Novel Review - Dr Who: Ten Little Aliens

This isn't, exactly, a Dr Who book.

Meet Haunt, Shade and co. Space marines. The book starts very much as a military space opera, as we follow ten soldiers on a training mission to a hollowed out moon. Soon their paths cross with the first Doctor and his two companions, Polly and Ben, who have also somehow found their onto the space rock. What follows is deeply routed in the personalities and history and the society they come from.

Not to say that the Doctor and his companions are unjustified additions here. In fact, Cole hands the two companions their regular role in adventures - proving (comparatively) more familiar eyes through which to view the adventure. There's plenty interesting going on with the first too, as his inevitable regeneration trudges closer. It's all very cleverly done, but not particularly natural.

The good news, however, is this is really the only major flaw in the story; and in a story that tries to do so many things, this is perhaps little less than miraculous.

It's a meticulously constructed - having not read And Then There Was None I'm not able to comment on it's similarity to it - novel in all respects. Cole takes his time to build up the setting into an atmospheric and evocative, letting us get to know the characters whilst cranking up the atmosphere. Plot and characterisation happens in a very careful and deliberate fashion, information drip fed to us.

It's a real genre buster this one: a military sci-fi story that dips it's toes quickly into other ponds. There is the obvious Alien similarities, and the story is a slowly unfolding mystery. Traces of haunted house can be detected under everything, and some of the concepts that happen later belong more to cyberpunk than anything else. It's a big and extremely careful constructed thing that at times becomes a little too much for it's own good. That's even before you consider the "choose your own adventure" section of the book.

When such a tantalizing mystery is set-up, the author always leaves themselves with the a potential problem: can the answer to the mystery match the mystery itself? In this case, luckily, the answer is a resounding yes. The plot threads come together gratifyingly well, and Cole is dab hand when it come to misdirection.

Ten Little Aliens has plenty of flaws, there's no doubt. But it's an imaginative, creative and complex story with a tight plot and some great characterisation. Cole's prose is well paced and atmospheric, and the narrative voice remains consistent whilst varying enough to give a good feel of each differing character. Ten Little Aliens may do some wrong, but it does far, far more right.

Audio Drama Review - Dr Who: Scherzo

The Beatles once sang: All you need is love. The Doctor, in Scherzo, is very quick to disagree with this conclusion.

Meet the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann, and his audio-only companion Charley. They've had a pretty rough time as of late and there's a lot of raw emotion hanging in the air between. Self-sacrificing and declarations of love have been strewn over the past few adventures, and now they find themselves stranded together in an unknown and scary new universe.

The Doctor, of course, seems to be finding this whole emotional thing a bit difficult. Since Colin Baker's Doctor, really, the Time Lord has been through a zigzagging a rather odd emotional path. Ostensensibly, the path Big Finish appear to be taking with the 8th looks to be laying the groundwork for the angsty and scarred 9th, and in this audio drama he edges uncomfortably close to outright dislikeable. There's something terrifying about the performance, and the way he treats his companion, pushing and pulling her mentally and emotionally. At times he even seems to get a vindictive sense of pleasure from this.

Between the writing, directing and sound engineering this story is a marvel. For a location that isn't really a location, the setting itself is endowed with so much character and atmosphere. It really seems to reflection the purgatorial fear and pain that the characters are going through, and a creepy array of sounds paints a full picture, paradoxically, of this empty place.

This is a psychological horror and a bottle episode, and when it comes to intensity and fear this story makes Midnight look rather tame. The sense of loss and pain amplifies the terrifying location and psychological horror that the two are confronted with; the "monster of the week" is ambiguous and strange enough to worm it's way into your mind.

Despite the emotionally intensive nature of the story, it is a low-key affair. Little happens, apart from a difficult conversation between the Doctor and Charley, whilst they go for a walk. To turn that into an intense, horrifying, original and extremely emotional experience is a testament to the skills of those involved.

I've not been idle

Although I've been rather quieter than I'd like to have been.

Hopefully I'll soon get back my writing verve, but until then hop over to Pulpline, where I've started serialising a story.

Life of Pi - Film Review

'There's an Indian man in French-Canada who has a story that will make you believe in God.' Our surrogate character, a Canadian author in French-India is told, whilst researching his newest book. We meet him as he meets the titular character, Pi Patel, and the movie that plays out is a visual illustration of their conversation.

Life of Pi is an adaptation of Yann Martel's multiple award winning, critically acclaimed bestseller. It follows the strange journey Pi takes when he and his family are immigrating to Canada, and tragedy strikes. He finds himself stuck on a dinghy with a Bengal Tiger, floating alone in the sea.

It's a well documented facts that animals make rubbish actors, and as such most of this film takes place in a wonderous world of CGI. The exotic and incredible locations created in the film also demand a certain level of computer jiggery-pokery. Admittedly, mostly it does hold up as wonderous - there are breathtaking sequences and striking images abound in Life of Pi. Nonetheless, the extent of CGI used here does become a weakness at times, not always look particularly believable. A problem that is all the more frustrating for the fact there was no real way around it.

The story here is quite unlike anything else, and a real triumph in simplicity. It starts out slow, telling us little stories, all more suited to fairy tales than real life. Of Pi's uncle, and a pool in France. Of how he came to be known as Pi. The scene is being set, as is the tone: this is a real world in which things happen as they do in stories. The main event itself is always bright and always hopefully and (CGI allowing) always beautiful, but behind it lurks a darkness. For some, that darkness may sour the experience.

There's a lot going on here - it's not a simple story, but it is told very simply. Herein is where the film really excels, it realises that it should not be trying to show off how complex it is, but rather concealing it and letting the audience themselves explore its depths.

The acting is a triumph throughout. Both actors who play Pi - but especially in his younger form - are fantastic and captivating. The Canadian author, too, pitches the role well, being blank enough to be a conduit for our own reactions to the story whilst still retaining a sense of personality.

Life of Pi isn't really like anything else, and for that reason alone it deserves a watch. That it also happens to be very well made, very well told and filled with awe certainly doesn't hurt. Highly recommended.

Doctor Who - The Snowmen

Twenty five minutes in, and I've already written it off. There were nice set pieces, nice scenes, the odd laugh - sure - but nothing was coming together. The Doctor was introduced into the episode in thoroughly unconvincing fashion, the enemy was kinda just weird and unclear and too many leaps of logic were happening too quickly. The Snowmen was well on it's way to becoming another "could have been" episodes of Dr Who - a potentially good story executed badly.

Not that it was bad, so much as it wasn't all that convincing or engaging when not following the footsteps of new companion Clara. Confusingly enough, this isn't Jenna Louise-Coleman's debut on Dr Who. That came at the start of the series, in the fantastic Asylum of the Daleks, where she played Oswin Oswald. She's playing an eerily similar role here, and when she becomes the focal point of the narrative the episode improves for it.

The plot sees Clara trying to persuade the retired Doctor to return to action, in order to take down evil snowmen that seem to be popping up all over Victorian London. Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax are the gatekeepers, of sorts, although they too are trying to get The Doctor into the game. Aside from excellent scene, Madam Vastra is rather under utilised and Jenny is basically there, but little else. Only Strax gets a good showing, and his comic relief, although rather predictable, brings a very effective lightness to an episode lacking Smith's normal witty interplay between himself, Amy, Rory and sporadically River.

When things start to come together, however, things cascade into motion. The before ill-defined theme of dreams (and nightmares) come to the fore and ties what has come before surprisingly well. The rather shapeless, stammering plot gains cohesion and Moffat's ability to subvert and misdirect the audience's expectations brings tension where there really shouldn't be tension.

After only two episodes of them motor-mouthing off against each other, it's hard to deny that Coleman and Smith have an irresistible chemistry, if at times nigh unintelligible. If this were a rap battle, they'd both be getting told to slow down. When they really start squaring wits against each other the episode spikes dramatically upwards in enjoyability, and never stops rising.

At the halfway mark, I'd given up on the episode actually being good. By the end, I'd been blown away. The fairest judgement would be somewhere between the two, but I'd be inclined more towards the latter. The Snowman, is an unusual and ambitious fairy tale much in keeping of Smith's Doctor, but unlike the past two there are shockwaves to be felt in the main series itself. This is another new beginning of sorts, and great things are promised.

Roll on Series 7(2)!

Novel Review - Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld, is a book with a fantastic premise. At the age of sixteen, you go from being an Ugly to a Pretty, designed to be as pleasing to the eye as possible. Tally Youngblood has been left alone, however, being the last of her friends to turn sixteen. She soon befriends a girl called Shay, however, who shares the same birthday. There's a problem: Shay doesn't want to become Pretty, and when she runs away Tally is given a pretty vicious choice. Betray her friend or lose her future.

This is not as great a novel as it is a premise. It's certainly and enjoyable read that does have a lot going for it, but the most prevalent thing about this novel is that it could be better. The prose is somewhat microcosmic in this sense. Westerfeld writes with a smooth and engaging style that is highly readable, but his prose lacks anything that makes it memorable or evocative. It would be easy to dismiss criticisms of Westerfeld's prose on the back of the YA classification, sure, but good writing doesn't necessarily need to be too difficult for an age in which children have been taught classic novels in school for a good number of years already. Westerfeld's writing is above average admittedly, but that's always somewhat backhanded as compliments go.

The world is well thought out and what we get to see of it is highly engaging. From the more overt things that make up the world to the smaller details that seem to reflect a society based on conformity and aesthetic beauty, there's more thought here than the one-note dystopian future. Westerfeld routes the reader's experience of the world firmly in Tally's viewpoint - inevitably this leads to a fairly small, closed view of the world. As much as this helps keep the onus on the characters, it does detract from the setting and society in a book that is, in theory, about the society.

If we stop talking about the themes and start talking about the characters, Uglies becomes a lot better a book for it. Tally is a lovely girl and an eminently relateable one, and it's a great credit that Westerfeld makes her so whilst pushing her in directions that, at times, even going so far as to almost become an anti-hero of sorts. That she retains personality whilst being actively shaped by her environment is exactly the right way to characterise her, and gives her a real depth and legitimacy.

To a great extent, the ensuing plot is more melodrama than anything else. Much of the cast outside our heroine aren't as well utilised as they could be - again, there's a lot more potential than there is end product. Nonetheless, highly-readable prose, great imagination and interesting characterisation make this a worthy read. If it's not worth reading to see the central concept at work, then it is worth reading to be involved with an interesting and well-paced character story.

Overall, Uglies is a solid and enjoyable story that will, hopefully, be the awkward growing pains of a series that can evolve to be legitimately fantastic.

Film Review - Prometheus

The Alien franchise is that of strange variations and odd sequel choices. The first was an incredibly simple and effective space horror, perhaps the most definitive example. The second built on the great concepts of the first and re-appropriated them for a military sci-fi, a straight out action blockbuster. So far, so good.

Then things got weird. Alien 3 was a flawed psychological thriller with heavy religious overtones. Alien Resurrection was an attempt to recapture the feel of an action sci-fi but filmed and acted like a black comedy. Both were attempts to recapture elements of past films and executed in a way that was incredibly strange, and both were critical failures.

(Not seen either Alien vs Predator, so not really qualified to talk about them.)

As the newest part of this franchise, Prometheus offers an approach that is, once again, distinct from it's predecessors. This time, however, the differences in genre is not so extreme as it had been previously: Prometheus, as suggested by the title, is a sci-fi based around exploration and discovery.

Two scientists discover cave painting that resemble other carvings from ancient civilisations spread out through history. Each of them contains reference to a configuration of planets that is unique to one particular part of the galaxy. One of those planets has conditions that are required to support life. Unable to turn down the promise of potentially coming across aliens, an expedition is sent to investigate.

The movie takes it's time to establish characters and make sure they all have relateable motivations. In execution, however, this is not done in particularly well. In one early scene the Evil Corporation Guy, played by Charlize Theron, tells the scientist couple that they are to only observe and not to approach if there are any aliens. Just observe and report back. This is a smart move, surely, since they are walking in blind to the unknown. Surely having as much information and letting people prepared best for the encounter make the first approach? But no, our protagonists, Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) huff and puff with entitled notions of them "deserving" to be the ones that do so and there's the sneaking suspicion that the film wants us to agree with them.

Whilst the attempts to inject all of the characters with personality and motivations is appreciated, it's not particularly successful. There's a few undercooked subplots, and characters that are better in concept than execution. The notable exception is David the android (played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender) who remains an enigmatic and ambiguous figure throughout. Whilst Shaw starts off as unconvincing as the rest of them, she seems to genuinely change and develop as the story progresses, becoming a genuine and interesting character as the story progresses.

On top of unconvincing characters, the films suffers from a real lack of subtlety. The almost tourette-ish need to tell the audience exactly what is happening in case the audience have lapsed into temporary blindness. Dialogue stumbles along, awkwardly attempting to convey character and plot details whilst seeming very much like dialogue. Worse, it often feels the need to spell out it's themes to you. The character spend much of the movie talking about answers and asking questions, but the movie doesn't just not have the answers: it never really has much to say about all the questions. It spends its time raising philosophical points which don't tie into the movie well and not doing very much with them.

As flawed as it is, there is no denying that the production values are amazing. If nothing else, the film is amazing looking. Breathtaking scenery and great set design really helps build the world. More than any of the other Alien films, too, this film is about the world that surrounds the mythos. The strange things the find, the alien world, the spaceship - visually, this film is a real treat and to a great extent this really props up the weaker elements.

Tonally, it's unable to properly strike a balance. Some of the earliest moments of horror come across as nigh-comedic, which is definitely unintended. There's a scene or two that seemed as if it were thrown in just to keep the movie's later scenes from being too jarring, but the whole plot can never find a good way to reconcile the two. The result is neither the horror nor the more philosophical and exploratory aspects of the film are ever that effective.

Despite it's array of flaws and the fact that there isn't necessarily all that much about the film that really works, I found myself getting further drawn into the story. As characters died and imaginative concept after imaginative concept was thrown into the mix, my appreciation rose. They may not have been executed to their fullest potential, but a lot of the film's ideas are genuinely compelling. There's an ambition here that pulled me in, and although many critics find fault with the later section of the movie, it was there that piece really grew on myself.

Due to my reluctance to go into spoilers, it's difficult to talk about where the movie really comes good. Later sections in the movie make it clear that answers are not going to be offered, and it seems to really be on better ground with what the movie is about. Prometheus is probably the Alien sequel that reinvents the franchise the least, perhaps ironically, but it offers up an interesting and complex and ambitious piece of fiction. It's imaginative and it's ambitious; at the end of the day, Prometheus is a film that is far better than it's flaws should really allow it to be.