Primeval: Series 4 Episode 6

Aww. Cute liddle prehistoric baby hyenas.

This week's episode was much improved, I felt. Perhaps it was seeing an old member of the ARC team come back (albeit briefly) that helped? Or maybe it was those baby hyenas?

At the ARC, an anomaly alert indicates a possible incursion at a stately home. Matt, Abby, Connor, Emily - and some black-clad back-up for once! - head out to investigate, whilst Becker takes the job of hunting down the mysterious murderer Ethan. Whilst Becker and Jess check out police reports from over 100 years ago to see if they provide any clues, the rest of the gang track the anomaly down to the basement of the grand house. Why there were plastic sheets hanging from the ceiling in the basement, and not draped over the furniture to keep it clean, I don't know but it all helped add to the tension when Connor finally encounters one male Hyaenodon...

...and also Jenny Lewis (aka Claudia Brown in an alternate timeline), who is due to have her wedding ceremony in the building the next day.

Meanwhile, Becker tracks Ethan down to an old warehouse near to Matt's apartment and where he is keeping Emily. Unfortunately, Ethan has worked out that he's being followed and so sets up an elaborate (almost comicbooky) booby-trap in the warehouse to trap Becker. It's a good job Jess had brought Becker some Chinese food earlier, because she follows Becker and, in a tense moment involving pressure plates, tripwires, a metronome (?) and two red wires (eek!), manages to disarm the bomb with vocal assistance from Becker.

Back to the main gang who, believing that they've subdued the only prehistoric monster present, are invited to Jenny's wedding. But later that night, when Connor goes to talk to Abby about putting his foot in it earlier with his marriage comments, he spots another hyena. Tracking it down to the basement, he gets trapped down there with some hyena pups whilst the mother prowls around outside. It's amazing how a little bolt on a flimsy door can hold back a huge, monstrous hyena creature. Anyway, Connor ends up trapped down there all night.

Eventually, he does get out and decides to send the pups back to their own time. However, this means unlocking the anomaly, which allows a couple of other hyena monsters through. And they're just in time to disrupt the wedding ceremony that's going on upstairs!

There's a fight, the guest scatter, the wedding seems ruined but after Jenny hits a creature or two down the stairs, the day is saved and Lester presides over the marriage ceremony. Jenny then tells her husband all about what she used to do (with a nice little summary of the series) and everyone is happy.

Well, all except Matt, who we find out was trained for the ARC leadership all his life (in which case, why wasn't he on the team from the beginning?). We also discover Gideon is from an apocalyptic future and Matt's father just before the old man shuffles off this mortal coil. I had hoped that Gideon would actually be older Matt from the future who had come back in time to warn his past self but, alas, this was not to be.

There's also a little bit with Ethan who goes back to where he used to live and an neighbourly old woman appears to recognise him. I wonder if he's related to Danny - perhaps his lost brother from series 3?

Overall, a more exciting episode than the last couple of weeks with quite a few chuckles (Connor's non-marriage proposal, for example) and a couple of hints regarding what's to come in the final episode of this season next week.

X-Men Family Tree

by Joe Stone.

Outcasts

A show I was looking forward to is Outcasts - BBC's new sci-fi drama series - which starts on Monday 7th Feb at 9pm. Together with Being Human on Sundays, and Dr Who and Sherlock when they come back, the BBC is currently doing very well producing geeky TV shows.

Den of Geek already have a spoiler free review of the first episode of Outcasts. The first episode sounds like it's a slowish start but perhaps promises more drama to come in later episodes.

Winsome Wasp's Wardrobe #1

Speaking of comicbook deaths...

Inspired by Heropress' "Wonder Woman Wednesdays" entries, Bully's "365 Days With..." posts and other regular image dumps on other blogs, I thought I'd start something similar of my own and totally ignore the Human Torch and instead honour the dearly departed dynamic damsel known as Janet Van Dyne, aka Wasp (also known as Janet Pym when she was married to the man known as Yellowjacket/Goliath/Ant-Man/Giant-Man, Dr Henry "Hank" Pym). How dare that big bully Bendis brutally bump off this beautiful, erm, babe during the Secret Invasion crossover event! Grrr...

So, every Wednesday we'll wander through the winsome Wasp's wonderful and wacky wardrobe, highlighting the many different costumes this fabulous fashionista and female founding member of the Avengers has had over the years. I've had a little look through my Avengers collection and, man, she went through a lot of outfits! At this rate, it should give me more 'Marvel'ous, magnificent material (enough of the forced alliteration) than I know what to do with. :)

Being Human (Season 3 Episode 1)

It was lucky that I bought a newspaper with a TV guide this weekend because I hadn't realised that Being Human was back on Sunday. I knew it was due to come back soon but not this week!

Anyway, I managed to catch it and, yes, it was very good. Whereas ITV's Primeval is sort of good in a "don't-expect-too-much-from-this-piece-of-light-entertainment" way, Being Human surpasses it and into the realms of absolutely flippin' excellent. Gripping character drama with a splattering of ghostly gore, a pondering of wolfy weirdness and a smack of vampiric violence.

Mitchell had to descend into Purgatory (which wasn't quite so bureaucratic as expected) to bring Annie back whilst George was mistakenly caught 'dogging' (ha ha) and had to be released from prison by Nina whilst minutes away from transforming. And whilst the gang settled into their new faux-Hawaiian digs on Barry Island, a couple of new werewolves enter the scene and get caught up with some cage-fight loving vampires.

My only complaint would be the influx of 'known' actors into the show. What with Stacey from Eastenders, Dennis Pennis, Robson Green and even Rhys from Torchwood, it was almost a case of "Spot the Celebrity" this week and sort of distracted me from the show. I prefer it when secondary characters are not played by actors well known for other parts (still, having said that, I thought Robson Green was very good and the others weren't bad either).

Still, that's a minor complaint. Lia's revelation to Mitchell that his death has already been accounted for and that he will be killed by a werewolf will no doubt haunt our friendly vampire for the rest of the season. I do wonder though whether Lia's name could perhaps be pronounced "liar" - maybe she is actually the Devil, the lord of lies, himself and seeking to plant seeds of distrust in Mitchell's mind? We shall see.

What with Hustle on Friday evenings, Primeval on Saturdays and now Being Human on Sunday nights, TV at the weekend currently looks pretty good.

Spoiler Free Comment on 'Spoiled' Comicbook Deaths

Is it a spoiler to discover which member of the Fantastic Four died?

Well, yes, I suppose. But let's face it, it's not much of a spoiler. It's just a publicity stunt.

Readers have already been "spoiled" because we've known for a while that one of the FF was going to die. Which means it's already spoiled any shock value over the character's death, whoever it may be. There was at least a 25% chance we'd be able to guess who was going to die anyway. Finding out who it is would now surely just result in a shrug of the shoulders and the usual response of "How long will the character stay dead?"

Of course, what we don't know (until we read the book) is how the character died and why. And what effect it has on the rest of the team and other characters in the Marvel universe. If a story can be spoiled just by knowing who's going to die, then IMO it's not much of a story. The death scene can occur on one page of comicbook - so what are the other 21 pages (or however many pages there are in FF #387) about?

Also, I like Joe Quesada's comment about not saying if the character will ever return from the dead and adding "but I can assure you that it's going to be very, very interesting and not what anyone expects". Which kind of implies that it will happen, but in a way no one expects.

So, I guess that means the remaining Thantastic Three aren't going to journey into the afterlife to 'rescue' their dead companion's soul? I mean, they did it with Ben Grimm a few years ago so that's not unexpected. Maybe it's all a dream? ;)

Primeval: Series 4 Episode 5

Another entertaining episode (though not quite as good as last weeks) with one or two plot holes and hints of interesting things to come. Again, just three of the main ARC crew (it's good to see Becker was given some time off after almost dying last week) head off to investigate an unstable anomaly in some seaside village. And again I have to ask why they didn't take along some military back-up?

BTW, considering this coastal village has a holiday caravan site nearby, why were the locals so rude and "Slaughtered Lamb"-like in the pub? Surely they see plenty of tourists in there and so should be used to newcomers?

Anyway, when the inevitable point comes and they have to split up, Abby is left to track and take down the (yet another) dino-croc - a Labyrithodont - on her own whilst Connor investigates the anomaly. Which is both near an old farm and, in the next moment, near the cliffs. I guess the anomaly detectors don't work in 3D as the anomaly is actually under the farm in a dark, damp cave. For a while, I did wonder whether they'd killed off Abby (noooo!) but, thankfully, she came back to save the day and send mummy and baby dino-croc back to their own time.

Philip, back at the ARC, eagerly learnt one or two new things about anomalies - specifically that they are weakened by acid. I wonder what the high-flying business mogul wants with these unstable time portals?

The most interesting part was Emily's kidnapping by Ethan. Matt went off to rescue her and we discovered there's more to this Ethan chap than originally thought. For one thing, if he's from Victorian times, how did he know how to drive a car? It seems that he may be from the present but has traveled to the future and to the past. Certainly Gideon, Matt's mysterious adviser, is very interested in him and believes this mysterious newcomer might be the big threat he's been predicting.

So, who is Ethan and where does he come from? What is Philip planning to do regarding the anomalies? What does Gideon know and how does he know it? And why is Matt so mysterious? It's these questions that elevate this average monster hunt episode up to a decent show.

Finally there was that single word mentioned in the post-credit teaser for next week's episode - "Jenny". Looks like Jenny Lewis is back!

Essential Marvel Two-In-One (Vol 3)

One of the things I've always done when visiting America is to buy a superhero graphic novel/trade paperback whilst I'm there to give me something to read on the plane back. Usually, this would be bought from a 'local' comic book store. However, due to a lack of nearby stores, I had to buy it from the comic shop in Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park during my recent trip to Florida. And this time I chose Volume 3 of the Essential Marvel Two-In-One, which reprints issues #53 to #77 and Annuals #4 and #5 of MTIO.

I'd considered buying this on Amazon a while back (where it is actually cheaper, as is often the case with TPBs) but had resisted. Seeing it on the shelf on holiday - and with nothing else to take my fancy - I succumbed and bought it. I'm glad I did.

I've never really been a fan of these Essential compendiums - nor of DC's Showcase collections. I like to read comics in full colour, not black and white. However, they are certainly value for money and probably the only way to get to see some of these older comic books without intensive searching through back-issue bins. Anyway, up until now, I think I only had two of these types of books - an X-Men one and the Batman and the Outsiders Showcase. So this is only the third of these affordable phone-book collections I own.

I should point out here that I prefer team books rather than those dedicated to individual superheroes. I was always a fan of the X-Men or the Avengers, the JLA or Teen Titans. Why have a story about one person with superpowers when you can read about six or seven (or a dozen)!? Marvel's Two-in-One falls somewhere in the middle. Yes, it mainly focusses on the Fantastic Four's Thing, but in each issue ol' blue-eyed Benjamin Grimm would team up with one or two other (often C-list) heroes - sometimes even a whole team!

As well as the wonderful (though early) John Byrne and George Perez art throughout much of the book, I was surprised to find that I remembered some of the stories and art. I actually remember having (and reading) the original issues that made up the Serpent Crown Affair storyline plus the Impossible Man issue and a couple of others. I fondly remember my original introduction to Stingray, a character I still love to this day (though, to be honest, I'm not sure why). Nostalgia is a wonderful thing!

I haven't actually read all of the book yet - I'm saving the latter half for the future - but this was a fantastic blast from the past for me. The stories are reasonably good too; there's no decompression in order to produce 6 issues for the trade here but, instead, plenty of action. It's also a good introduction to some lesser known Marvel characters. And the FF's Ben Grimm has always been a favourite. I may have to look out for more of these MTIO collections.