going into war?

Considering how world-weary Jack’s character seems in Torchwood, compared to Doctor Who, I almost think they’re going to reveal that he somehow after the Dalek battle in space and his resurrection by Rose and the time vortex that perhaps he was sent way back in time and has been living for ages as an immortal being.

Acting and production were again impeccable, the only reservation I had was that the CGI fairies in “scary” mode had a slightly rushed feel to them.

This episode relied on story, action and characters and required no superficial insertions of sex scenes, innuendo nor Capt. Jack’s “kiss of life.”

This story makes me wish they’d bring back Sapphire & Steel.

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Additional note: Maybe it’s just me, because my wife says she didn’t understand the episode.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Review, Torchwood