“This Was A Great Time And Place...”

So says Tom Paris in Part One of Star Trek: Voyager's Future's End on an unplanned visit to 1996 (see below), he continues "and we're getting to see it first hand" before telling his superior officer to take his shirt off. It's very odd.

1996 was the year that Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov at chess for the first time, the massacre in Dunblane took place, the element Copernicium was discovered and NASA announced that a meteorite thought to originate from Mars contained evidence of primitive life-forms.

1996 was also the year that I started my GCSE's.

These are a few of my favourite things from 1996:

Film

Trainspotting
Danny Boyle's adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel has a real energy to it, the screenplay is inventive, the soundtrack is fantastic and the cast are uniformly brilliant. I really hope Boyle and Ewan McGregor can put their differences behind them and make Porno. Here's the trailer.

Swingers
Jon Favreau and Doug Limon's tale of Hollywood also-rans features some excruciating telephone manner and a great performance from Heather Graham. Here's the trailer.

Bottle Rocket
Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson's over earnest heist movie is a joy from start to finish. Here's the trailer.

Hard Eight
P. T. Anderson's directorial debut is a great little film and Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are wonderful. Here's the trailer.

Star Trek: First Contact
The eighth Star Trek movie has fantastic action sequences with the best horror bad guys. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner lead the charge in the best and most balanced of The Next Generation films that gives each member of the USS Enterprise-E crew a decent slice of the action. Alfre Woodard's Lily is a fantastic point of view character, James Cromwell's Cochrane is wonderfully endearing and Alice Krige's Borg Queen is just the right mix of enigmatic, sexy and scary, while the cameos from Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips and Dwight Schultz are lovely. Threatening the birth of Star Trek itself, the scale of the story is epic and yet the relationships between the characters are visceral and emotional. Here's the trailer.

Everyone Says I Love You
Woody Allen does musical and with largely untrained voices and reappropriated songs (notably 'Hooray For Captain Spaulding' in French), but also great visual gags and wonderful performances from Allen, Julia, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Natasha Lyonne and Tim Roth. The Marx Brothers Christmas party and the revelation that right-wing opinion is a mental illness are very funny.

TV

Doctor Who: The TV Movie
Paul McGann's solo television outing gave us an interesting hybrid between the Who-we-knew and a monsterless Sliders/The X Files style show which succeeded on many fronts. Sylvester McCoy bows out gracefully and McGann, Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso are all wonderful in this attempt to take the good Doctor stateside with a TV movie that isn't as bad as its reputation.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Homefront & Paradise Lost; Crossfire; Return To Grace; Bar Association; Accession; Rules Of Engagement; Hard Time; Shattered Mirror; For The Cause; To The Death; The Quickening; Body Parts; Broken Link; Apocalypse Rising; The Ship; ...Nor The Battle To The Strong; The Assignment; Trials And Tribble-ations; Things Past; The Ascent; Rapture
The fourth season continues with Earthbound two-parter Homefront and Paradise Lost and the change of scenery heightens the paranoia and makes the Patriot Act-esque selling-out-paradise-in-order-to-save-it sweeping security measures all the more terrifying. Brock Peters, Robert Foxworth and Eisenberg are fantastic Odo is caught in the Crossfire as Kira and Shakaar begin a relationship and it's good to see the constable a little out of control. Return To Grace is another great Kira and Dukat episode and one which sees him become a terrorist with great performances from Nana Visitor and Marc Alaimo. On the face of it, Bar Association simply puts the Ferengi spin on trade union relations and mines it for comic potential, but actually this episode still manages to make its point about exploitation. The caste-based discrimination at the heart of Accession varies from comical to terrifying and sees Sisko reassessing the mantle of Emissary. Ron Canada is fantastic in the courtroom drama, Rules Of Engagement and the fourth wall rattling testimonies are a very nice touch. O'Brien does Hard Time and the performances of cellmates Colm Meaney and Craig Wasson are fantastic. Shattered Mirror sees the Mirror Universe from Jake's point of view, mirror Garak is at his weaselly best, the space battle sequences are incredibly impressive and the final scene very touching. For The Cause is great and misleads the audience expertly and both Kenneth Marshall and Penny Johnson are wonderful. To The Death is action-packed, Jeffrey Combs makes a fantastic debut as Weyoun and the insights into the culture of the Jem'Hadar make them al the more intimidating. The guest cast and Alexander Siddig are uniformly excellent as Bashir is forced to learn humility the hard way in The Quickening. The dialogue between Quark and Rom is all brilliant as Body Parts tests the former in a new an unexpected way and the baby transplant subplot is an innovative solution. The season finale, Broken Link, is a great ensemble piece that deals with Odo's crimes against his people, his sentence is an intriguing prospect and the episode ends on a really great cliffhanger.
The fifth season begins with Apocalypse Rising which gets the Changeling infiltrator theme back on track, the scene discussing the finer points of Klingon etiquette is very funny and the reveal of the Founder is great. Sisko captures The Ship and there are casualties as he tries to keep it, but the tensions caused by the discussions of death as the life of F.J. Rio's Muñiz hangs in the balance are great. ...Nor The Battle To The Strong is Star Trek at its bleakest: life on the front line, self-inflicted wounds, the trench humour and the episode is made all the bleaker by shown through Jake's eyes. Alien possession can often be unconvincing, but The Assignment succeeds in being very creepy mostly due to brilliant performances from Meaney, Rosalind Chao and Max Grodénchik. Trials And Tribble-ations is a fantastic love letter to the original Star Trek. Things Past is another visit to Terok Nor and the scenes between Terry Farrell and Alaimo are wonderful, while Garak's affront and Quark's staff relations are very funny. Odo and Quark are forced to make The Ascent and it's a joy to watch them bring out the worst in each other like DS9's version of The Odd Couple…on the side a mountain. Sisko has visions of the future in a Rapture and is torn between his role as the Emissary and his Starfleet mission to bring Bajor into the Federation. He does something none of the other Captains would do. He fails…and the show is all the better for it.

Star Trek: Voyager: Prototype; Alliances; Threshold; Meld; Dreadnought; Death Wish; Lifesigns; Investigations; Deadlock; The Thaw; Tuvix; Resolutions; Basics; Flashback; The Swarm; False Profits; Remember; Future's End; The Q And The Grey; Macrocosm
The second season continues with hard SF episode Prototype which asks all the right ethical questions, features robots galore and a great performance from Roxann Biggs-Dawson. The Kazon storyline deepens as Janeway goes against her better judgement to form Alliances in an episode which sees her at odds with almost everyone at some stage and a brilliant reference to The Godfather, Part III. The much-maligned Threshold is actually a lot of fun. Tuvok undergoes a Meld with Suder, a murderous psychopath and Tim Russ and Brad Dourif are fantastic as both are affected by the personality of the other. Biggs-Dawson gets another opportunity to spend an episode talking to an artificial intelligence and herself in great tense cold war-esque thriller Dreadnought. Death Wish is very, very funny and very, very literate with the very thorny ethical dilemma of assisted suicide at its core, the arguments on both sides are very compelling and John De Lancie and Gerrit Graham are both fantastic as Q. The Doctor falls in love in the very touching Lifesigns and Robert Picardo gets to stretch the limits of his character. Ethan Phillips is great as Neelix turns journalist as the mutiny of Tom Paris comes to a head in Investigations and A Briefing With Neelix is a very funny device that allows it to unfold very effectively. Deadlock is like a great SF disaster movie as Voyager is duplicated and the two ships have very different fortunes. Michael McKean and Picardo are fantastic in The Thaw, a hilarious, surreal and terrifying episode built around a great SF concept. Tuvok and Neelix are merged into a single individual and Tom Wright is excellent as Tuvix, in an episode that is easily one of the best uses of SF to explore an ethical dilemma. Resolutions is a great ensemble piece that explores the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay, whilst Voyager must continue without them and the A and B stories come together nicely. The season finale is the first part of Basics sees the welcome return of Martha Hackett, Anthony DeLongis and Dourif, Chakotay's confusion about Seska's baby and his scene his father are wonderful, the Kazon attack that exploits Seska's knowledge of Janeway is very clever and the episode ends on a great cliffhanger.
The second part kicks off the third season and Picardo and Dourif are wonderful together aboard ship while the crew marooned on a hostile planet. Tuvok has a Flashback to the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in a very inventive alternative to time travel and it's great to see George Takei back as Captain Sulu. Voyager encounters intriguing aliens that are more alien than usual in The Swarm as the Doctor begins to lose his memory, Picardo plays two holograms and is as great as ever while Jennifer Lien gives a lovely assured performance. False Profits is a very funny Ferengi episode. Biggs-Dawson is fantastic as Torres Remembers someone else's memories of a holocaust and its subsequent cover up. The USS Voyager is transported back to Earth in 1996 in Future's End, Ed Begley, Jr. makes a great villain, Sarah Silverman works well with McNeill, Russ and Picardo and the two-parter is huge fun. Mulgrew, de Lancie and Suzie Plakson are fantastic in Q civil war tale The Q And The Grey which once again succeeds in being both literate and a lot of fun as well. Macrocosm is a change of pace and practically recasts Janeway as Ripley from the Alien films.

Karaoke & Cold Lazarus
The final works of Dennis Potter are intriguing. Albert Finney, Roy Hudd, Liz Smith, Francis De La Tour, Henry Goodman and Diane Ladd are all wonderful in these two interlinked mini-series.

Father Ted: Hell; Think Fast, Father Ted; Tentacles of Doom; The Old Grey Whistle Theft; Song For Europe; The Plague; Rock-a-Hula Ted; Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading; New Jack City; Flight Into Terror; A Christmassy Ted
Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack to go on a holiday from Hell in the second series opener: The Magic Road, Ted's run-ins with the law and Tom's button confusion are hilarious, while Graham Norton is fantastic as Father Noel Furlong. Father Ted thinks fast in Think Fast, Father Ted and highlights include Ted's panelbeating, the dancing priest, Mrs Doyle's test, "Please stand for our national anthem" and "Oh, it's yourself." Three bishops visit Craggy Island in Tentacles of Doom and it has a profound affect on all of them, "That would be an ecumenical matter", the elements of Christianity that Dougal struggles with and the concept of post-colonic holiness are all very, very funny, plus Gary Lineker's Book Of Ghost Stories is one of the funniest props ever made. Ted's explanation for The Old Grey Whistle Theft is fantastic as are "Fup off!", Father Damo's belligerence and Mrs Doyle's nocturnal exploits. After a fantastic songwriting scene, the shared obligatory video dream, the wonderful difference between Jon Kenny's on and off-camera performances, Ted and Dougal win the Song For Europe competition with the excellent 'My Lovely Horse'. From its Father Ben opening onwards, The Plague is great. and Jim Norton is fantastic. The use of sign language, Dermot Crowley and Ted's long shot and hilarious in Rock-a-Hula Ted. Ted, Jack and Dougal give up Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading respectively for Lent and their hallucinations and the Nun call centre are great. New Jack City sees Jack replaced with the Jungle music-obsessed Father Finton Stack, while the priest's sports day and visit to St. Clabbert's are very funny. Aeroplane disaster movie-esque Flight Into Terror is a great change of pace: the souvenirs, the Jeff Bridges movie reference and all the priests are fantastic.
The Christmas special, A Christmassy Ted is brilliant: Dougal's advent calendar, the priestly platoon in Ireland's largest lingerie section, priest chatback and Ted's award acceptance speech are all hilarious.

Our Friends In The North
The cast are fantastic and the ambitious scope of the story is impressive as the nine episodes of this serial follow a group of characters from 1964 to 1995, through sex shops, anarchists, the miner's strike, Tory smear campaigns, the Great Storm of 1987, a stock market crash and the rise of Britpop. An amazing piece of television.

American Gothic: Rebirth; Resurrector; Inhumanitas; To Hell And Back; The Plague Sower; Doctor Death Takes A Holiday; Potato Boy; The Beast Within; Learning To Crawl; Triangle; The Buck Stops Here; Requiem; Ring Of Fire; Echo Of Your Last Goodbye; Strangler
The short-lived horror TV series really gets into its stride and shakes up the show's dynamic with Merlyn's Rebirth and Sarah Paulson makes the most of the opportunity. Resurrector is another great example of Sheriff Lucas Buck's sense of justice as he sets a married couple against each other. Inhumanitas is another great one for Paulson, Pat Hingle is great and the resolution to Buck's real estate dealings will leave you cheering for the sheriff. Dr. Matt goes To Hell And Back in an episode that appears to show him hallucinating, but instead wrangles brilliantly with time travel and pre-destination paradoxes as he apparently causes the accident he is trying to avoid. A Royston Vasey-esque epidemic hits Trinity as Merlyn goes on the offensive again in The Plague Sower in an episode which drives Dr. Matt briefly mad and shamelessly introduces Dr. Billy as his replacement. Dr. Matt finally tips over the edge in Doctor Death Takes A Holiday, Veronica Cartwright is great and the reveal of the vaccination audience is very funny. Caleb's "so be it" toothbrushing ritual is bizarre, his definition of mentor is very funny and the resolution with the Boo Radley-esque Potato Boy is surprisingly touching. In an odd piece of scheduling two episodes shown on consecutive days both feature hostage situations gone bad, The Beast Within is another chance for Nick Searcy to shine as Deputy Ben, while Buck's belittling of half Ted is great in Learning To Crawl. Gail discovers she is pregnant with Buck's child and Trinity's love Triangles nearly turn fatal. American Gothic channels The Omen as Buck's death causes Caleb to go on the rampage in the two-part finale, The Buck Stops Here and Requiem, highlights include Buck's funeral, Ben trying to convince the town he can be sheriff, "Grandpa's sleeping on the ceiling" and the final showdown between Buck and Merlyn, although the ending leaves you wanting more. Three excellent episodes were omitted from the original US broadcast, but aired in the UK: Ring Of Fire has massive implications for Gail and Caleb's family and features a great performance from Paige Turco. The horrific Echo Of Your Last Goodbye as Merlyn appeals to Ben's conscience. Buck invokes the spirit of the Boston Strangler to kill Merlyn (again) and Gareth Williams is great in the part, plus it's nice to see Ben stepping up and being a such a good copper in Buck's absence.

Neverwhere: Door; Knightsbridge; Earl's Court to Islington; Blackfriars; Down Street; As Above, So Below
The plays on the names of tube stations, the appreciation of the Tang dynasty and the disconnect between London-Above and London-Below among other things are all great in this six-part story by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry. The performances by Laura Fraser, Hywel Bennett, Clive Russell, Paterson Joseph, Tamsin Greig, Peter Capaldi and Earl Cameron are all brilliant.

Radio

The Quatermass Memoirs
An interesting mix of fact and fiction as Nigel Kneale contextualises the first three Quatermass serials with contemporary newsreel recordings from the fifties, while Andrew Keir reprises his role as the Professor now in his retirement in Scotland. As Quatermass looks back on his career with a young journalist audio from the BBC serials in used to illustrate the events of the television stories. The three interwoven strands threaten to be a little less than the sum of their parts, but work surprisingly well and the insight into both Kneale's original writings and the new perspective on the old stories are fascinating.

Doctor Who And The Ghosts Of N-Space
Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney are as great as ever in the parts they played on television. Guest stars Harry Towb and Stephen Thorne are brilliant, while Richard Pearce's Jeremy Fitzoliver is given much more to do here and rises to the challenge. The second Third Doctor radio play is a strange beast set across several time periods and realities. Bravely encompassing much of the variety that makes Doctor Who brilliant within one story, and with some surprising profanity thrown in as well.

Music

Eels: Beautiful Freak
The debut album from E's band is brilliant. Their distinctive sound has already taken shape here and perfectly illustrated by the moment a whirring drill gives way to some truly beautiful piano. The lyrics strike the right balance between wry observation and outright despair: "When I came into this world they slapped me. And everyday since then I'm slapped again."
Stand out tracks: 'Novocaine For The Soul', 'Susan's House', 'Rags To Rags', 'Beautiful Freak', 'Not Ready Yet', 'My Beloved Monster', 'Flower', 'Guest List', 'Mental', 'Spunky', 'Your Lucky Day In Hell', 'Manchild'

Kula Shaker: K
Kula Shaker's first album unashamedly references their heroes whether it's The Beatles at the height of their Sixties psychedelia, the influence of Jimi Hendrix on '303', that of the Grateful Dead on the almost eponymous 'Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There', while 'Govinda' and 'Tattva' both feature lyrics in Sanskrit. The band draw these disparate threads together to create a sound of their own.
Stand out tracks: 'Hey Dude', 'Govinda', 'Smart Dogs', 'Magic Theatre', 'Into The Deep', 'Tattva', 'Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There', '303', 'Start All Over', 'Hollow Man, Part 1 & 2'

Books

Red Dwarf: Backwards by Rob Grant
When Grant Naylor went their separate ways they each wrote novels set after the events of their second novel together. Described pretty accurately by Grant as "the world's first reverse whodunit space opera western dealing definitively with the concept of post-destination". While it revisits elements of the episodes Backwards, Dimension Jump and Gunmen Of The Apocalypse the fourth Red Dwarf novel is far more than a mere novelisation and is much darker than its predecessors.

Feet Of Clay by Terry Pratchett
The nineteenth Discworld novel pits the City Watch of Ankh Morpork against an army of Golems. The novel asks questions of free will and slavery, but is still very, very funny, and gives the Disc's Grim Reaper the fantastic line: "I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. I TURN UP ONLY ONCE."

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
The Discworld's equivalent of Christmas is nearly cancelled in the twentieth novel as the Hogfather goes AWOL and Death steps into the breach. Pratchett expertly dissects Christmas traditions and their motivations with very funny results.




Comics

Doctor Who: Endgame 1-3
The first three parts of Endgame, the Eighth Doctor's first comic strip in DWM, see him returning to Stockbridge, home of strips gone by, reunited with Maxwell Edison and faced with the Celestial Toymaker. All of which are well handled and cement him into the comic. It's obvious that Izzy is brilliant companion material and each of the cliffhangers is impressive, but it's the game of hangman sequence that is most terrifying.

Ghost World: A Smile And A Ribbon
The seventh chapter of Daniel Clowes' comic sees Enid and Rebecca take a trip down memory lane, argue and Josh comes between them and it takes this song to end the deadlock. The artwork is great, particularly of Enid's photographs and the panels set at night.



Recommendations welcome. Next Month: 1995

"Too Important To Let A Loose Cannon Rock The Boat"

So says Mayor Richard Wilkins III in Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Lovers Walk of 1998. The full quote is "This year is too important to let a loose cannon rock the boat…Loose cannon. Rock the boat. Now is that a mixed metaphor?…Boats did have cannons. And a loose one would cause it to rock…" (and to be perfectly honest he's really talking about the academic year 1998/1999, but I decided the quote was too good not to use it).

1998 was the year in which the Good Friday Agreement was negotiated in Belfast, both India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests, General Pinochet was placed under house arrest while visiting the UK, the first segment of the International Space Station was launched into orbit and nineteen countries outlawed human cloning.

This was the year in which my school neglected to stage a play, which was probably a good thing since it was also the year that I took my GCSEs and started at sixth form.

These are a few of my favourite things from 1998:

Film

Rushmore
Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams and Bill Murray are wonderful in this tale of a student who excels only in extra curricular activities. This is where many of the hallmarks of Wes Anderson's later films begin. Here's the trailer.

Happiness
Not a film about happiness, but its absence. Todd Solondz's cast of characters are all searching individually for an elusive something to make them happy. Those that get what they want are still just as unhappy. Here's the trailer.

Celebrity
Full of characters that contradict themselves in the same breath with the role traditionally played by Woody Allen divided between Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis as a husband and wife with mostly neuroses in common, caught up in a quest for fame and an assumption that the grass is always greener.

The Big Lebowski
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buschemi, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman are fantastic in this brilliant slacker comedy with a witty and intelligent script full of twist and turns, a great soundtrack, a hilarious dream sequence and wonderful characters. Here's the trailer.

Antz
Successfully incorporating great visual gags, Marxist theory and all the hallmarks of a Woody Allen film, this is a very funny animated film. Here's the trailer.

π
Darren Aronofsky's directorial debut is a brilliant psychological thriller. The all-consuming search for a mathematical pattern within the Kabbalah and the effect it has on Max are surprisingly compelling as conspiracy theories give way to body horror and desperation. Sean Gullette and Mark Margolis are fantastic. Here's the trailer.

Run Lola Run
Franke Potente is fantastic in this quirky and stylish German film. Here's the trailer.

Velvet Goldmine
Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale and Toni Collette are great in this sprawling ode to glam rock. The film takes the form of a biopic of a Ziggy Stardust-style figure told with the structure of Citizen Kane and a phenomenal (if Bowieless) soundtrack (including peerless track The Whole Shebang by Grant Lee Buffalo). Here's the trailer.

TV
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Bad Eggs; Surprise & Innocence; Phases; Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered; Passion; Killed By Death; I Only Have Eyes For You; Go Fish; Becoming; Anne; Dead Man's Party; Faith, Hope & Trick; Beauty And The Beasts; Homecoming; Band Candy; Revelations; Lovers Walk; The Wish; Amends
The second season continues with Bad Eggs which is easily dismissed as Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers with added egg jokes, but they're very good egg jokes and the conviction of everyone involved raises it above dismissal. As the series mythology develops, the use of horror as a metaphor becomes more intricate and as Buffy and Angel consummate their relationship in Surprise, the consequences become apparent in Innocence as Angel is released from his curse and becomes the Big Bad. These episodes shake just about every relationship on the show, from the tenderness of Willow and Oz, Willow feeling betrayed by Xander, Cordy's embarrassment of Xander, Giles' mistrust of Jenny and Spike's jealousy of Angel. The show just keeps getting better and better and in retrospect these two episodes are the foundation on which the rest of Buffy and Angel were built. Phases is fantastic and Seth Green is awesome in what looks like an audition for Oz to become a regular. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered is another great Xander comedy episode, but also another example of Buffy taking an idea and doing it better than anybody else. Passion is a stunning piece of television from David Boreanaz's opening monologue that makes Angel's sadism real to Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan's excellent portrayals of grief. Killed By Death is a change of pace, but it's interesting to see Buffy weakened by something as universal as the flu and the episode uses Cordelia really well. Gellar and Boreanaz are fantastic in I Only Have Eyes For You which is possibly the best ghost story ever made. Go Fish is Buffy at its most monster-of-the-week, but the scenes of Willow interrogating Jonathan, Cordelia's promises to the fishman she believes is Xander and absolutely everything Snyder does are all hilarious. The two-part season finale Becoming is a game of two halves, the flashbacks of the first part make the story feel bigger in scope and the second part draws together the threads of the season and brings out the best in everyone and the ending is heartbreaking.
The third season begins by showing us where Buffy ran away to and her life as Anne in Los Angeles meanwhile the scenes of the now-Buffyless Scooby Gang slaying in her absence are great, the really long first-day-of-school tracking shot is very impressive, Joyce's speech about blaming Giles is terrific and Buffy's Gandhi impression is a nice little non sequitur. Dead Man's Party is a nice little zombie story and Oz drawing the distinctions between gatherings, shindigs or hootenannies, Nancy Lenahan, Giles threatening Snyder and Buffy and Willow insulting each other in the last scene are all great. Two out of three ain't bad as Eliza Dushku and K. Todd Freeman are great as Faith, Hope & Trick introduces Faith, Hope and Trick and it sets the scene for the rest of the season. Beauty And The Beasts looks like it'll be another Oz-centric episode but instead it is Buffy's Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde homage with the twist that Pete is an abusive boyfriend in both his forms, Green makes Oz's dilemma real, Phill Lewis is great as Mr Platt and Buffy's secret discovery that Angel is back is well handled. Contrasting Buffy and Cordelia's fight to be Homecoming queen with Mr Trick's SlayerFest '98 in a great episode, Harry Groener is fantastic and instantly likable as the Mayor, the Xander and Willow formal wear scene, the funniest use of a spatula ever on television and a great ending and so begins an unparalleled run of episodes. Head, Sutherland and Shimerman are all great as Band Candy-regressed teenage versions of their characters and this episode manages to be both a very funny standalone comedy episode and keeps the various storylines with the Mayor, Buffy keeping Angel secret and Xander and Willow's rekindling romance ticking along expertly. In Revelations, Buffy's secret is out and the gang's intervention scene is great, Xander and Willow's secret is and the driving of the wedge between Faith and the gang starts here. Spike is back with a bang in Lovers Walk and his scenes with Willow are shocking and with Joyce are hilarious, the funeral ending is fantastic, the closing montage is heartbreaking and brilliantly undercut Spike's way. 'What if' scenarios and parallel universes are commonplace in SF TV, but when Cordelia makes The Wish that the slayer never arrived in Sunnydale, Buffy proves that it even has a fresh perspective here: Mark Metcalf is fantastic as a Master whose Harvest was successful, vamped Xander and Willow are a shocking sight and an amazing final fight in an episode that moves from a Cordy comedy to operatic tragedy. Amends is Buffy's Christmas episode, the reconciliation of Willow and Oz is beautiful, The First Evil is a great concept and the Christmas miracle ending is as unashamedly sentimental as every other Christmas episode, but possibly unique because the right to be sentimental is so well earned.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Waltz; Who Mourns For Morn?; Far Beyond The Stars; One Little Ship; Honor Among Thieves; Change Of Heart; Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night; Inquisition; In The Pale Moonlight; His Way; The Reckoning; The Sound Of Her Voice; Tears Of The Prophets; Image In The Sand & Shadows And Symbols; Afterimage; Take Me Out To The Holosuite; Chrysalis; Treachery, Faith, And The Great River; Once More Unto The Breach; The Siege Of AR-558; Covenant; It's Only A Paper Moon
The sixth season continues with a Waltz between Sisko and Dukat, Marc Alaimo is great as a man who has lost his sanity, but not his ego. It's a credit to DS9 that an episode focussed on a supporting artist with no dialogue can be as good as Who Mourns For Morn? The episode is a very enjoyable treasure hunt, Morn's memorial is very touching and his co-conspirators are all great. Far Beyond The Stars is one of the best episodes of any television series…ever, Avery Brooks is phenomenal, the fifties period detail is fantastic and the rest of the cast clearly relish playing their other roles. One Little Ship is ludicrous, but unashamedly so. O'Brien goes undercover and discovers Honor Among Thieves in the sort of murky episode that none of the other Star Treks could do justice to. Husband and wife team Worf and Jadzia go on a mission in Change Of Heart and Terry Farrell is fantastic. Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night has both a great moral ambiguity to it and an emotional intensity, Nana Visitor is as wonderful as ever and Wayne Grace steals is scenes as the Cardassian Legate undermining Dukat. Bashir undergoes an Inquisition, William Sadler is fantastic as Sloan and the concept of Section 31, an organisation that betrays the principles of the Federation in order to protect it, is a brilliant one that would clearly have appalled Gene Roddenberry, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a theme that pervades the next episode as well, In The Pale Moonlight, as Sisko proves that every man has his price as he constructs a complex lie in order to bring a new ally into the war for the greater good, Brooks is phenomenal as the Captain struggles with his morality and the resulting episode is probably Star Trek at its darkest, but also at its best. Odo woos Kira His Way in a very touching fashion, James Darren's Vic Fontaine is great addition to the show and Visitor's performance of 'Fever' is astonishing. The battle between the Prophets and the Pah-Wraiths is fought in The Reckoning and mixes the epic and the personal to great effect. Lisa Cusak is great as a stranded Captain whom the Defiant's crew try to rescue, but know only by The Sound Of Her Voice in what is essentially a Star Trek radio drama and O'Brien's eulogy is wonderful. The season finale, Tears Of The Prophets, is epic: the space battle is fantastic, Dukat's Pah-Wraith possession, the darkened Orbs and wormhole's disappearance are suitably sinister and mysterious, the episode also proves that death is what happens when you are making other plans and once again the symbolism of Sisko's baseball is brilliant.
The seventh season begins in a quieter fashion than its predecessors with Image In The Sand, which sees the various factions involved in the war posturing while Sisko searches for a purpose. Ezri Dax is a perfect contrast to Jadzia and Nicole de Boer is fantastic. Shadows And Symbols sees Sisko's quest digging for buried treasure provoke the Pah Wraiths, but it's great to see Benny Russell back and the revelation about Sisko's parentage is intriguing and just the right side of Christlike. Afterimage concerns Ezri's struggle to settle back into life on DS9 and shows how her relationships with Jadzia's friends have altered and Andrew J. Robinson is as great as ever as Garak. I know absolutely nothing about baseball and still quite enjoyed Take Me Out To The Holosuite which has to be a good sign. Bashir helps Sarina emerge from her Chrysalis and oversteps the mark, but it's good to see the return of the genetically engineered savants. Jeffrey Combs is always fantastic as Weyoun, but outdoes himself as two distinct clones of the Vorta in Treachery, Faith, And The Great River and Aron Eisenberg is great as Nog navigates the twists and turns of the Great Material Continuum. It's Once More Unto The Breach for Kor and John Colicos' portrayal of his delusions is wonderful, and J.G. Hertzler puts in another great performance. The troops on AR-558 are under siege and under attack, each of the characters has a fascinating personal reaction to the warfare and Armin Shimerman's of Quark's "creature comforts" speech is perfect. The Siege Of AR-558 is Star Trek at its bleakest and this episode was vital in making the Dominion War matter. Covenant reasserts Dukat as both a villain and a believer, his spin on the parentage of Mika's baby and his speech blaming his followers as he is unmasked as a traitor are brilliant. Deep Space Nine's supporting cast has always been great, but the fact that It's Only A Paper Moon concentrates on Nog and Vic almost to the exclusion of everyone else is testament to the faith that the show put in Aron Eisenberg and James Darren. They do not disappoint.

Star Trek: Voyager: Message In A Bottle; Hunters; Prey; The Killing Game; Vis à Vis; The Omega Directive; Living Witness; One; Hope And Fear; Drone; Timeless; Infinite Regress; Thirty Days; Counterpoint
The highlights of the latter half of Star Trek: Voyager's fourth season include Message In A Bottle in which Robert Picardo and Andy Dick are a hilarious double act. The Hirogen Hunters make for a fascinating alien culture that arrives fully formed and are successfully very intimidating. The threat of the Hirogen is cemented as they track a member of Species 8472 as Prey to Voyager, the CGI of it walking on the ship's hull is incredible and Seven's conflict of interests is a great source of friction here. The two-parter The Killing Game uses the Holodeck and all the hallmarks of a World War II movie to give the Hirogen added depth and features great moments for each of the regular characters. Robert Duncan McNeill and Dan Butler are great in bodyswapping episode Vis à Vis. Janeway attempts to uphold The Omega Directive in a great conspiracy episode and finds herself in confrontation with Seven in some great scenes that take in lines that science shouldn't cross and concepts of religion. The Doctor finds himself in an inaccurate recreation of events that paints Voyager in a very bad light and asks the question of whether history is written by the victors or the victims, his reinterpretation asks questions of truth itself and has far reaching consequences for an entire society: Living Witness is phenomenal. Ryan portrays Seven's sense of isolation brilliantly in the eerie and claustrophobic One. Mulgrew, Ryan and Ray Wise give wonderful performances as the ramifications the events of the last season come back to haunt Janeway in the excellent season finale Hope And Fear which seems both more and less plausible than most of the 'short cut home' episodes and with good reason.
The fifth season's highlights include Drone, an interesting twist on a euthanasia allegory which features great performances from Ryan and J. Paul Boehmer. Timeless is flawless: the visual effects are wonderful and Garrett Wang's performance as the future Kim is wonderful. Once again Ryan is fantastic in Infinite Regress as Seven suffers from a version of multiple personality disorder. McNeill's great central performance, the flashback story structure and the environmental issue under discussion gives Thirty Days a real edge. Mulgrew is wonderful in Counterpoint's great tale of sleeping with the enemy.

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: UFOs, Porn, Survivalists, Weird Christmas
Louis looks into American subcultures one at a time. He meets members of a community following UFOs, but discovers far more variety in humanity, there are enthusiasts, academics, witnesses, self-appointed ambassadors, exploiters, tour guides and the inhabitants of Rachel, Nevada and their infighting. He attempts to make it in the Porn industry and the results are darker than usual as they range from heartbreaking to terrifying following new boy JJ Michaels' first steps, failed HIV tests and waiting for wood. The variety returns in his investigation of the movement of Survivalists in the American North West living in covenant communities, white separatists, a man living in straw bale house in freezing conditions, a very surprising fan of Are You Being Served? and the absolute star of the show is Mike who lives underground like a hobbit. Weird Christmas sees Louis spend the holidays with four of his former subjects and it's a joy to see Louis, JJ Michaels and Mike getting on so well.

Father Ted: Are You Right There Father Ted?; Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep; Speed 3; The Mainland; Escape From Victory; Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse; Night Of The Nearly Dead; Going To America
The Craggy Islanders return for a third series with Are You Right There Father Ted? and it's firing on all cylinders, highlights include: Habit-Hat, the perfectly square bit of dirt on the window, Nazis, "I hear you're a racist now", Dougal's hamster, Mrs Doyle's cure, Ted's sideshow and Jack's agoraphobia. Ted's Columbo moment and the various descriptions of 'the beast' in Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep are brilliant. Speed 3 is quite simply the finest action movie set on a milk float and is better that both of its big screen predecessors put together. They brave a visit to The Mainland, Richard Wilson and Graham Norton are wonderful. Escape From Victory is nice football episode and Dougal's puppetry of Ted's fake hands is hilarious. Jim Norton is fantastic as the football forfeit leads to Ted Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse. Zombie film and Daniel O'Donnell parody all rolled into one Night Of The Nearly Dead and Patrick McDonnell is very funny as Eoin McLove. In the final episode Ted believes he's Going To America and the point-of-view shots that prevent him from telling Dougal, Mrs Doyle and Jack the truth, while Tommy Tiernan is fantastic as depressed Father Kevin. Dermot Morgan, Ardal O'Hanlon, Frank Kelly and Pauline McLynn are fantastic throughout.

Music

Pulp: This Is Hardcore
Those expecting the band's sixth album to be Different Class II may be surprised as anthems mostly give way to songs about getting everything you ever wanted and discovering it wasn't worth the effort. Opener 'The Fear' sets the tone spectacularly, the title track is a masterpiece and tracks like 'Dishes', 'Seductive Barry' and 'Glory Days' show that every one could have been a fantastic single. Lyrically and musically the album is an absolute triumph.
Stand Out Tracks: 'The Fear', 'Dishes', 'Help The Aged', 'This Is Hardcore', 'TV Movie', 'A Little Soul', 'I'm A Man', 'Seductive Barry', 'Sylvia', 'Glory Days', 'The Day After The Revolution'

Eels: Electro-Shock Blues
Inspired by the deaths of E's family and friends, the band's second album was more dificult than most. It is the sound of grief at its most tender. The lyrics are almost mostly about loss and tragedy, set to beautiful music. This album is spectacular.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Elizabeth On The Bathroom Floor', 'Going To Your Funeral, Part 1', 'Cancer For Your Cure', 'My Descent Into Madness', '3 Speed', 'Hospital Food', 'Electro-Shock Blues', 'Efil's God', 'Last Stop: This Town', 'Climbing To The Moon', 'Dead Of Winter', 'The Medication Is Wearing Off', 'P.S. You Rock My World'

Gomez: Bring It On
The debut album from Gomez is a fantastic slice of blues rock and sounds like it should have come straight out of the American deep south, not the UK's Southport.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Get Miles', ' Whippin' Piccadilly', '78 Stone Wobble', 'Tijuana Lady', 'Here Comes The Breeze', 'Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone', 'Get Myself Arrested', 'Bubble Gum Years'

The Supernaturals: A Tune A Day
The band's second album is fun and playful even when it's being morose.
Stand Out Tracks: 'You Take Yourself Too Seriously', 'Monday Morning', 'Submarine Song', 'I Wasn't Built To Get Up', 'Country Music', 'Motorcycle Parts', 'Sheffield Song', 'VW Song', 'Idiot', 'Magnet', 'Still Got That Feelin', 'It Doesn't Matter Any More', 'Everest'

Books

The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
The twenty-second Discworld novel sends Rincewind to EcksEcksEcksEcks, the Disc's allegory for Australia and the results are very, very funny. Crammed full of references to (and at jokes at the expense of) the likes of Antipodean culture, Mad Max, Crocodile Dundee and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
On one level the next Discworld novel is Lancre versus Überwald and Vampires versus witches, but its so much more as well. It's full of ethical dilemmas, common sense wisdom and pastiche of Vampires in literature and films. Carpe Jugulum means "Seize The Throat" in Ankh Morpork's dead language Latatian and the narrative does just that, but more importantly it does it with style.

Comics
Doctor Who: Tooth And Claw 4; The Final Chapter; Wormwood; Happy Deathday
The last part of Tooth And Claw sees an infected vampiric Doctor defeat the Cucurbite but apparently at the cost of his own life and Izzy and Fey return him to Gallifrey. Once there he is saved by Shayde and encounters The Final Chapter in a surreal dream within the matrix that references several elements of past strips that culminates in the boldest of cliffhangers as the Eighth Doctor regenerates into a Ninth (but not that Ninth). The new TARDIS crew visit Wormwood, in a strip that brings a complex story arc to a close with the Threshold running an old western town on the moon, outer space ceases to exist, Fey and Shayde becoming 'Feyde', Izzy with Ace's baseball bat and a Doctor that isn't a Doctor: the Eighth Doctor's return is glorious. The strip celebrates Doctor Who's thirty-fifth anniversary with Happy Deathday, Roger Langridge's caricatures of eight Doctors and hundreds of monsters are wonderful, while the dialogue between the pairs of Doctors is great.

Recommendations welcome.

Let's All Meet Up In The Year 2000

A lyric from Pulp's 'Disco 2000' it continues "Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown?"

The last year of the twentieth century & George Bush is elected President of the USA, unless you count Florida. And they didn't.

I was supposed to be working hard on my A-Levels, but if I'm honest I spent more time on Oklahoma, Habeas Corpus and A Doll's House.

These are a few of my favourite things from 2000:

Film
Small Time Crooks
Woody Allen's crime caper is great fun with wonderful performances from Tracey Ullman, Elaine May and Brian Markinson. Here's the trailer.






Best In Show
Christopher Guest's wonderful mockumentary takes on dog shows. The cast are uniformly fantastic with Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, John Michael Higgins, Michael McKean, Michael Hitchcock, Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard and Ed Begley, Jr. all giving excellent performances. Here's the trailer.

O Brother, Where Are Thou?
Based on Homer’s Odyssey, the Coen brothers inspired depression road movie sends a fantastic trio in the form of George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson on a riotous ride as it mixes comedy, adventure and some great music. Here's the trailer.



Dancer In The Dark
This film is often described as having an implausible plot. It is a musical folks, and since when have expected plausibility from our musicals? This particular musical wears its implausibility like a hard won badge of honour. Apparently loved and loathed in equal measure, which is an achievement in itself. I couldn't care less about the Dogme manifesto, but Björk gives an astonishing performance in the lead role and that alone is worth your attention. Here's the trailer.

High Fidelity
Breaking up is hard to do in this adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel. John Cusack, Jack Black, Todd Luiso and Joan Cusack are all wonderful. Rob’s Top 5's speak to the geek within, but they also set the tone: can you enjoy life whilst always reviewing it? A question close to my own heart and to which the answer eludes me. The variations on the "So shall we leave at that, then?" scene are fantastic and the music is great throughout. Here's the trailer.

TV
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Doomed; A New Man; The I In Team & Goodbye Iowa; This Year's Girl & Who Are You?; Superstar; Where The Wild Things Are; New Moon Rising; The Yoko Factor & Primeval; Restless; Buffy Versus Dracula; Real Me; The Replacement; Out Of My Mind; No Place Like Home; Family; Fool For Love; Shadow; Listening To Fear; Into The Woods
The rules have changed in Sunnydale with the arrival of The Initiative, the chip in Spike's head and the discovery by Buffy and Riley of each other's secret identities. Despite averting another apocalypse, Doomed is not a big episode full of revelations, but instead one about clarification. The nitty gritty of these new elements is explored. Giles has been marginalised for much of this season and instead of just sulking A New Man gives us some comedy hi-jinx. A brace of two-parters changes everything, again. Buffy joins up with The Initiative in The I In Team which confirms Maggie Walsh as absolutely and definitely this season's Big Bad until the last scene. With Maggie gone, Riley's loyalties uncertain and Adam on the loose, Goodbye Iowa gives us a view of how the rest of the season is going to pan out. All of which is put on hold by the welcome return of Faith in This Year's Girl and her bodyswapping with Buffy in Who Are You? Both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku are wonderful as each other's characters. Superstar is fantastic and really shows the versatility of the show. Where The Wild Things Are shows the strength of the ensemble, Buffy and Riley may be the stimulus but it is the rest of the Scooby Gang that carry and resolve the story. Oz returns in New Moon Rising to discover how much the show has change d in his absence and that he no longer fits. He will be missed. The big showdown occurs in The Yoko Factor & Primeval as Adam gets his comeuppance in spectacular style whilst capitalising on the themes of separation that have run through this season. Having dealt with the Big Bad an episode earlier than usual, season four ends with the more introspective Restless concerning the fall out from the spell that invoked the first of the Slayers and shows that no one does dreams better than Joss Whedon.
In principal, season five opener Buffy Versus Dracula sounds like a terrible idea and yet once again this show make s it work spectacularly. The episode also introduces Buffy's little sister Dawn as if she's always been around, and Real Me is another mission statement episode establishing her relationships with each of the rest of the Scooby Gang. Xander is duplicated in The Replacement and Nicholas Brendon proves that double the Xander is double the funny. After three largely standalone episodes Out Of My Mind is the soapiest yet and sets Joyce, Riley and Spike off on their paths for the rest of the season. No Place Like Home introduces Glory and reveal s Dawn's origins as The Key. Tara is thrust into centre stage in Family and Amber Benson is wonderful. Told largely in flashback, Fool For Love details Spike's earlier run-ins with previous Slayers features a great performance from James Marsters and is beautifully shot. Things get serious in Shadow with Joyce discovering that she has a brain tumour, Riley going in for some recreational Vampire activity and Glory sending a big snake after The Key whatever it may be. Listening To Fear sees Riley reaching out to the remnants of The Initiative, but Kristine Sutherland and Tiny Jewish Santa are the real highlights. Into The Woods sees the remnants of The Initiative reaching out to Riley, but it's Brendon's performance that stands out again.

Angel: Somnambulist; Expecting; She; I've Got You Under My Skin; The Prodigal; The Ring; Eternity; Five By Five & Sanctuary; War Zone; Blind Date; To Shanshu In LA; Judgment; Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?; First Impressions; Untouched; Dear Boy; Guise Will Be Guise; Darla; The Shroud Of Rahmon; The Trial; Reunion
Angel Investigations return to help the hopeless with Somnambulist, the most 'cop show' episode of the series which is chock full of 'detecting' montage and ends Kate Lockley's ignorance of the supernatural. The overnight pregnancy episode is usually a bad idea, but when Cordy is Expecting the result is far more touching. Allegories of female genital mutilation are not common on television and She redresses the balance whilst also giving Alexis Denisof some spectacular pratfalling opportunities. I've Got You Under My Skin is a great example of episode that puts its own spin on a classic horror trope of demonic possession and makes it the lesser of two evils. The parallel narrative of The Prodigal draws comparisons between Angel and Kate's relationship with their respective fathers. Angel's 'birth' and John Mahon's conflicted performance are particularly well done. The Ring is a gladiatorial fight to the death episode, but as usual one that is far better than the competition. Briefly bringing back curseless Angel, Eternity has its cake and eats it. After wreaking havoc in Sunnydale, Faith arrives in Five By Five & Sanctuary on the run and moves quickly from hired assassin to torturer to victim in a two-parter that features wonderful performances from Denisof, David Boreanaz and Eliza Dushku, marks the first time Wolfram & Hart goes on the offensive and more importantly is when Angel really steps out of Buffy's shadow. J. August Richards makes an impressive debut as Gunn in War Zone. Christian Kane's Lindsay has a crisis of confidence in Blind Date and ultimately decides redemption isn't for him, which sets the tone for the Wolfram & Hart episodes to come. The first season finale, To Shanshu In LA, is epic and yet touching, with a surprising cliffhanger ending.
The second season opens with Judgment in which Angel accidentally kills one of the good guys and can't seem to do anything right, but more importantly the late Andy Hallett is wonderful in his first episode as the Host, a character whose juxtaposition of attributes encapsulates Angel as a TV show better than any other. Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been? is a fantastic fifties piece which taps into some good ol’ McCarthyist paranoia. First Impressions brings Gunn further into the fold and gives the new selfless Cordelia a mission. Untouched sees one of Wolfram & Hart’s plans go awry, but only after showing that they are the lesser of the two evils in Bethany's life. The law firm's plot concerning Angel and Darla becomes both clearer and more confusing in Dear Boy. Denisof and Art LaFleur are excellent in the equally excellently named Guise Will Be Guise. What Buffy's Fool For Love (above) was for Spike, so Darla is for…well for Darla. Her history is beautifully told with prodigious amounts of flashback often showing the same scenes as Spike's episode, but from her perspective. The Shroud Of Rahmon is a heist, but it's Denisof and Charisma Carpenter that provide the highlights. Angel undergoes The Trial to save Darla and it's tempting to wonder why he bothers. The last scene is great. Darla and Drusilla's Reunion leads to a massacre worth cheering and then the most-shocking episode ending in the entire series.

Star Trek: Voyager: Blink Of An Eye; Tsunkatse; Live Fast And Prosper; Muse; Fury; Life Line; Unimatrix Zero; Critical Care; Inside Man; Body And Soul; Flesh And Blood
The crew of the USS Voyager watch generations pass on a planet in the Blink Of An Eye in lovely slice of hard SF. Jeri Ryan, J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs all put in great performances that make Tsunkatse better than yet another-gladiatorial-fight-to-the-death episode has any right to be. Live Fast And Prosper is very enjoyable, punctures Star Trek's pomposity beautifully and the enjoyment of Gregg Daniels character at playing a Vulcan is very funny. B'Elanna find herself as a playwright's Muse and the Greek-chorus plays she inspires are a great device. Kes returns in Fury and Jennifer Lien is wonderful as her bitter older self. Robert Picardo pulls double duty in Life Line and the results are fantastic. In the sixth season finale, Seven visits Unimatrix Zero, the shared virtual world in the subconscious mind of the Borg is a fascinating notion.
The cliffhanger is a massive cheat and robs the Borg of most of their menace, but Part II is saved by wonderful performances from Tim Russ and Susanna Thompson. The Doctor is kidnapped and put to work in Critical Care is another allegorical episode which is a damning indictment of the US health system. Inside Man sees another great appearance by Dwight Schultz as Barclay and also as his ultraconfident holographic alter ego Reg. Ryan's performance as the Doctor inhabiting Seven's Body And Soul is uncanny and very, very funny. The return of the Hirogen and their holographic prey in the TV Movie Flesh And Blood makes comparisons with slavery. The ever reliable Picardo and Roxann Dawson help prevent this episode being too simplistic and reassuringly the self-appointed holographic messiah Iden is a more complex character than he first appears.

Futurama: Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?; The Lesser Of Two Evils; Put Your Head On My Shoulder; Raging Bender; A Bicyclops Built For Two; A Clone Of My Own; How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back; The Deep South; Bender Gets Made; Mother's Day; The Problem With Popplers; Anthology Of Interest I; War Is The H-Word; The Honking; The Cryonic Woman
The first episode to centre on Dr. Zoidberg is Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love? as the Planet Express crew visit his homeworld for what is essentially a great remake of Star Trek's Amok Time with lobsters. Put Your Head On My Shoulder is a great Valentines episode. The Lesser Of Two Evils introduces Bender's 'twin' Flexo which breeds mistrust aboard the Planet Express ship and leads to excessive searching of Leela's underwear drawer, Bender's "little thing called style" and features the great line "No one in New York drove, there was too much traffic." Raging Bender sees Bender become a professional wrestler, but the scenes of Hermes with a brainslug and the foreigner with his "crazy passport" are the highlights. The scenes in A Bicyclops Built For Two set inside the internet and video game are fantastic. How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back is fantastic. The scenes of Hermes 'holiday' and the Bureaucrat song are wonderful. A Clone Of My Own is a wonderful Farnsworth episode which introduces Cubert and features young people using curse words to great effect. The Deep South is a nice diversion as a visit to lost city of Atlanta with a wonderful exposition-covering Chamber of Commerce video narrated by folk-rock troubadour Donovan. Bender Gets Made introduces the Robot Mafia and features the line: "Those are the finest cigars in the universe. I can stink up a whole maternity ward with one of those things". The hilarious The Problem With Popplers owes more than a little to Star Trek's The Trouble With Tribbles and features another brilliant song. Mother's Day concerns mankind's over reliance on technology, the re-invention of the wheel and features possibly the only geriatric supercentarian seduction in animation. The four 'what if' scenarios of Anthology Of Interest I are all great. The Honking is a wonderful mix of werewolf and horror car movie jokes with a great plot twist. On first glance War Is The H-Word is a hybrid of references to M*A*S*H and just about every other war movie, but it also contains a plethora of ball-based gags, a government sponsored suicide bomber and an interesting commentary on homosexuals serving in the armed forces. The Cryonic Woman is a measure of just how well Fry has fitted into 31st century life and how grateful we should be that the series isn't about his on-again-off-again girlfriend of the past thousand years, Michelle.

Marion And Geoff
Each of Rob Brydon's ten minute monologues as recently-separated minicab driver Keith Barrett is a tour de bloody force.

The League Of Gentlemen: Destination: Royston Vasey; Lust For Royston Vasey; A Plague On Royston Vasey; Death In Royston Vasey; Anarchy In Royston Vasey; Royston Vasey And The Monster From Hell; the Christmas Special
More special stuff from The League Of Gentlemen. The nosebleeds storyline of the second series is a far more integral element than the new road was of the first. Papa Lazarou and his circus arrive at Destination: Royston Vasey and find it even stranger than he is. Herr Lipp shares his Lust For Royston Vasey. Pauline lays siege to the Jobcentre and nosebleeds reach epidemic proportions in A Plague On Royston Vasey. Tubbs and Edward begin searching for a no-tail for their son David and find more than they bargained for in Death In Royston Vasey. The town is quarantined causing Anarchy In Royston Vasey, Pauline's siege peters out and the episode has an incredibly bleak ending even for The League Of Gentlemen. It all comes to a head in Royston Vasey And The Monster From Hell with a shotgun wedding and an angry mob, ironically despite their many crimes Tubbs and Edward are innocent of these particular accusations. The unnamed Christmas Special is a great portmanteau tale with a framing story featuring Bernice hearing confessions of sorts on Christmas Eve, with very funny stories for Charlie and Stella, Herr Lipp and Chinnery's grandfather, and setting the tone for the third series.

Farscape: Nerve; The Hidden Memory; The Way We Weren't; Look At The Princess; Won't Get Fooled Again; The Locket; The Ugly Truth, A Clockwork Nebari
This is where Farscape really takes off. Outer space vies for attention with inner. Gigi Edgley is a welcome addition to the cast and Wayne Pygram is fantastic as Scorpius (and Harvey). The Look At The Princess trilogy which begins to show the scope of what Farscape could achieve. Won't Get Fooled Again is a human reaction to A Human Reaction, an epic love story in The Locket, a courtroom drama with subjective testimony in The Ugly Truth and A Clockwork Nebari probably contains the single-most shocking image shown on television ever.

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Hypnosis; South Africa; Gangsta Rap
Louis Theroux turns his focus on some more subcultures. He investigates the world of Hypnosis and with the likes of Marshall Sylver and Ross Jeffries employing it in such cynical ways the results are scary mix of comic and heartbreaking. Louis visits post-Apartheid South Africa and interviews Eugène Terra'Blanche and various other members of white Afrikaner separatist communities and finds a surprising variety between them. Louis investigates the porn, the pimping and the pessimistic promotion of Gangsta Rap, each of which seems worse than its predecessor. The individuals that he meets are fascinating: Mello-T spends more time on his extra-curricular activities, Wild Wayne is a great rap ambassador, Master P's definition of "keeping it real" does him credit, Reece and Bigalow are very endearing lyricists and Theroux's rapping is more impressive than you would expect.

Human Remains: An English Squeak; Slither In; All Over My Glasses; Straight As A Flute; Hairless; More Than Happy
Rob Brydon and Julia Davies are fantastic in each of these six bleakly comic episodes of a mockumentary sitcom that each focus on a different relationship. An English Squeak presents the audience with the aristocratic Flick and Peter living in the shadow of Flick's dead fiancé and a medical condition that prevents their intimacy, but only when her husband is in the room. Slither In provides the least dysfunctional couple in the series with swingers Gordon and Sheila, both keen to talk about their proclivities despite exes, naysayers and a sister in a coma. Steven and Michelle take the next step from their bullying relationship with a "Lady Diane" inspired wedding, the wedding dress shop scene, the ABC of bands game and Spiel, Spindalero and Sausages: All Over My Glasses might just be the funniest half hour of television comedy ever made. Christians and curly sausage casseroles abound in Straight As A Flute, but it's Beverly and Tony's assessment of their neighbours and aubergine hair dye that makes this episode. In Hairless, Fonte and Barne are musicians whose creative output is odd, Fonte has no problem describing the songs of Alanis Morrisette as her own work: "All I’m taking is the lyrics and the tune, that's all I'm taking from Alanis", while Barne reads too much into the psychology of his own compositions. Les and Ray run an increasingly eclectic Brighton boutique in More Than Happy and their tragic history is revealed slowly and the timing as they talk over and contradict one another is perfect, plus the episode features the best wig ever seen on TV.

Black Books: Cooking The Books; Manny's First Day; Grapes Of Wrath; The Blackout; The Big Lock-Out
The first series of the bookshop-based sitcom sets up its three main characters with skill and Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Grieg are wonderful throughout. Cooking The Books isn't just a fantastic first episode, it's a fantastic episode full stop: the customer with the leather fetish, "and the plug went in some Tizer", Nick the fugitive accountant, Chunky soup, Martin Freeman's interrupted diagnosis, The Little Book Of Calm, the Christians who've never been indoors and Fran's gadget. It's Manny's First Day and he's already struggling to keep his job wrangling with the rules of the shop, the closed sign, Bernard's urinary multi-tasking and David Cann's customer. Grapes Of Wrath is a classic, with its descriptions of shop filth that are almost literary in and of themselves, Kevin Eldon's cleaner is excellent, the onscreen drinking tally and Frankenstein's vineyard are hilarious. The Blackout gives each of the characters their own storyline with great success and Bernard's dinner party faux pas are very, very funny. This divide-and-conquer strategy continues very successfully with The Big Lock-Out which features the funniest use of a Subutteo player in British television…

Jam
Chris Morris creates the bleakest sketch comedy show ever made. Jam is a bold post-modern masterpiece with its particularly innovative uses of editing, grading and sound. Amelia Bullimore, David Cann, Julia Davis, Kevin Eldon and Mark Heap are all fantastic in their many and varied roles. Highlights across the six episodes include: the 4ft Noddycar, the poppadom fight, thick people winning arguments, all Cann's Doctor sketches, Martina's present, the plumber mending the baby, Mr Lizard, abortion coffins, Billy's parents at the Police press conference, the little hoover, Maria, acupuncture, the Lulch's estate agents, "And you should lock up", Ted's laissez faire parents, musical chairs and "Babies don’t cry!?"

Gormenghast
The phrase All-Star Cast is usually not as rewarding as it sounds, but Celia Imrie, John Sessions, Warren Mitchell, Ian Richardson, Neve McIntosh, June Brown, Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths, Eric Sykes, Windsor Davies, Stephen Fry, Steve Pemberton, Spike Milligan, Gregor Fisher, Cameron Powrie and Andrew N. Robertson are all fantastic in this luxuriant adaptation of the first two of Mervyn Peakes Gormenghast novels.

Now And Again
Twelve episodes of this brilliant series were broadcast in 2000, but I can't remember how this show ended and as it is shamefully unavailable on DVD I may never find out... It probably shouldn't be on this list, but I loved it so it is.

Music
Clinton: Disco And The Halfway To Discontent
The album by Cornershop's side project is a jaunty mix of the usual musical styles with an increased amount of dance flavour included.
Stand out tracks: 'People Power In The Disco Hour', 'Buttoned Down Disco', 'Electric Ice Cream (Miami Jammies)', 'Mr. President', 'Welcome To Tokyo, Otis Clay'

Eels: Daisies Of The Galaxy
The third album is a distinctly lighter affair than its immediate predecessor without bring overly sentimental. Full of simple, yet, beautiful symphonies and self-deprecatingly humorous lyrics.
Stand out tracks: 'Grace Kelly Blues', 'Packing Blankets', 'The Sound Of Fear', 'I Like Birds', 'Flyswatter', 'It's A Motherfucker', 'A Tiger In My Tank', 'A Daisy Through Concrete', 'Wooden Nickels', ' Mr E's Beautiful Blues'

Gomez: Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline
This collection of B-Sides, session tracks and live performances holds together better than most albums. The track selection shows Gomez in a more experimental light and shows the direction they would take with In Our Gun, while songs like 'Bring Your Lovin' Back Here' and 'Flavors' still have that distinctive Gomez sound. It may be controversial to admit it, but I prefer the cover of 'Getting Better' to the original...
Stand out tracks: 'Bring Your Lovin' Back Here', 'Hit On The Head', 'Flavors', '78 Stone Shuffle', 'Shitbag', 'Getting Better'

Lemonjelly: .KY
A compilation of three EPs released by the Electronica duo. Each track features eccentric samples beautifully surrounded by a musical landscape that ebbs and flows wonderfully. 'The Staunton Lick' is fantastic, one of the most accomplished composition ever to arrive in my shell-like.
Stand out tracks: 'In The Bath', 'A Tune For Jack', 'The Staunton Lick', 'Homage To Patagonia', 'Page One', 'Come'

Placebo: Black Market Music
Rockier and more consistent than either of the band's first two albums, Black Market Music is filled with lyrics that eschew the hedonism associated with Placebo and instead seek to question it.
Stand out tracks: 'Taste In Men', 'Days Before You Came', ' Special K', 'Spite & Malice', ' Black-Eyed', 'Blue American', 'Commercial For Levi', 'Narcoleptic', 'Peeping Tom'

Books
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The advent of movable type leads to the publication of the Discworld's first newspaper and with it investigative journalism. This novel is crammed full of references to the Watergate scandal and becomes a treatise on print media and the presentation of the news. As with many of Pratchett's works this book is oddly prescient and has remained topical in light of the News International phone hacking scandal.

A Local Book For Local People by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith
Taking the form of a scrapbook compiled by Tubbs, The League Of Gentlemen's book is horrific and beautiful all at the same time. The tone is set by the dustcover made of human skin and Tubb's naïve observations on the things she has found. Highlights include a tourist's guide to Royston Vasey, editions of the local newspaper, Attatchments dating profiles, a Stump Hole Caverns leaflet, a Look-In article about Crème Brulee, Henry & Ally's Video finder, Herr Lipp's tours, Legz Akimbo (especially Linda's bio), The Curse Of Karrit Poor (ahead of its appearance in the Christmas special, above), a page from "the book" from the charity shop sketches. Comedy tie-in books are rarely this good.

Never Trust A Rabbit by Jeremy Dyson
A thought-provoking collection of twisted and comic short stories.








Slow Down Arthur, Stick To Thirty by Harland Miller
With a title is inspired by a line of dialogue from The Man Who Fell To Earth, this coming of age story is very funny and deals with the horror of wasted potential wonderfully.




Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion by Terry Erdman with Paula M. Block
To say this book is an episode guide doesn't do it justice, this book is the most thorough reference work on this on any other television programme interviewing actors, writers, directors, producers and all manner of crew members, but to a level of depth that is probably unprecedented.

Comics
Doctor Who: The Glorious Dead
The ten-part story The Glorious Dead is epic is all right places, the representations of the Glory are intriguing, the reveal of the Doctor's bedfellow is impressive, the Doctorless chapter is fantastic, the trip through the Doctor's subconscious, the identity of Morningstar and the final twist all make for the best Master story ever.




Games
Escape From Monkey Island
Guybrush Threepwood and his wife Elaine return in the fourth game of the Monkey Island series and they are rendered in 3D graphics for the first time. Reunited with Herman Toothrot, the Voodoo Lady, Murray, Stan and LeChuck. This time around he searches islands old and new for the Ultimate Insult and his quest takes him into the murky world of politics and the bizarre arena of Monkey Kombat. Most importantly the sense of humour is the same as ever.

Recommendations welcome.