also starring Barry Morse

I was saddened to hear of the death of actor Barry Morse this week. He passed away on the morning of February 2nd, aged 89. Although, perhaps, equally well known for roles in “The Fugitive”, “The Adventurer” and “The Zoo Gang”, in which he worked alongside John Mills, Barry will forever remain etched in my mind as Professor Victor Bergman in the first and best series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s “Space: 1999”. He was, himself, highly critical of the series, particularly the writing, and rightly so. It does leave a lot to be desired, as much as I love the series. But, he did bring rationality to many of the plots and his character helped ground the series in science, however implausible that science was! If he found his season often ludicrous, Lord knows what he would’ve made of the second and final year…

When Barry Morse left “Space: 1999”, to be replaced by the female metamorph Maya played by Catherine Schell, a cure-all serving the same function as K-9 in “Doctor Who”, the series went downhill as logic departed with him. Even when the crew of Moonbase Alpha ostensibly meet “God” during Barry’s time on the show, in an episode entitled “Black Sun”, there is a feeling of gentle but assured scepticism emanating from the good Professor. He was a solver of problems, rather than a quick fixer, in much the same way as earlier incarnations of the Doctor, when compared to those of the present day, and remains an approach to storytelling much to be admired. Series Two of “Space: 1999” might be fun but it is poor science fiction just as present day “Doctor Who” languishes in mediocrity. I continue to miss the kind of television Barry’s character represents.

Agent Provocateur

Holly Willoughby is a birthday girl! She’s 27 today!! When I wrote my post on her, three days ago, I didn’t know that; so, it gives me a further opportunity to stick up her picture on my blog… Yeah, any old excuse!

To be honest, I’m not really sure whether or not I find Holly attractive. She’s undeniably sexy but being attractive is a different thing altogether. The girl is all front, if you know what I mean, but attractiveness requires something going on up top other than big knockers!

Still, even though I don’t watch Miss Willoughby’s show, I hope she has a nice day. She’s at an age when birthdays still mean something, although she says there is nothing she wants. What do you buy a girl who, probably, already has everything? Well, she answered that one with, “As long as I get some Agent Provocateur underwear, I’ll be happy.” You and me both, love! I think my budget could stretch to that… Yes, I’m sure I can rise to the occasion!! The old ones are the best, eh?

Anyway, Happy Birthday to the dolly that is Holly!

Pounding the Beat

Gene Hunt returned, last night, his reputation preceding him! And, I was along for the ride in the back of his Audi Quattro!! What a trip it was too. Laying my cards right on the table, I loved the opening episode of the new eight-part series “Ashes to Ashes”, successor to “Life on Mars”. I never got into the Seventies show which is strange in itself because that was the decade in which I grew up. The soundtrack is an important feature of both series and yet the Eighties was the decade when I began to lose interest in pop music of the time. But the producers have been clever enough to set the new show in 1981, before the Eighties have really gotten into full swing, which enables them to carry on using the music of the Seventies! Smart move!! Thus, many of the featured bands/artists originate, or were at their peak of success, in the preceding ten years. I absolutely adored the moment Gene and his fellow coppers sped through the Thames, in hot pursuit, to the guitar-crunching, keyboard-swirling, Hugh Cornwell-snarling sound of The Stranglers! I was at Uni in ’81, in the last year of my first degree, in a band called The Disturbed, and “No More Heroes” was one of a few cover versions we played to much acclaim. It was our calling card, if you like, and the energy of this particular scene, in “Ashes to Ashes”, brought it all back.

“No More Heroes” wasn’t the only song in the first episode to bring on feelings of nostalgia. Bizarrely, the show featured both “Vienna” by Ultravox and “I’m in Love with a German Film Star” by The Passions and I can clearly remember buying both records on the same day in Woolworths, in Beeston, while studying at Nottingham. There are so many records they could’ve chosen so it really made me sit up and take notice when the second of the pair filtered its way into my consciousness! As a teenager in the Seventies, two of my major influences were Roxy Music and David Bowie. Again, both featured in episode one. “Ashes to Ashes”, the song, is actually a sequel to the “2001: A Space Odyssey”-influenced Sixties hit “Space Oddity”, not the track “Life on Mars”, and details what happened to Major Tom once he returned to Earth from his voyage in space. The line “I’m happy, hope you’re happy too” was one of the driving forces of the narrative. Meanwhile, “Same Old Scene” by Roxy Music, from their penultimate album “Flesh and Blood”, closed the show, suggesting the familiar setup of the previous series is firmly re-established. For me, though, the male/female dynamic, of the two leads, is a more interesting one than the male/male partnership of the previous programme, and that’s despite my fondness for “The Sweeney”. Oh, and isn’t Montserrat Lombard cute as newcomer WPC Sharon “Shaz” Granger!

Double Standards!

I can’t believe the fuss viewers have made over the, admittedly, eye-popping white dress worn by Holly Willoughby on a recent edition of “Dancing on Ice”. Complainants say she might as well have done the show topless. I wish she had. It might have been worth watching then. I’ve no doubt the parents of those eight and ten-year-old children watching before bedtime, who were so shocked, didn’t bat an eyelid when their kids watched John Simm punch David Tennant in the face last year! Violence is ok, then, but when faced with a perfectly covered pair of big breasts, there’s all hell to pay. Double standards methinks! Anyone who allows a child under the age of twelve to view the episodes on the recently released Season Three “Doctor Who” box set is actually breaking the law, despite it originally transmitting at 7pm, so why all the hullabaloo over a pretty girl flaunting her tits. She’s looking for more work and that’s how you get it in television, by selling yourself. These are her assets and very beautiful ones they are too. Besides, there’s probably not much else going on up top for most of these here today gone tomorrow starlets!

I remember seeing Holly a few years back on the Saturday morning kids show “Ministry of Mayhem”, while waiting to see “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet” you understand, and she regularly wore precious little on those occasions! One time she was in a bikini and grass skirt ready for her usual soaking. Did anyone complain then, when the average age of the viewer (apart from myself and like-minded fans!) was probably even younger? Nope, and I bet all the Dads lapped it up as she stood there nearly naked, soaked to the skin, water dripping off her chin! I’m sure you get the picture!! She’s moved into mainstream telly with her latest venture, wears a lovely evening dress, and is chastised by a bunch of puritans for her trouble. The nanny state has truly gone berserk. It’s not like she sat there with her legs spread before the watershed… better stop myself before I get too carried away!!! She toned down her appearance a week later which is a shame because it’s like admitting she was wrong in simply looking beautiful. Next time, ask your kids if they think she looks pretty!

More of ITV4

As of today, ITV4 will broadcast 24 Hours a day. Up to now, the channel has only been broadcasting between 6pm and 6am but viewers will immediately be able to watch its output anytime of the day. ITV4 began broadcasting on 1 November, 2005 and the mix of shows has, pretty much, remained constant ever since. I noticed a slight decline in the number of showings of old ITC series, of late, but the station will need to fill the schedules with something and I don’t suppose it will include any new programming just more screenings of what has already been bought in!

Shows on offer have included many British drama series originally aired in the Sixties, a handful from the Seventies and the odd one or two from the Eighties. These are interspersed with imports from the States including “The X-Files” spin-off “Millennium”, “Homicide: Life on the Street” and long-running sitcom “Married… with Children” co-starring the lovely Christina Applegate!

As you might expect, I favour the Brit shows! I’m still waiting to catch Harriet Philpin in one of the Douglas Camfield-directed episodes of “The Sweeney” entitled “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. She’s better known to “Doctor Who” fans as Bettan, appearing in the latter half of “Genesis of the Daleks”. More generally, if you’re a fan of “The New Avengers” you might like to try “The Professionals”, created by the same team of Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. Dennis Waterman can be seen in “Minder”, as well as “The Sweeney”, on ITV4 but my main reason for tuning in, being a Gerry Anderson and SF fan, is both “Space: 1999” and, especially, its forerunner “UFO”.

I recently had the pleasure of watching one of my favourite episodes of “Space: 1999” on the channel, “War Games” co-starring Anthony Valentine and Isla Blair. When I first watched the episode, in my mid-teens, I remember being totally shocked by the death of series regular Doctor Bob Mathias, sucked out into space near the beginning of the story! I had yet to fully take on board the Gerry Anderson plot algorithm of the reset button now so beloved, but not nearly as well utilised, by Russell T. Davies!

I’ve also recently rewatched the “UFO” episodes “Reflections in the Water” and “The Long Sleep”. Both excellent. The latter features Tessa Wyatt as Catherine Frazer waking from a ten year coma with news of a possibly devastating hidden bomb on a farmyard that could rip England in half. She’s the former wife of ex-Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn but don’t hold that against her! Give the channel a go and root out some buried treasure… you might be lucky enough to ogle Erotica from “Up Pompeii”, gorgeous Georgina Moon, in her other famous role as Skydiver Operative Lt. Sylvia Howell in one of her eight episodes of “UFO”!

Anything Goes

Feature-length is overstating it a bit! Come to think of it, so is Special!! This is the DVD sleeve for the “Doctor Who” Christmas episode “Voyage of the Damned”, available at all undiscerning stockists from 10 March. Quite why I’m giving it free publicity, I haven’t the foggiest!

And, why isn’t the accompanying hour-long “Doctor Who Confidential” on the disc with the episode? I hope it’s priced down, accordingly, because “Doctor Who” DVDs always cost more when there’s more on them so why not less when there’s less on them? I notice the box set of the first two seasons of “Primeval”, thirteen episodes in total, will retail at half the price of a similar length “Doctor Who” season. Ever felt like you were being ripped off?

Speaking of the dinosaur spectacular, for those who haven’t read it yet, you might like to read the previous post, my 250th, which attempts to compare “Primeval” with “Doctor Who”, both old and new, for some decidedly shocking conclusions… I exaggerate not! Just because there’s a picture of “Primeval” at the top, doesn’t mean it’s just about “Primeval”! You could be missing out on vital information!!

Anyway, now that Kylie has been done and dusted, I’m looking forward to seeing Natalie Imbruglia, who turned 33 yesterday, as this year’s Christmas companion with maybe Holly Valance, preferably in a bikini, in 2009!!!

Now, where did I put my pills? Russell T. Davies’ unholy vision of my favourite television series, and the public’s unquestioning acceptance of it, is making me angrier by the day! Calm down, calm down!!

Monster Smash!

I have to admit to enjoying the current series of “Primeval” more than I have “Doctor Who” in recent years. The reason is simple. It comes without RTD’s tedious gay agenda which infects not only “Doctor Who” but “Torchwood” even more so and merely acts as a disservice to his cause. Nobody feels it necessary to exclaim their heterosexuality at every given turn of the drama in “Primeval”, it’s just a straightforward monster show. “Doctor Who” forgot that from the very first episode when it came back revamped, and destroyed, in 2005. “Primeval” isn’t perfect by any means. In the latest series, a new love interest has been introduced for Connor which is an unnecessary distraction. We all know that Andrew-Lee Potts is dating ex-S Club 7 singer-turned-actress Hannah Spearritt, who plays Abby, in what passes for real life in celeb-land! So, we can all guess that the new girl in his fictional life won’t stand a chance!! Connor declared his love for Abby in a literal cliff-hanger, in episode four, so why he doesn’t just tell this other girl to go take a running jump I’m not quite sure.

But the point is, the relationship stuff doesn’t really intrude like it does, big time, in the reinvention of “Doctor Who”. “Primeval” is a show about dinosaurs, and monsters abound. My favourite series of “Doctor Who”, Season Five, the middle Troughton year, is affectionately known as the Monster Season. To his credit, Eighties’ “Doctor Who” Producer John Nathan-Turner saw the strengths of this decidedly individual year and tried to recreate it, with varying degrees of success, in Season Twenty-One. The monsters are well realised in “Primeval”, despite being totally computer generated, and I found it a genuinely exciting moment, this week, when Abby was snatched by one from the boat she was on. I don’t find myself thinking, Hannah used to be in that bloody awful pop group, either, like I kept remembering Billie’s tedious debut single “Because We Want To” when watching Rose in “Doctor Who”. Miss Spearritt is no longer running around in her undies, which was ostensibly on the grounds of having to keep her flat warm for her pet dinosaur! She, undoubtedly, wants to be taken more seriously!!

This series of “Primeval” has also introduced a narrative arc, which I could well do without, but again it doesn’t detract from the fun of “monster of the week”! The whole season is actually taking place on a parallel Earth, to the one in the first season, and it’s interesting to note how quickly one forgets that. It doesn’t deter from the peril even though, theoretically, any of the regular cast members could now be killed off only to find them still alive once hero Professor Cutter is returned to our Earth. I wouldn’t mind losing all the cynical and patronising characters representing officialdom, too, although, having said that, Ben Miller’s Charlotte Church gag was a laugh-out-loud moment in the latest episode. All quibbles are only minor, however. It’s precisely because “Primeval” doesn’t require its target audience to engage in any thought processes, whatsoever, that the series remains undeniably fun! Perhaps it works because it’s still only ten episodes old whereas “Doctor Who” comes with an enormous back story which, if you are aware of it, and find it contradictory, can often intrude.

Trolley Dollies

Billie Piper was never dressed particularly flatteringly during her two-year stint in “Doctor Who” but if this is her Season Four costume then she’s not going to win over too many new fans, including me!

I’m not saying Rose should be dressed in a bikini - well, alright, I am saying she should be dressed in a bikini just not while she’s doing her shopping - but something a little more flattering would be nice.

Our Bills doesn’t seem to have too many “Treats” in her trolley, so to speak! And, is the notice to the right of husband Laurence Fox’s head indicative of the couple’s worth to the economy of West Sussex?!!

Mrs Fox(y?) needs to get a move on, too, and pass her groceries through that supermarket checkout as quickly as possible because she’s expected back at the TARDIS any moment. So, stop dilly-dallying, love, and put on some sensible shoes!

Hubby needs to get his skates on, as well… Surely Kevin Whately’s recently promoted “Lewis” is expecting DS Hathaway back in Oxford to help solve yet more crimes in the spin-off series from “Inspector Morse”!

Wooing Tosh

Go on, Owen, give her a kiss! You know you want to!! Why does the poor guy now find it so tough? Only a year or so ago he was deeply into the fuck-buddies thing. A few episodes later and he’s a big softie! Once the hard man, at least between his legs, Owen is now Mister Sensitive!!

Why didn’t Toshiko offer him a ride back to/at her place like she did that deaf, dumb and blind kid from 1918? Hasn’t she sensed Owen’s new found tenderness? Get it on, girl, and bang his gong!

And then there’s Jack and Ianto’s totally gratuitous homosexual kiss, no doubt justified by the producers as contrast. I’ve already heard that moment described as awesome. Can’t Americans, and even some English, find a different adjective to qualify something they like?

Anyway, it does seem as if the characters of “Torchwood” have all made personality U-turns. Not so long ago, Tosh was a les getting it on with Daniela Denby-Ashe in “Greeks Bearing Gifts”. Now she’s straight or if you argue that she’s bi doesn’t that beg the question as to why everyone swings both ways in this show? How ludicrous is that?!!

These essentially undefined characters shift, like those in a soap opera, to suit a given narrative rather than have the script work around the natures of the collective individuals. As story is all-important, the most interesting thing the writers could do, following “To the Last Man”, is have Toshiko pregnant with “Out of Time” Tommy’s love child!

From Funk 2 Funky!!

Gene Hunt is back, bigger and brasher than ever before – but he’s no longer the self-styled “Sheriff of Manchester”. Gene has transferred from the Manchester of “Life on Mars” to London’s Met Police where he’s about to finally meet his match with DI Alex Drake.

He can’t take his eyes off her, he desperately wants her, knows he’ll never have her – and at the same time she drives him up the wall! Having risen through the ranks of the Met in the modern world of 2008, Alex is an intelligent, independent DI and single mother who suddenly finds herself in 1981 surrounded by speedboats, city dealers, guns, brothels, well-dressed criminals and New Romantics.

The police are no longer seen as friendly coppers – they’re resented by the communities they’re trying to police. It’s the year of the Brixton Riots, the Royal Wedding and the Docklands Development, and Thatcher is here to stay. DS Ray Carling, DC Chris Skelton and new team member WPC Sharon “Shaz” Granger are on the front line helping Gene and Alex in their quest against crime.

They’ve donned Ray-Bans, bomber jackets and leather ties, and Gene’s bought himself a brand, spanking new red Audi Quattro, but their attitude is still the same – scum is scum wherever you are and they’ll get results whichever way they can. “Ashes to Ashes” stars Philip Glenister, Keeley Hawes, Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster and Montserrat Lombard. The eight-part BBC One series starts Thursday, 7 February, at 9pm.

Thanks 2 the Beeb 4 the blurb!