A Space Odyssey

To borrow from the title of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film.

The twenty-first century began with the year that George W. Bush became the US President, the UK foot and mouth crisis struck, the first space tourist was launched and the attacks on New York's World Trade Center took place.

In 2001, I took my A-Levels and started University, whilst there I performed in a production of Three Sisters.

These are a few of my favourite things from 2001:

Film
Ghost World
Not so much a place, as a state of mind. Two girls who are living proof that being cool is for losers. Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi are fantastic in this adaptation of Daniel Clowes comic. Here's the trailer.





The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
JRR Tolkien's 'unfilmable' novel comes to the big screen and it's an absolute triumph. Every detail feels right and the casting is excellent across the board: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Sean Bean. I was working in a cinema when this film was released and it was depressing how many audience members walked out at the end completely unaware that this was only part one of a larger story. Here's the trailer.

The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion
Woody Allen returns to the screwball comedies of his earlier career and leads a great cast with some great gags, but combines it with stunning period style in this beautifully shot noir (in glorious colour). Here's the trailer.




Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Disney goes all Jules Verne on two mighty quests: the first to discover lost Atlantis and the second to revitalise its traditional cel animation department. The animation is great and the stark straight lines of pre-World War I technology are a refreshing sight. The story is more adult than you would expect, the evil is capitalism and reassuringly there are no songs. Here's the trailer.

Planet Of The Apes
Another film that is not as bad as its reputation. Tim Roth and Paul Giamatti give great ape in this 'reimagining', Danny Elfman's music is amazing and the ending is a great callback to the original novel by Pierre Bouille. Here's the trailer.




The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson’s family comedy-drama is fastidiously constructed and as weighty as it is whimsical. The cast are all wonderful, the soundtrack is astonishing and the humour laced with irony. Here's the trailer.





Amélie
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's quirky, colourful and whimsical tale has a sardonic seam of humour running through it. The French title, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, translates as The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain which seems so fitting it's odd it was dropped for other languages. Here'a the trailer.


TV
Spaced: Back; Change; Mettle; Help; Gone; Dissolution; Leaves
Daisy is Back from her travels in Asia and the finest sitcom of the twenty-first century returns. Change and not the small kind as Tim and Daisy both need to look for work (and Jeillo Edwards says "Phantom Menace" like no other). Daisy, Brian and Tim & Mike all have their Mettle tested in a One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest-esque restaurant, an art installation and Robot Wars respectively (Reece Shearsmith’s practically phonetic delivery of "Oh da ah hadden fort ah dat" is a particular highlight). Tyres returns in Dark Star Comics heist episode Help. Camden bar crawl (and mime gunfight) episode Gone is fantastic and Peter Serafinowicz is wonderful. Things fall apart impressively in Dissolution. The last episode is wonderful and yet it Leaves the audience begging for more. The more I write about it the less I do it justice. The scripts are replete with geeky references, but also full of heart. Edgar Wright’s shooting and editing style and fantastic performances from Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Mark Heap, Nick Frost and Julia Deakin come together to make a TV show that is more than a TV show, it's practically a way of life. They’ve done something bloody spectacular.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Triangle; Checkpoint; Blood Ties; Crush; I Was Made To Love You; The Body; Forever; Intervention; Tough Love; Spiral; The Weight Of The World; The Gift; Bargaining; After Life; Flooded; Life Serial; All The Way; Once More, With Feeling; Tabula Rasa; Smashed; Wrecked
Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan and Emma Caulfield are wonderful as the now-Rileyless Scooby Gang finds themselves subject to a love Triangle or two. The Watcher's Council arrive in Checkpoint and their interviews of the Scoobies are a great device and seeing Buffy get her way is wonderful. Dawn discovers her origins in Blood Ties and Michelle Trachtenberg does ample justice to this adoption parable and Clare Kramer's reaction to Glory's teleportation is priceless. Crush examines Spike's relationships with the women in his life and finds them all wanting. Relationship issues remain under the microscope in I Was Made To Love You, Shonda Farr is wonderful as ‘perfect girlfriend’ April, Buffy deciding she is better off boyfriendless and seeing Joyce feeling well enough to date makes the ending all the more poignant. The Body is quite simply one of the best episodes of television. Ever. The entire cast are fantastic, the lack of music and choice of shots really add to the isolation of grief and the dialogue is beautiful throughout. Dawn's attempt at resurrection in Forever owes a lot to The Monkey's Paw and features great performances from Joel Grey and Amber Benson. In Intervention, it's Sarah Michelle Gellar's turn to pull double duty and her turn as the Buffybot is pitched perfectly and the last scene is wonderful. Tough Love is an other chance for Hannigan and Benson to shine and begins the mad dash to the season finale. After years of being an unused option, run and hide is finally the order of the day in Spiral and the resulting car chase action sequences are great. With The Weight Of The World on her shoulders Buffy falls into a catatonic state and it's great to see Willow take charge in her absence. The epic season finale (and hundredth episode no less) arrives and The Gift is another great ensemble show with everyone at their best, but Gellar is fantastic as Buffy chooses between death or Glory. The last shot features the best epitaph ever.
Buffy comes back from the dead in Season Six opener Bargaining and Brendon, Hannigan and Gellar each put in another fantastic performance as the show takes yet another turn for the darker. After Life is another great ensemble piece that concerns the consequences of Buffy's resurrection and the reveal of where she thought she was in the meantime is heartbreaking. Buffy has always been about using monsters as analogies for real life problems, in Flooded the real life problems are big enough already and Gellar is great as put upon Buffy. The episode also introduces the Trio, who return in Life Serial to test Buffy in different ways, all good but it's Jonathan's time loop that is the most entertaining. The by now bi-annual Halloween episode All The Way isn't as much fun as its forebears, but it ably sets up the themes for the rest of the season. I’m no expert on musicals, but Once More, With Feeling is easily the most engaging I’ve seen. The songs are all great and retain Whedon's knack for dialogue in the lyrics and Caulfield, Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head and Hinton Battle are all wonderful. The amnesia episode is an other TV staple and Buffy's offering, Tabula Rasa, is an other great ensemble piece with some very funny scenes of the Scoobies without their memories and then a very sad montage after they remember. After Giles leaves and Tara breaks up with Willow, the various relationships on the show all take a hit of some sort in Smashed, Elizabeth Anne Allen returns as a de-ratted Amy and Willow paint the town red and Buffy and Spike shag a house down. Willow's magic addiction and Buffy's denial reach their lowest ebb in Wrecked. The tone of the season so far is more adult and it looks like things will definitely get worse before they get better.

Angel: Redefinition; Blood Money; Happy Anniversary; The Thin Dead Line; Reprise; Epiphany; Disharmony; Dead End; Belonging; Over The Rainbow; Through The Looking Glass; There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb; Heartthrob; That Vision Thing; That Old Gang Of Mine; Carpe Noctem; Fredless; Billy; Offspring; Quickening; Lullaby; Dad
With both Angel Investigations and Wolfram & Hart in crisis, Redefinition moves the goalposts again and Angel turns mute and broody. Julia Lee and Sam Anderson in Blood Money and it’s great to see Lindsay and Lilah running back and forth, back and forth. Happy Anniversary brings The Host centre stage and really starts you thinking Andy Hallett should be a regular. The events of The Thin Dead Line bring the Angel-less Angel Investigations closer together than ever before and a chilling last scene between Cordy and her ex-boss. Angel finally hits rock bottom in Reprise and Sam Anderson puts in another wonderful appearance. After a great opening sequence wrong footing long-term Buffy fans, Epiphany is a definite turning point as rock bottom hits back and Angel swallows his pride and gets the gang back together. It takes comedy episode Disharmony to cement the new dynamic, with great scenes of misunderstanding between Cordelia and Harmony and then again when Cordy phones Willow, and the Vampire pyramid scheme stuff is really well handled. The aptly-named-in-more-ways-than-one Dead End is a great send off for Christian Kane and really marks the end of an era. The rest of season two takes a very different turn as Los Angeles receives unexpected guests from Pylea, The Host's home dimension in Belonging and it's great to see him (now-named Lorne) fitting in so well as a part of Team Angel and absolutely certain he's never going home again. Until he's forced to, with Cordelia Over The Rainbow and the rest of the gang attempting to mount a rescue, Charisma Carpenter is hilarious on her journey from ‘Cowslave’ to 'cursed one' to ruling monarch. The Pylean quartet continues with Through The Looking Glass which features great performances from Amy Acker and Mark Lutz, but the highlight is easily the dances of Lorne's brother Numfar. There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb rounds off both the season and the jaunt to Pylea with another ensemble episode that gives every one enough to do and back in LA ends with a surprise Sunnydale visitor.
Angel returns for a third season with Heartthrob, an episode about love and grief, but the A story takes a back seat to the cameos: Fred is now part of the team, but is only coaxed out of her room long enough to be sent back during a fight, Vampire hunter Holtz who we've heard mention of before and pregnant Darla. Carpenter is wonderful in That Vision Thing, but David Denman's deadpan Skip steals the show. That Old Gang Of Mine concerns the shades of grey that the show inhabits and Steve Niel's Huge & Horrible demon couldn't look more helpless if it tried. Carpe Noctem is a great twist on a bodyswapping story, throws up some very funny scenes and really gives Boreanaz something to enjoy. The aptly-named Fredless sees Fred attempting to avoid her parents, the scenes of Angel Investigations being suspicious of the Burkles and vice versa are great, and Trish's "Did I get it?" is adorable. The misogyny-is-bad message of Billy may not be subtle, but Cordy's reaction to it is great. Darla returns to LA in Offspring and sets up the rest of the season (and arguably rest of the series as well) with great scenes of Wes and Gunn's scroll heist, Fred's politeness to Darla and Sahjhan's lighting a cigarette. Everyone is after Darla's baby in Quickening, but it's Sahjhan and Cyril that are the highlights. Lullaby is a great last hurrah for Julie Benz. The highlights of Dad are Angel's confrontation with Linwood, the hospital scene and Lorne moving into the hotel.

Star Trek: Voyager: Shattered; Prophecy; The Void; Workforce; Human Error; Q2; Author, Author; Natural Law; Homestead; Renaissance Man; Endgame
The seventh and final season continues as the USS Voyager is Shattered into several different time periods and Chakotay travels between them revisiting several episodes from previous seasons in a story like that feels like a 'greatest hits' compilation. Prophecy is a packed episode, which sees the return of some old school Klingons travelling for generations unaware of the truce with the Federation akin to the Japanese holdouts after World War II, the belief that B’Elanna's unborn baby is a messiah, the cynical and political use to which that concept is put, as well as a disease which all the Klingons expect eventually to succumb to and Neelix's enthusiastic efforts in his relations with the Klingons. It sounds like it should be too much for one episode, but it works wonderfully. Voyager is trapped in The Void, where ships compete for resources and piracy is rife, Janeway forms an alliance of vessels to cooperate in an escape attempt in a nice little episode. The two-parter Workforce is wonderfully sinister. A Q episode always gives Star Trek a shot in the arm and Q2 is no exception, John and Keegan de Lancie are fantastic as father and son team, Q and Q. Author, Author begins as a comedy as the Doctor writes a thinly veiled roman à clef holoprogram about the crew of the 'USS Vortex' and takes a crueller twist in the revisions by Paris, before turning into a treatise on the ethical concerns and questions of holographic rights and authorship. Robert Picardo is hilarious in comedy and compelling in tragedy in equal measure and the last scene is very funny. Natural Law is a nice Prime Directive sidestepping episode about the cultural contamination of a primitive society and the decision to prevent their potential exploitation at the hands of their more advanced neighbours. Ethan Phillips' performance lifts Homestead above expectations and Neelix's farewell scene brings a lump to the throat. Almost everybody gets a turn at playing the Doctor in Renaissance Man, as he is forced to impersonate several members of Voyager's senior staff, this episode is a nice slice of comedy hi-jinx and the Doctor's confessions as he fears the end is near are very funny. Series finale Endgame borrows story elements from the admittedly excellent episodes Timeless, Dark Frontier and All Good Things…, but also manages to be more than the sum of these parts. The highlights include the scenes set in the alternate future after Voyager's return via the long route, Dwight Schultz as the elder Barclay, the Doctor’s chosen name, Vaughn Armstrong makes a perfect Klingon, Torres and Paris' differing reactions to her false labour, the USS Voyager's explosive entrance to the Alpha Quadrant and Kate Mulgrew is great as both Janeways. Having its cake and eating it too was the best possible ending for Star Trek: Voyager.

Enterprise: Broken Bow; The Andorian Incident; Cold Front
Two hundred and twenty seven years before Voyager's triumpant return home, Broken Bow, the pilot episode of Star Trek's prequel series goes more boldly than most and features great performances from Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer and John Fleck. The Suliban are fantastic villains and their temporal cold war is a brilliant concept. The Andorian Incident introduces Jeffrey Combs as Shran and in one of the bravest innovations of this series this episode gives us the first indication that after thirty five years of television Vulcans might not be as benign as we were lead to believe. Cold Front heats up the temporal cold war and gives the series Matt Winston's Daniels at his enigmatic best.

Futurama: Parasites Lost; Amazon Women In The Mood; Bendless Love; The Day The Earth Stood Stupid; That's Lobstertainment!; The Birdbot Of Ice-Catraz; The Luck Of The Fryrish; The Cyber House Rules; Insane In The Mainframe; Bendin' In The Wind; Time Keeps On Slippin'; I Dated A Robot; Roswell That Ends Well; A Tale Of Two Santas
The Planet Express crew take a Fantastic Voyage-esque trip into the bowels of Fry's bowels in Parasites Lost, an episode which makes the relationship between Fry and Leela more complex and manages to be very funny indeed. Most SF series have done the female-dominated society story at some point, but few deal with clichés as well as Amazon Women In The Mood, plus Zapp Brannigan singing 'Leela' to the tune of 'Lola' by The Kinks is worth the price of entry alone. Bendless Love examines a love triangle of the most tangled variety. The Day The Earth Stood Stupid is phenomenal: the Hypnotoad is fantastic, the Nibblonians are wonderful and Fry's defeat of the Brainspawn is very satisfying. Zoidberg's comedy yearnings lead to That's Lobstertainment! and the making of The Magnificent Three, but it's Bender's brief tenures as Boiler and as the movie's Executive Producer that provide the highlights. The Birdbot Of Ice-Catraz is another example of an environmental episode of the sort that Futurama excels at. Told largely in flashback, The Luck Of The Fryrish, is a beautiful episode about loss with comedy graverobbing. Adoption is "a great way to have a kid without having sex" and Bender takes full advantage leading to a hilarious tale of child neglect in The Cyber House Rules. A spell in a robot asylum Insane In The Mainframe is a horrific, degrading and dehumanising experience for Fry which owes more than a little to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and features some real time ageing. Beck is great in Bendin' In The Wind and Cylon & Garfunkel are hilarious. Time keeps on slipping in Time Keeps On Slippin' and the jumps in time through the wonderfully pointless game between the Harlem Globetrotters and Earth's atomic monsters and pop starlet Wendy's career are hilarious, but the ending is heartbreaking. I Dated A Robot features another great episode of The Scary Door and the eponymously-titled public information film within is fantastic. Roswell That Ends Well is a lot of fun as the Planet Express crew accidentally travel back through time to 1947 and crash in Roswell. It’s great to see Zoidberg flirting with President Truman, his subsequent autopsy (Zoidberg's, not Truman's) and Fry messing around with own genepool. A Tale Of Two Santas is another great Xmas episode with another great song and a cameo from Jesus.

Farscape: Liars, Guns & Money; Die Me Dichotomy & Season Of Death; Self-Inflicted Wounds; Incubator; Scratch ‘N Sniff; Infinite Possibilities; Revenging Angel
The show gets darker, more adult and more playful. The three-parter Liars, Guns & Money brings back loads of first season guest stars and sets them all against Scorpius, while the second season finale and its follow up show that you can't really keep him down and that everything has a price. Self-Inflicted Wounds sets up a sense of loss which cuts deeper than expected. Dividing Moya's crew in two and alternating episodes between them gives a greater variety in story. Incubator explores Scorpius’ back story and some how keeps him enigmatic, Scratch ‘N Sniff is an editing masterpiece akin to a Fear And Loathing On Lomo and the two part Infinite Possibilities brings the two Crichtons storyline to a surprisingly downbeat close. Back on Moya, Revenging Angel sees Crichton dreaming in the style of a Looney Tunes cartoon.

The Armando Iannucci Shows
The funniest comedy show of the twenty-first century (go on world, you have 89 years to prove me wrong). Unfortunately for all concerned it was broadcast in the wake of 9/11 and mostly sank without trace. Highlights include Hugh talking about life in the good old days when the internet was in black and white, the village which employs a sniper, Walking With Nazis, the British theatre's fundraising attempts in Africa and swearing in cress.

Dr. Terrible's House Of Horrible: And Now The Fearing…, Frenzy Of Tongs, Curse Of The Blood Of The Lizard Of Doom, Scream Satan Scream!
Steve Coogan is fantastic in all seven of his roles across these six episodes. And Now The Fearing… is seventies style portmanteau horror of the Amicus breed, Frenzy Of Tongs is Doctor Who's The Talons Of Weng-Chiang with extra Fu Manchu and crustaceans instead of rats, Graham Crowden and Simon Pegg are great in Curse Of The Blood Of The Lizard Of Doom, and Scream Satan Scream! is more Wenchfinder than Witchfinder General.

A Small Summer Party
This prequel to Marion & Geoff is essentially a dramatisation of events described by Keith in that series of a party held in honour of the titular characters and their affair is uncovered and from the brilliant twist of its teaser to Keith’s bizarre parting gift made up entirely of footage filmed by attendees.

Brass Eye: 2001 Special
Chris Morris' brilliant 'Paedo-geddon' satire is less about making light of paedophilia and more about the abuse of the public's moral indignation in news broadcasts regarding paedophilia. Phrases like "depravitivity", "intergenerational sex" and "makes your child smell like hammers" abound. The special features great performances from Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Doon MacKichan and Morris himself, while appearances by self-appointed paedophilia experts Gary Lineker, Sebastian Coe, Dr. Fox, Richard Blackwood, Philippa Forrester, Kate Thornton and Phil Collins reveal how little consideration these celebrities put into such bold claims. Any doubts about the validity of this special was surely dispelled by this damning coverage from the Daily Star.

When Louis Met The Hamiltons
Louis Theroux gets an incredible scoop as a bizarre sex scandal while he is interviewing Neil and Christine Hamilton, but the real beneficiaries are the Hamiltons themselves. Christine's flirty banter, Neil's awkward humour and Granny's voice of reason allow the viewer behind the façade, humanising the pair that were previously painted as mere caricatures. The documentary also provides an insight into the workings of the press.

Music
Pulp: We Love Life
The seventh (and to date the final) Pulp album takes the band into ever more contemplative mood. Embracing nature and yet maintaining a reassuringly wry outlook on life. Lyrically as impressive as ever, but more melodic than its predecessors. 'Weeds II (The Origin Of The Species)' looks at the themes of 'Mis-Shapes' through a This Is Hardcore lens and arrives at "Do your dance, do your funny little dance". 'The Night That Minnie Timperly Died' is a fantastic single that never was.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Weeds', 'Weeds II (The Origin Of The Species)', 'The Night That Minnie Timperly Died', The Trees , 'Wickerman', 'I Love Life', 'The Birds In Your Garden', 'Bob Lind (The Only Way Is Down)', 'Bad Cover Version', 'Roadkill', 'Sunrise'

Gorillaz: Gorillaz
The animated hip-hop dance Latin punk dub reggae electronic acid rock fusion band’s eponymous first album is a great fusion of hip-hop dance Latin punk dub reggae electronic acid and rock.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Tomorrow Comes Today', 'New Genious (Brother)', 'Clint Eastwood', 'Double Bass', 'Rock The House', '19-2000', 'M1 A1', 'Clint Eastwood (Ed Case Remix)'

The Strokes: Is This It
The zeal and intensity of The Strokes' debut album is incredible. The simplicity of the production feels so fresh and as if recorded live. Staccato rhythms and guitar solos abound unashamedly but nothing seems out of place or self indulgent, while the lyrics tell tales of city lives and city loves they also have a sense of being out of place.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Is This It', 'The Modern Age', 'Soma', 'Barely Legal', 'Someday', 'Last Nite', 'Hard To Explain', 'New York City Cops', 'Trying Your Luck', 'Take It Or Leave It'

Eels: Souljacker
The band's fourth album is less autobiographical than its predecessors and turns its focus instead towards circus freaks and the dispossessed. Exhibiting E's usual lyrical gift and distinctive Eels sound while combining them with luscious string arrangements, the sounds of children's toys and elaborate piano.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Dog Faced Boy', 'That’s Not Really Funny', 'Fresh Feeling', 'Woman Driving, Man Sleeping', 'Souljacker, Part I', 'World Of Shit', 'Souljacker, Part II'

Books
Thief Of Time by Terry Pratchett
Procrastination is said to be the Thief Of Time, but the creation on the Disc of the first truly accurate clock threatens to stop time itself. The Auditors Of Reality are a great concept and it's reassuring that they are as fallable as the rest of us. The novel is replete with allusions as varied as The Matrix, James Bond, Reservoir Dogs and the Book of Revelations. the pages are populated by wonderful characters old and new: The History Monks, the Auditors in Human form, Susan Sto Helit and the fifth Horseman of the Apoc(r)alypse (who left before they became famous) among them.

The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
Beautifully illustrated throughout by Paul Kidby. On the face of it this seems like a blend of the modern Discworld stories with the more fantasy-based earlier in the run, but actually that does it a disservice. This is a story about rules, playing with the reader’s expectations of narrative structure and drawing attention to these conventions as conspicuously as possible with very funny results. Shorter than the usual Discworld fare and yet still crammed full of characters, Leonard of Quirm is beautifully handled and Harry Dread, a villain that never made it big is a great new addition.

The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
The first Discworld novel aimed at children certainly doesn’t condescend. Maurice, his educated rodents and a piper named Keith have a racket along the lines of The Pied Piper Of Hamelin, but with talking animals and added cynicism. The rat king is terrifying, Malicia's ideas of proper storytelling are great, the scene between Darktan and the Mayor is wonderful.

Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold
The fictional biography of Charles Carter, stage magician and suspect in the murder of the 29th President of the United States is compelling, dark, intricate, witty and mischievous. In the 1920's at the height of his fame Carter meets Harry Houdini, Philo Farnsworth, the Marx Brothers and of course President Harding in a richly drawn depiction of the era. The overriding themes of Carter's life are those of escape and wonder. Using both those elements to great effect, Carter the Great's stage act does not disappoint even on the page and manages to live up to the lofty ambition of the title.

Comics
Fray: Big City Girl; The Calling; Ready, Steady…; Out Of The Past; The Worst Of It
Joss Whedon has done it again, but Buffy spinoff Fray is much more than just a Melaka the Vampire Slayer-style retread. His future slayer, Melaka Fray, is a worthy successor to Sunnydale’s heroine, but in a great exercise of world building, Melaka's world has no magic in it and she has no idea that she is the slayer. Just as one of Buffy's strongest assets was those cast around the slayer, Fray's dramatis personae is another superb array of characters: Urkonn, Gunther and Loo are all great. Whedon's script is fantastic an the lexicon is part-Buffy, part-Firefly and yet still fresh. The vibrancy of Karl Moline and Andy Owens artwork gives Fray a real identity. Fray is fantastic.

Doctor Who: Ophidious; Beautiful Freak; The Way Of All Flesh
The strip turns full colour in Ophidious and introduces Destrii and ends with a shocking twist on a bodyswap story. Izzy tries to come to terms with what has happened to her in Beautiful Freak, a fantastic two-hander character piece set entirely within the TARDIS. The Doctor and Izzy meet Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera on a visit to Mexico in 1941 on the day of the dead in The Way Of All Flesh and the parallels drawn between Destrii's current identity crisis and Kahlo's accident are very nice.

Online
Doctor Who: Death Comes To Time 1
Sylvester McCoy returns as the Seventh Doctor once more in Dan Freedman's bold reinvention of Doctor Who. Death Comes To Time's first episode At The Temple Of The Fourth is epic, maybe self consciously so, but this sense of scale is great. McCoy, Stephen Fry, Kevin Eldon and Leonard Fenton are all wonderful and Lee Sullivan's accompanying illustrations look great. It's unbelievable that Radio 4 turned this down and very unfortunate that it isn't still available online.

Wikipedia
The free online encyclopedia written by volunteers. People knock it because anyone can edit it, but that's precisely what makes it great. Millions of articles, in 282 languages, often updated within seconds of news events making it often the most up-to-date site available on any given subject.

Art
Time And Relative Dimensions In Space by Mark Wallinger
I love how it echoes this scene from the 1979 Doctor Who story City Of Death.







Recommendations welcome.

"This Is What Happened This Year..."

Is the uncharacteristic introduction to the 'Previously On...' section of the Buffy, The Vampire Slayer episode Two To Go, summing up the events of show's sixth season.

2002 was the year that the Euro entered circulation, the Odyssey spacecraft found signs of large water ice deposits on the Mars leading to renewed speculation of life on the red planet and Switzerland joined the United Nations.

Whilst at university, I appeared in productions of Wyrd Sisters and The Threepenny Opera this year.

These are a few of my favourite things from 2002:

Film
Adaptation
Charlie and Donald Kaufman's script about scriptwriting jumps skilfully from genre to genre in a single bound. Nicolas Cage is wonderful in his dual role as the Kaufman brothers. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper are great.




The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
In these adaptations of Tolkien's books, the middle film of the trilogy loses both its beginning to be the climax to the first film and its ending to be the beginning of the third, so it probably shouldn't be as good as it is. The fellowship is divided and the narrative follows three parallel strands. Brad Dourif and Bernard Hill are excellent additions to the cast, but Andy Serkis' Gollum is an absolute revelation.

Punch-Drunk Love
P.T. Anderson's tale of dysfunctional love affair is easily the best movie Adam Sandler will ever make. Emily Watson is fantastic and soundtrack is amazing.






Star Trek: Nemesis
Patrick Stewart is as excellent as ever and Brent Spiner is wonderful in his dual role as Data and B-4, but the 'evil twin' theme of the tenth Star Trek film does not a subtle piece of SF cinema make. It has its moments: B-4's innocence, the Scorpion attack fighter escape, Troi's revenge, Data's spacewalk, Picard's final "on screen", Data’s wake and it's good to see Marina Sirtis getting a larger share of the action.

Lost In La Mancha
This documentary concerns Terry Gilliam’s efforts to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote onto cinema screens. It's heartbreaking to see the house of cards fall apart so quickly with insurance wrangling, it leaves you with the sense that it's amazing that anything ever gets made and force majeure isn't nearly as exciting as it sounds.

Ant Muzak
Ridicule is nothing to be scared of. The New Romantics get domesticated as Adam And The Ants do some late night shopping, including a great little monologue about the conspiracy of hot dog sausages being sold in packs of eight, while rolls are sold in sixes.



TV
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Gone; Doublemeat Palace; Dead Things; Older And Far Away; As You Were; Hell's Bells; Normal Again; Entropy; Seeing Red; Villains; Two To Go & Grave; Lessons; Beneath You; Same Time, Same Place; Help; Selfless; Him; Conversations With Dead People; Sleeper; Never Leave Me; Bring On The Night
Life has been cruel to the Scooby Gang of late and Gone is more whimsical than most recent episodes. Buffy is rendered invisible and takes glee in shirking her responsibilities and the identities of the Trio are revealed. Brilliantly, the shooting style remains the same despite there often being no one in frame. Buffy finds gainful employ at the Doublemeat Palace and the results are both sinister and hilarious. The Trio move from being petty to being truly evil in Dead Things as they go from almost committing rape to actually committing murder and in attempting to frame Buffy take a dark season so far to an even darker place. Buffy's birthday episode Older And Far Away is a lot of fun, it's great to see Tara back in the mix and Kali Rocha is wonderful. Riley's back in As You Were with a wife in tow and his influence settles everyone as Xander feels more confidant about marrying Anya, Willow feels better about her addiction and Buffy dumps Spike. Re-appropriating TV staples is what Buffy does best and Hell's Bells, the wedding episode is no different. I don't understand why it isn't more popular. Normal Again is another staple idea, the it-was-all-a-dream episode, shouldn't work as well as it does. Sarah Michelle Gellar is fantastic as a delusional Buffy turns on her friends and it's great to see Kristine Sutherland back. Entropy is the calm before the storm, Anya and Spike work so well together, the Trio's cameras spill the beans on all concerned and Willow and Tara’s reconciliation scene is beautiful. Andrew's jetpack accident aside Seeing Red is terrifyingly bleak with attempted rape, almost double murder and sending Willow well and truly off the wagon. Alyson Hannigan shines as Willow gone dark and when she catches up with Warren in Villains his comeuppence is the most graphic death in the series. The return of Anthony Stewart Head as Giles in Two To Go & Grave is a great relief and you don't realise quite how much you've missed him until he's back, and his scenes with Gellar, Hannigan and Caulfield are a delight, but ultimately Xander gets to save the world and Brendon is wonderful with the yellow crayon speech. The plot twist revealed in the last scene is great.
The final season of Buffy takes the Slayer back to high school in Lessons with what feels like a pilot for a Dawn spinoff series with the Scooby Gang oddly separated, but instead is building up to the reveal of this year's Big Bad in a spectacular last scene. “From Beneath You it devours” is a phrase we are going to hear a lot this year but not one explained by this episode's monster-of-the-week. James Marsters is fantastic as a newly re-ensouled Spike. One of the strengths of Same Time, Same Place is same scene, different perspective as the Scoobies and Willow can't see each other in the same location which leads to a wonderful scene with Spike from each point-of-view, plus Gnarl is very creepy and Anya with poseable-Dawn is very funny. Azura Skye is wonderful as Cassie, a seer who predicts her own death and some one that Buffy can't Help with a nice twist on how she shuffles off this mortal coil. Emma Caulfield is wonderful in Anya-centric Selfless, the flashback scenes are great (especially the cut at the end of the musical one) and the confrontation between Buffy, Xander and Willow has been along time coming and doesn't disappoint. Along comes comedy episode Him which revisits love spells in a very knowing way and it's great to see the girls competing for RJ's affections in a hilarious split-screen sequence. Conversations With Dead People is a wonderful script which breaks from the normal structure and presents five conversations each fantastic in their own way: Jonathan M Woodward is great as Vampire psychologist Holden Webster, Hannigan's crying as Willow is heartwrenching, it's nice to see the Geek Trio back together, the revelation about Spike’s extra curricular activities is a shocker and Dawn's conversation is the creepiest. Sleeper features another great performance from James Marsters, Anya's very funny half-hearted seduction of Spike and an edge of your seat cliffhanger featuring Giles. Never Leave Me begins the rehabilitation of Andrew and his good cop/bad cop interrogation at the hands of Xander and Anya is hilarious and the end of Travers speech is awesome. Giles and the first of the potential Slayers arrive in Bring On The Night, which marks the beginning of the war against The First as Buffy moves from soldier to leader and gives what won't be last of her rousing speeches, but may well be the best.

Angel: Birthday; Provider; Waiting In The Wings; Couplet; Loyalty; Sleep Tight; Forgiving; Double Or Nothing; The Price; A New World; Benediction; Tomorrow; Deep Down; Ground State; The House Always Wins; Slouching Toward Bethlehem; Supersymmetry; Spin The Bottle; Apocalypse, Nowish
Angel Investigations find time to celebrate Cordelia's Birthday and one vision too many sees her on an astral plane with David Denman's Skip making a welcome return as her guide. Charisma Carpenter is wonderful, the sitcom scenes are great and seeing her make what should have been the biggest decision of her life is very well played. Now that Angel is a father, he's also very aware that he's a Provider as well and his emphasis on making money disturbs Cordy, which is an interesting twist on their positions on the subject in earlier seasons and the opening Fabrizio's Pizza sequence is hilarious. Waiting In The Wings sees Angel and Wes both wait too long and lose out to an other man and it's difficult to believe that this was Summer Glau's first acting role. Couplet proves that Angel is at his best when he's petty and his jealousy of Groo is a joy to watch. Meanwhile Wesley's translation of the prophecy that Angel will kill Connor is testing his Loyalty and Denisof is great as we see Wes wrestle with his dilemma and the talking Hamburger scene and Sahjhan are great. Another great episode for Wesley is Sleep Tight and the wilfully anti-climactic meeting of Angel and Sahjhan is very well played, but it's the last scene that sets the tone for the rest of the year as Holtz kidnaps Connor and takes him to another dimension. Forgiving contains no forgiveness, but it makes up for it with great scenes between Angel and Linwood, Angel and a newly corporeal Sahjhan and a surprising one between Angel and Wesley. Double Or Nothing feels like we’re back to business as usual with a monster-of-the-week style show but the scene stealers are Mark Lutz as Groo with some great lines and Denisof without uttering a single word, plus Jenoff's second face is one of the most horrific things in the Buffyverse. Another show in the same vein is The Price, Lilah's magic password spider is hilarious, Wesley's cure for Gunn is interesting and the reveal of ‘The Destroyer’ is nicely done. It's Connor, now a teenager, and after a fantastic bullet timey fight scene with his dad he ventures out into A New World and sees the bleakest of LA in the series. A hurt Lorne and a sarcastic Groo get all the best lines. The father and son bonding in Benediction walks a fine line and never lets you completely trust Connor and his attack on Cordy made me jump right out of my skin. Season finale Tomorrow slowly breaks up the gang as Lorne and Groo leave, but not until they break the news that Angel and Cordy are in love with each other in a lovely pair of intercut scenes. In true Joss Whedon-style their happiness is interrupted as Connor buries Angel at sea and Cordelia ascends to a higher plane of existence in an equally beautiful but heartbreaking piece of intercutting.
The fourth season opener Deep Down sees Wesley free Angel from his watery grave and Denisof is on form again. The reveal of Justine is shocking, but Wesley's bucket line and Cordy's last line are hilarious. Ground State introduces Alexa Davalos as the impossibly cool Gwen Raiden and Amy Acker is formidable when Fred breaks down after months of being strong. The House Always Wins is great fun, it's great to have Lorne back and in his element plus the ending is a huge surprise. With Cordelia back but suffering from amnesia in Slouching Toward Bethlehem we get another great performance from Carpenter as the only sane person in a supernatural farce. The always wonderful Amy Acker is just as wonderful in Supersymmetry, as Fred discovers how she was sent to Pylea and attempts to take revenge. Spin The Bottle is hilarious and sees Team Angel revert to teenagers and brings about the brief but welcome return of bitchy Cordelia and pratfalling Wesley. Alexis Denisof's physical comedy is excellent. Apocalypse, Nowish is nothing short of spectacular, Vladimir Kulich’s character The Beast is a brilliant make-up, costume and an imposing presence and the rooftop fight scene is amazing.

Firefly: The Train Job; Bushwhacked; Our Mrs Reynolds; Jaynestown; Out Of Gas; Shindig; Safe; Ariel; War Stories; Objects In Space; Serenity (the pilot)
The same events shuffled in a slightly different order. Joss Whedon and Tim Minear's SF Western was treated appallingly by its broadcaster and shown largely out of order. The crew of the good ship Serenity take on The Train Job in a second attempt at a pilot that was broadcast first and it does a good job of presenting the same information in a new way. Every member of the crew gets a decent introduction, the characters are compelling and the ensemble created here is the best cast in television. The opening barroom brawl, drugged Jayne, weak Zoë and Crow's exit are all awesome. Bushwhacked is Firefly at its creepiest and Harken's interview sequence is beautifully written, edited and acted. Our Mrs Reynolds is faultless. funny, surprising and intelligent throughout with dozens of great lines. Nathan Fillion and Christina Hendricks are fantastic, the rest of the crew all have great reactions to the situation. The crew of Serenity visit Jaynestown and we have another comedy tinged with tragedy and Adam Baldwin plays Jayne’s embarrassment and frustration perfectly. The series goes from strength to strength to strength with Out Of Gas, a story told in three strands. Serenity is drifting and Mal is injured with flashbacks to the accident that caused the engine problems and got Mal shot and then further back to Mal's purchase of the ship and how Wash, Kaylee, Inara and Jayne came aboard. A masterclass in editing and story structure. Fillion and Morena Baccarin shine in Shindig, it's great to see Jewel Staite's Kaylee as the centre of attention at the party and the reveal of the cargo is lovely. Safe delves a little deeper into Simon and River's back story and gives Sean Maher alot to play with and a tantalising insight into Book's past as well. A visit to core-planet Ariel and a hospital heist gives Jayne an opportunity to decide whether to betray the Tams and the Hands of Blue in pursuit are terrifying. Alan Tudyk is always wonderful as Wash, but in War Stories he gets to take centre stage, the torture scenes are brutal, the crew coming to Mal's rescue are great and Kaylee's reaction to River's marksmanship is fantastic. Everything about Objects In Space is beautiful, River's point of view shots, the stillness, Simon's sarcasm, Kaylee's fear, the reveal of where River is hiding, the script, Richard Brooks as Jubal Early and Summer Glau is as wonderful as we knew River could be. The other pilot, Serenity, was finally broadcast with a cruel irony on the same day the show was cancelled. It would have given each of the characters a great introduction and a decent slice of the action, especially Gina Torres, Ron Glass and Mark A Sheppard, it sets up the ‘Verse with ease, it's shot beautifully and dynamically and it is downright criminal that it wasn't shown first.

Enterprise: Acquisition; Detained; Shockwave; Carbon Creek; Dead Stop
After showing its potential, Enterprise begins to show some versatility as well. From its Ferengi language first ten minutes to having some fun with the audience knowing more than the characters, Acquisition is the first time Enterprise enjoys itself. Detained complicates the political situation with the Suliban and while Archer gives the example of Manzanar, but the post-9/11 parallels with Guantanamo Bay are just as apt. In Shockwave, a planetary disaster leads to the cancellation of the Enterprise's mission, but is later revealed to be a salvo in the temporal cold war, Daniels transports Archer to the 31st century and somehow destroys the timeline he was trying to protect.
The cliffhanger ending seems irresolvable, but somehow Part II manages ably. Carbon Creek is a refreshing change of pace with some lovely fifties period detail and lovely performances from Jolene Blalock and J. Paul Boehmer. The facelessness of the spacestation in Dead Stop is wonderfully sinister.

The League Of Gentlemen: The Lesbian And The Monkey; The One-Armed Man Is King; Turn Again Geoff Tipps; The Medusa Touch; Beauty And The Beast (Or Come Into My Parlour); How The Elephant Got Its Trunk
The third series moves away from sketch show and more toward comedy drama via sitcom as each episode focuses on a different set of characters with only the last scene and a red bag reuniting them. The Lesbian And The Monkey follows Pauline leaving prison, but it's Tubbs and Edward on the new road, Peter Foot's funeral dress rehearsal and Dr. Carlton’s competitive cruelty that provide the highlights. Lance discovers that The One-Armed Man Is King and Mark Gatiss' mortician's monologue is magnificent. Turn Again Geoff Tipps shows that London is just as parochial as Royston Vasey. Daddy, Tank and Anne are great in The Medusa Touch, but the parents of Casey Emma Glass at her beauty pageant are fantastic. I love Charlie and Stella, and it's interesting that Beauty And The Beast (Or, Come Into My Parlour), doesn't feature their usual schtick at all, but instead has Charlie handling everyone else's. Keith Drop and Dean Tavalouris are great additions, Papa Lazarou’s make up lesson is hilarious and the cross-pollination of mixing up characters from three different groups is an interesting twist, but I can’t help thinking that as with the "special stuff" that the mystery of why Papa Lazarou wanted so many wives was funnier than the reveal of How The Elephant Got Its Trunk.

Futurama: Anthology Of Interest II; Love And Rocket; Leela's Homeworld; Where The Buggalo Roam; A Pharaoh To Remember; Godfellas; Future Stock; A Leela Of Her Own; The 30% Iron Chef; Where No Fan Has Gone Before; Crimes Of The Hot; Jurassic Bark; The Route Of All Evil; A Taste Of Freedom
Professor Farnsworth breaks out the What If machine again in Anthology Of Interest II and presents us with another three what if scenarios and they are even farther fetched than before: Bender as a human living to the fullest and beyond which culminates in the unbeatable line: “You watched it! You can’t unwatch it!”, Fry as the saviour of Earth in a reality where life is more like a video game crammed with scores of computer game references and Leela in a great hallucination in the style of The Wizard Of Oz. Love And Rocket sees Bender in a relationship with the Planet Express ship’s computer, Sigourney Weaver is wonderful as the jealous and paranoid computer, Gwen and Sheldon of Romanticorp are terrifyingly romantic and Zoidberg’s final narration is great. A visit to Leela’s Homeworld reveals a lot about Leela’s origins and everything Bender does is as disgusting as the montage of Leela growing up is beautiful. Kif learns Where The Buggalo Roam as he rescues Amy from the native Martians and it's great to see him getting to take such a central role. Bender's funeral rehearsal, Fry's things about slavery and the weird inverse relationship between the Ancient Egyptians and the inhabitants of Osiris IV in A Pharoah To Remember are very, very funny. Godfellas is astonishing: Bender as God, Bender meeting God and by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened. In a hostile takeover Planet Express is turned over to a man known only as "That Guy", he’s all about image, money and references to the 1980's, Future Stock is all about image, money and references to the 1980's. Fry's "I'll be whatever I wanna do" speech and its effect on the company’s share price is fantastic. A Leela Of Her Own sees Leela achieve her ambition as the first woman to play major league Blernsball and then be forced to amend her ambition to not be the worst player in the history of major league Blernsball. Bender attempts to become The 30% Iron Chef, but it’s Zoidberg’s bottle related guilt that makes this episode and the reveal of the contents of Spargle‘s vial is great. Futurama boldly goes Where No Fan Has Gone Before and it is an amazing love letter to Star Trek, reuniting five members of the original series and Welshy. Crimes Of The Hot is another episode that touches on an environmental issue without moralising. Jurassic Bark is a touching episode with an opportunity to see Fry’s people’s native dance and it has the saddest of endings. If it wasn't for the Benderbrau brewing, The Route Of All Evil would seem like a Saturday morning children's cartoon following Cubert and Dwight as it does and with them learning their lesson. A Taste Of Freedom is a fascinating comment of freedom of speech and Old Man Waterfall is a wonderful walking contradiction of a character.

Farscape: I-Yensch, You-Yensch; Into The Lion's Den; Dog With Two Bones; Crichton Kicks; Promises; John Quixote; Unrealized Reality; Kansas
Farscape's third season veers from the slapstick comedy violence of I-Yensch, You-Yensch, the epic action movie style of Into The Lion's Den and draws to close with the mysterious Dog With Two Bones, and Melissa Jaffer's Noranti is a great addition to the cast. The final season opener Crichton Kicks couldn't really up the ante any further and instead sidesteps it by showing us our Robinson Crusoe in space, Crichton, being a fish out of water and acclimatising to his surroundings all over again. Season Four takes its time in reuniting the crew and so it's not until Promises that all are present if not necessarily correct and Farscape continues to find ways to play with its format, both John Quixote and Unrealized Reality see the welcome return of some familiar faces (although not necessarily in their usual roles), firstly as characters in a psychedelic computer game and then as contributors to a tribute to Crichton respectively, both turn suitably paranoid. Crichton's homecoming finally occurs in Kansas and it's great to see how the rest of Moya's crew reacts to life on Earth in 1985.

Cruise Of The Gods
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan star in this affectionate swipe at fandoms. Children Of Castor looks rubbish, but lovable and Sherlock Holmes In Miami is perfect. Niall Buggy and James Corden give beautiful performances and David Walliams gets the fan who sees himself as cut above the rest of the fans absolutely spot on.

Look Around You
Inspired by the Open University and schools programmes of the 1970’s, Look Around You focuses on a different subject each module with a scientific rigour often all too absent from comedy programmes. Nigel Lambert's voice is absolutely perfect for narrating experiments including: determining the height of Imhotep, watching trained ants build an igloo and communing with the dead.

Music
Cornershop: Handcream For A Generation
The band’s fifth album is another accomplished fusion of Britpop, electronica, dance and music of Indian origin, but this time with a healthy dose of hip hop mixed in as well. 'Heavy Soup' serves as both overture and outro to an album the combines these forms in interesting ways and revisits earlier themes. 'People Power' is essentially a cover of 'People Power In The Disco Hour' on Disco And The Halfway To Discontent by the band’s side project Clinton, but set to different music. Singles 'Lessons Learned From Rocky I-III' and 'Staging The Raising Of The Raised Platform' were well chosen because they are probably the only tracks that lift out easily, as this is an album that deserves to be listened to from start to finish in one sitting.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Heavy Soup', 'Staging The Raising Of The Raised Platform', 'Lessons Learned From Rocky I-III', 'Motion The 11', 'People Power'

Supergrass: Life On Other Planets
The fourth album from Oxfordshire’s finest is closer in style to their first two. The trio have produced another unabashed musical joy and the only downfall is that they make it look easy. I can't think of another band that could pull off an Elvis impression like that in 'Seen The Light' so endearingly without it seeming cheesy. Supergrass are still more fun than the competition, but it's fun that doesn't come at the cost of depth. Deep fun is a horrific phrase that doesn't do them justice. Supergrass are glorious.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Rush Hour Soul', 'Seen The Light', 'Brecon Beacons', 'Grace', 'La Song'

Books
British Summertime by Paul Cornell
There's a review of this book on Amazon that states that "the beautiful prose style masks the fact it's a hugely complicated, sprawling space opera. Dan Dare meets Judas Iscariot, and that's hardly the half of it." I can't top that, but I was so impressed by the scale of this book. Both at its intergalactic and very down-to-Earth extremes.


Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
This novel is a great mix of comedy and common sense which eschews many of the established population of old Ankh-Morpork reducing many of them to cameo appearances as it follows Sam Vimes (and Sam Vimes) through the events of a historic battle on the barricades of the city. Night Watch not only serves as both sequel and prequel to the previous City Watch books, but also as a better treatise on the English riots of 2010 than any of the contemporary commentary.

Comics
Y: The Last Man: Unmanned
Brian K. Vaughn's epic tale of Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand, the only survivors of the apocalyptic death of every male creature on the planet, begins with Unmanned which features the simultaneous deaths of all the men and the first days of the society that women build.


Fray: Alarums
Proof that having four TV shows at different stages of development will hinder your comics writing career, Fray only manages one issue this year, but it’s a bloody good one as events force Melaka to become the slayer in earnest and this is the first appearance of the scythe that would later (and therefore earlier) turn up in Buffy's last three episodes on television.

Tales Of The Slayers: First Slayer; Righteous; The Innocent; Presumption; The Glttering World; Sonnenblume; Nikki Goes Down!; Tales
In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. Here are the stories of the some of those slayers throughout history from the rejection of the First Slayer by those she saves, the brilliant revenge ending of Righteous. The Innocent sees used by her watcher for ideological ends during the French Revolution. Presumption is like Jane Austen with vampires and a great twist. The Glttering World is the tale of a Navajo Slayer told to the prospective buyer of the land that Sunnydale is later built on. Sonnenblume is a Slayer in Nazi Germany and member of the League of German Girls who is forced to contemplate real evil by the events of Kristallnacht. Nikki Goes Down! follows the Slayer who will be revealed as Robin Wood’s mother avenging her boyfriend’s death. Tales brings the first batch of stories full circle as Melaka Fray (see above) finally learns about her heritage. Each story features a completely different style of artwork and concentrate on the loneliness felt by Slayers other than Buffy.

Doctor Who: Children Of The Revolution; Character Assassin; Me And My Shadow; Uroborus; Oblivion 1-3
The Eighth Doctor and Izzy meet the Children Of The Revolution in a Dalek strip that is a great sequel to TV story The Evil Of The Daleks and which challenges the reader's expectations repeatedly. A pair of really nice Doctorless strips follow: Character Assassin which features the Master taking on a great many classic fictional villains and their leader Professor Moriarty and Me And My Shadow which reintroduces Fey and Shayde to the strip beautifully with a mission during World War II brilliantly illustrating horrific imagery with some of the most elegant artwork and concentrating on the schizophrenic nature of their relationship. Rounding things up before a big showdown, Uroborus revisits recent strips, reunites Fey, Shayde and a resurrected Destrii in Izzy's body and sets the Doctor off searching for Izzy in Destrii's body. They find her on Oblivion in the first half of a gorgeous six part strip that shows us Destrii's world through Izzy's eyes, gives us the wonderful Jodafra (and his brilliantly pragmatic views on feeding the poor) and then just as the Doctor can swap Izzy and Destrii's bodies back sets at Izzy and Destrii at each other's throats (and therefore their own) in a very impressive fight...

Online
Doctor Who: Death Comes To Time Parts 2-13; Real Time
The grand scale of the Seventh Doctor's webcast adventure Death Comes To Time continues with the last four episodes divided into ten minute chunks. The Time Lords are no longer a species, they are a state of mind. The revelations about Tannis, Antimony, the Minister of Chance and Ace are all very well handled and surprised me. Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Stephen Fry, Kevin Eldon, Leonard Fenton and Nicholas Courtney are all fantastic and the bleaker it gets, the better it gets. The webcast plays fast and loose with established continuity and is all the better for it.
Real Time is an excellent Cyberman story and the online turn of the Sixth Doctor. Colin Baker and Maggie Stables are wonderful together and in her only broadcast appearance Evelyn makes for a great companion. The potted histories of the Cybermen never feel like awkward exposition, Lee and Herring enliven their parts and there are some very graphic deaths. Very unfairly it ends on a brilliant but as-yet-unresolved cliffhanger... Sadly both of these stories are now offline.

Recommendations welcome.