"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.