Steven Moffat Leaves Doctor Who

Yeah I know this story is a couple weeks old, but better late than never! So if you don’t know, Steven Moffat, writer for Doctor Who for the past 11 years and showrunner for the past 6 years, is retiring from the show. Now this also comes with the news that there will be no season of Doctor Who in 2016 so they can take a year off to adapt to the new situation, fair enough. Now in my opinion, Moffat has written some of the best episodes of Doctor Who, The Empty Child, Blink, Silence in the Library, all fantastic episodes…but I was never a fan of him as the showrunner. Now granted while his time running the show has most definitely made it a more comedic show without losing any of the drama and I love that, his storylines were always a mess. They had great potential and on paper they sound amazing, but in execution they were often confusing, messy and too grand for their own good. Most notably is how The Doctor has been destined to die about 4-5 times in Moffat’s run. Frankly I think it’s time for Moffat to leave the show, besides if he’s not focusing on Doctor Who then maybe we can get some more Sherlock.

However, the story doesn’t end there, his replacement has already been announced, Chris Chibnall, a man who has been writing for Doctor Who and its Spin-off Torchwood for a decade now, some of his Doctor Who writing credits include 42 and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, two very excellent episodes in my opinion. He is also the creator of the ITV Drama Broadchurch, which I am yet to actually see but I hear nothing but great things about it. So in my opinion he is a fine choice to take over Doctor Who, he clearly knows the material and is a talented writer, whether or not he does a good job with season long storylines we’ll just have to wait and see.

-Danny

Legends of Tomorrow "Pilot (Part 2)" Review

The second half of the Legends of Tomorrow pilot and I can already see where the show’s biggest strength is. With the team still in 1975, they infiltrate a terrorist auction house (No, really) where a massive fight breaks out and part of Ray’s suit falls off and is taken by the terrorists. Meanwhile they also learn that in order to kill Vandal Savage they need a special dagger that he just so happens to be in possession of.

So what is the show’s greatest strength? The team. Yeah I know that might sound obvious but really, what makes this show so entertaining is seeing the different combinations and missions that they all can go on. Seeing characters of different background interacting in new scenarios is what I feel will keep the show feeling fresh every episode. Unlike Arrow or Flash or even Supergirl where you can certainly see the formula play out, it’s not as obvious here. Yes, there is still a formula at play, but the personalities of the characters make it feel less repetitive. That plus the bigger in scope action scenes make it a very entertaining show to watch.

The first of the teams is Ray Palmer, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory all breaking into Savage’s house to get the dagger. Seeing Mick and Snart doing what they do best is entertaining, and much more plausible than they were in Flash where they somehow predicted everything down to the second. But also Snart and Palmer bonding over their intellect and how in another life they might have been colleagues, if not friends. I’m not saying they’re going to end up as besties but you can see a mutual respect being built between them, even if Ray can be rather clumsy.

Next is Martin, Jax and Sara all trying to retrieve the piece of Ray’s suit which involves stealing a device developed by Martin back in the 70s, so you get some good comedy of Martin interacting with his younger self and he thinks he’s an arrogant pompous douche while Jax and Sara actually get along with him quite well. But it’s not just for comedy’s sake, there is some actual development between Martin and Jax, seeing as they are a duo they would need to be there for each other a lot, and Martin starting to go through a midlife crisis by seeing how much of a douche he can be and Jax having to support him by telling him he’s not, it’s a nice little moment. Sadly, Sara doesn’t do much aside from kick some ass, be cool and be sexy, hopefully she’ll get more focus in the next episode as she’s the least developed out of the bunch.

Finally, is Kendra and Carter who I’ll be honest are my least favourite pairing, a lot of their story in this episode is almost a retread of what was established in the Flash/Arrow crossover episodes. Even more so there is a lot of retconning the established rules, they said it has to be one of these two to kill Savage, now apparently it has to be Kendra, and they need a dagger in order to do it? That wasn’t part of the deal! But oh, there’s more to their story than that. So Carter dies, I’ll be honest I didn’t see that coming. But to be even more honest I’m not all that upset; he was the least interesting character so he won’t be missed, but bravo Legends for killing off a major character this early. Though he’s also a character that constantly gets reincarnated so they could very easily bring him back at some point. Also how does this work? Will he be reincarnated in 1975 or go all the way back to 2016? Because if he gets reincarnated in ’75 then won’t there be two of him hanging around?

But to wrap this up, I very much enjoyed this episode, it was a lot of fun, we got some good team building exercises, it was weird that Rip Hunter kinda got sidelines for most of it but we’ve got a whole season left to go. 8/10.

Arrow "AWOL" Review

You know I'm starting to think at this point I have more to say about Supergirl each week than Arrow. In this filler episode we have an entirely new evil secret organization (Do they all have like a convention or something?) that Diggle's brother Andy was working with (Another one!?) and also Felicity comes to terms with the fact that she's in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.


Alright so Felicity's story ain't all that bad, losing the ability to walk making her question how useful she can be from now on. Even though her skillsets were all intellectual so it doesn't have any effect on her helping them, but hey who wouldn't be in a slump after being shot in the spine. Also now she has a new codename "Overwatch" pretty cool if I do say so myself, but that joke about Oracle raises too many flags for me. Okay so you acknowledge you're ripping off Batman some more, also the name is already taken? What. Does Barbra Gordon exist in the Arrow universe? Does Jim Gordon? Gotham? Batman? Well we already know Wayne Inc. exists because of that Easter egg in Flash, but still this joke has way too many implications along with it.

Then there is Diggle's storyline with his brother finally reaching its conclusion, honestly this is something that got repetitive pretty quickly so I’m glad they've resolved it, but my big problem is the filler story around it. Who cares about Shadowspire? Or Rubicon? Or Opium? You could have easily made this a story about Hive, at least then it would tie into the main story of the show, but this just came across as one big piece of filler. We got some nice character development for Diggle and Felicity but it doesn't add anything to the over arcing storyline.

Finally, there are just some small points I would like to make, the first one being during the fight scenes they kept trying to punch through the soldiers’ helmets...you morons! Also Amanda Waller dies, okay. Being honest I never liked the actress they got to play the role, Waller is supposed to be cold-hearted and spiteful but still capable of expressing emotions, this Waller was a fucking robot, even in death she just looked bored.

Overall while we have some good character stuff to work with here, the story just didn't have that big of an impact and it was more of stuff we've already seen plenty of before. 6/10.

-Danny

The Flash "The Reverse-Flash Returns" Review

Ya know Legends of Tomorrow introduced the concept that there is literally a guild who's only job is to make sure no one fucks over the timeline by using time travel...well they kinda dropped the ball with Reverse Flash! Here in The Reverse Flash Returns, The Reverse Flash...returns...kinda self-explanatory. Actually it is a little bit more complicated, this is very early on in Eobard Thawne's timeline, he doesn't even know Flash's identity or the fact that he was from the early 21st Century, why he ended up in the 21st century exactly is never explained but a means to an end i guess.

So they're kinda pulling a River Song here, the more these two meet the more Barry knows of Eobard and the less Eobard knows of Barry. But is it me or was everyone an idiot in this episode? Okay so you have Reverse Flash as your prisoner, but ya can't kill him or keep him prisoner because wibbly wobbly timey wimey, blah blah blah, the real reason is because the entire premise of the series would be gone if they did so. But then they kept revealing things to him that they really didn't need to "You kill my mother" well he will now that you've given him the idea! Has no one here seen Back to the Future!? Seriously, they tell him far too much information, then they make up some bullshit about sending him back to his own timeline to save Cisco. So they re-introduce the Reverse Flash for one episode and what does it achieve? Does Barry receive any kind of closure? Do they learn anything new about RF? Best case scenario that I can see is he'll come back later on to help them beat Zoom, which honestly would be fucking awesome, i love hero/villain team-ups.

Then the subplots of the episode, Caitlin tries to help Jay out by finding his doppelganger, he says it won't work and the only way for her to understand is to see it herself, so he takes her to the park and explains his doppelganger won't work...yeah it's not exactly something that needs to be seen to be believed. This is a subplot that literally could have been solved in one scene, "I was thinking we try and find your doppelganger and maybe he could help" "Yeah that won't work, already found him, but he doesn't have powers, only getting my speed back would save me" "Oh ok". Boom. Done.

Next is Patty who has not been behaving the best these past few episodes, in this case she finds out The Flash is Barry, by tricking him of all things, now even though she's 99% sure he is The Flash, she needs to know fully so she pretends to be held hostage so he'll show up and...Barry is okay with it? If i was in his place i would be pretty pissed at that, "Wow so you trick me into revealing my secret instead of telling you when i wanted to, not that it should matter cause we broke up and you are about to leave town, so you couldn't just let this go and you had to show a blatant abuse of my heroism? Fuck you, i'm glad you're leaving town".

The story here is lazy as all hell, i swear no one even tried for this episode. Hm, two bad episodes in a row, i'm getting nervous. 4/10.

-Danny

Legends of Tomorrow "Pilot (1)" Review

It feels strange reviewing only one half of an episode, especially for the pilot, but frankly there was so much content worth discussing that if I were to wait until the next episode then this review would be an essay long. If you're not familiar with this series, Legends of Tomorrow is another spin-off in the DC TV Universe consisting of Arrow, Flash and Constantine, in this series a time travel named Rip Hunter recruits a small team of superheroes and supervillains to help him take down Vandal Savage, an immortal who by the year 2166 will have conquered the world. So with a team consisting of Sara Lance as the White Canary, Ray Palmer as The Atom, Leonard Snart as Captain Cold, Mick Rory as Heatwave, Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall as Hawkgirl & Hawkman and Jefferson Jackson & Martin Stein as Firestorm. They all begin their adventures travelling through time to find a way to stop Savage to save the future.

Something worth of note is that this is actually quite an interesting experiment by The CW, this show isn’t designed to be a continuous show like Arrow or Flash, but instead a 16-episode long story arc involving characters from both universes, not only does this allow the writers to tell a concise and well developed story without needless filler, but it also gives a chance for characters who don’t usually get the spotlight to receive extra development and be put in a unique situation. Not to mention the time travel aspect allows for plenty of creative scenarios, it’s already confirmed that there will be a western episode featuring DC favourite Jonah Hex. But even more so is the higher production quality, assuming this show has relatively the same budget as Arrow and Flash, the fact that they only have to produce half the amount of episodes means each episode has double the budget it might have had if gone the traditional route, which is greatly needed for a show this big in scope. So far it really shows, the CGI is above standards, the sets and costumes are wonderful and the fight scenes already feel more epic.

But enough about production and concepts, how is the show’s story in execution? Well so far it’s proving to be a success. One query that I had going into the show was why exactly these people were picked above others like Flash or-should the show ever make it this far-Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. The explanation that they have no major effect on history thus making it less risky to take them not only works great as an explanation but also sets up the group’s arc of going from nobodies who don’t matter, to truly becoming legends worthy of that title. As for individual character arcs, let’s start with the newbie of the franchise, Rip Hunter, played by Arthur Darvill. And no, they are yet to make a Doctor Who reference, come on it was practically set up with the camouflaged time machine! So far Rip is proving to be a very engaging character, he has a sense of humour, is a smart and skilled fighter with a rebellious nature but actually receives a fair amount of depth in the first episode, going on this mission makes him a wanted fugitive as he went against his commanders but doing it because Savage killed his family makes this much more personal for Rip and thus more engaging for the audience.

Kendra and Carter also receive a huge chunk of development, which makes sense considering they’re the only members of the team that have to be on this mission. Learning about their son who they forgot existed and now he’s physically older than them is all kinds of messed up and confusing so you can imagine what kind of an impact that would have on them. Though did they really need extra motivation for wanting to kill Savage? He’s murdered them 206 times, I think that’s enough motivation as it is. Ray Palmer is the next one to be developed, though just slightly, a man who was thought dead for months and learned that he had no impact on the world wants to make a mark, do something good that he will be remembered for, true a bit of a selfish motivation for wanting to save the world but motivation nonetheless.

Jefferson, Leonard and Mick are the characters with the least amount of development, yes it’s unfair to ask for all of the characters to be developed in the span of an hour and we have a whole show for them to get developed, but even still for the pilot it didn’t seem like they had much to do. Also I don’t see why Leonard and Mick are still on the mission when they know they can’t steal anything valuable, and Jefferson was forced onto the mission, actually let’s talk about that. So, Martin Stein drugged and kidnapped a person and forced them to go on a deadly mission…doesn’t look that good for ya Marty. They did give an explanation suggesting he did it because he’s so desperate to prove he’s still worth something, but dude you worked with The Flash, you’ve already helped save the Earth, also I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to support a superhero who drugs and kidnaps people! Finally, there is Sara, who is it me or was she really out of character in this episode? She goes against orders, goes out drinking when she’s supposed to be on a world saving mission and gets in two bar fights in one episode. I will admit the budding chemistry between her and Leonard is fun but something about her felt really off in this episode.

So overall, this is a very promising show, I like all of the characters, the story allows for a lot of creativity and the production is top notch. I can’t wait to see more and I’m giving the pilot an 8/10.

-Danny

Arrow "Blood Debts" Review

I told ya Felicity wasn't gonna be the one killed off! Like Flash, Arrow has returned this week after it's mid-season hiatus, we last left off with Felicity being shot and believed to be dead, now it turns out she's not dead but she is paralysed from the waste down. Because just as soon as Oliver stops behaving like Batman we had to get Felicity to be Oracle...whoopitydoo. Oh also Anarchy is back and Thea deals with more blood lust issues.

Where do we begin? Well how about with Oliver going into a state of denial after Felicity's accident, refusing to visit her in hospital and throwing himself into his work. To be fair it's not a bad angle to tackle it, people deal with grief in different ways and...I actually think they handled it fairly well. Granted there's nothing here too strong to create emotional drama, but there's also not anything bad about the way it was handled, it was a decent enough story point and i don't have any issues with it. I also like the fact that Oliver saved Darhk's family and in return he offers him a few more weeks to live, it shows Darhk isn't beyond compassion but, you know, he's still a bad guy, he's gonna try and kill ya eventually. It was just a nice moment. Then Felicity herself, though not given much to do is made the emotional anchor of this episode, Oliver praising how she's the strongest of them all due to her pure and loving nature, she helps keep Oliver out of the dark. Cute yet, but i don't think it's as impactful as they would hope it is because of course it's easy for her to remain good-hearted, she doesn't experience the same dark tragedies that you or Diggle or Laurel do. I'm not saying she hasn't experienced any of she isn't fully aware of what others have to go through, but i feel like if she went through the same experiences that Ollie did, she'd be broken as well, so it's not really a fair comparison to make.

Then there's Thea's story arc which i've now realised i am completely bored with, her bloodlust is getting repetitive, her on again-off again relationship with bland-face is not interesting in the slightest and oh my god Anarchy is such a generic villain! And no, I don't believe this man is skilled enough to take on Green Arrow and Speedy at once with no problem, for that, I call bullshit! Also there's Diggle and his brother, again, this is feeling repetitive, some development was made in this episode but honestly i just didn't care at this point, there are so many plots in this episode and none of them got as developed as they should have done.

So yeah, this episode was pretty meh, nothing too good, nothing too bad. 5/10.

-Danny

The Flash "Potential Energy" Review

Oh yeah! The Flash is back which means I'm back to reviewing it! And boy does this show come back with a...well, not a bang, more like a fizzle. For our returning episode we see Barry forced to take on The Turtle (Turtle Man as he's known in the comics, thus i will refer to him as such) the slowest villain ever, meanwhile having to balance his struggling relationship with Patty and in the end they break up. Oh and Wally and Joe have like 3 minutes of screen time.

So let's get the good stuff out of the way, cause boy do i have some bitchin' to do here. The main thing I loved about this episode is The Turtle Man, mostly because this is a villain I never thought would see a live action version. If you aren't aware, Turtle Man is the first villain Barry Allen ever fought in The Flash comics. Of course he wasn't nearly as cool there as he is here, giving him the ability to make everyone around him incredibly slow is a cool twist, but damn this show keeps surprising me with villains making appearances, first King Shark now Turtle Man? I can't wait to see who comes up next!

Now let's get to the bad of the episode...everything else! Why do superhero shows insist on throwing romances into the limelight? You're not good at writing romance! More importantly no one cares about the romance! This is a superhero show! But talking specifically issues with this romance, apart from it being the focus, is the flawed logic behind Patty for breaking up with Barry. Now she makes a good point earlier on that she puts up with a lot being Barry's girlfriend and complains about how he's keeping too many secrets from her...then drops a big bombshell on him at the end of the episode. So basically it goes like this "You never talk to me Barry, you don't trust me and it's not fair. Oh by the way i'm leaving town which means we have to break up, bye!" whaqubdgwfb--WHAT!? What a hypocritical bitch! Then the fact one of the subplots is another romance between Caitlin and Jay (Never a fan of that either) and it turns out he's dying because...reasons, and this makes for a good plot because...reasons.

Then finally there is the relationship between Joe and Wally and holy crap do I hate Wally! He shows up at Joe's door and now suddenly refuses to talk to him, blames him for never trying to find him, commits crimes in front of Joe despite the fact he's a cop! Okay, kid, none of this is your dad's fault, it was your bitch of a mother that left him and never told him she was pregnant with you, and then you make the claim "Some detective you are" HOW WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU EVEN EXISTED!? Also you do not get to show up at someone's door and then ignore them completely. Jesus Christ, I love Wally West in the comics but here he is an irritating douche nozzle. I know they're setting up his arc so the two will bond by the end of the show but we're supposed to want to see them get closer, honestly Joe was better off without this kid.

So yeah, wasn't a fan of this episode, bitchy characters doing bitchy things and acting like total bitches. 4/10

-Danny