"Greed, Violence, Moral Corruption"

According to Star Trek: Enterprise's T'Pol those are "the worst qualities of this era", said during a visit to 2004 in Carpenter Street. To put it in context she says of Loomis, a particularly slimy character played by Leland Orser: "In one individual we've managed to find the worst qualities of this era: greed, violence, moral corruption."

2004 was the year that the European Union expanded to include ten more countries, Facebook was founded and a colossal earthquake caused a massive tsunami to hit southeast Asia on Boxing Day.

Whilst in my last term at university I was in and wrote for The Miracles Of Marta Manole. After I finished Uni, I began working a bookshop and trying to work out how to get into acting.

These are a few of my favourite things from 2004:

Film
Shaun Of The Dead
Posing the question: What would you do in Zombie apocalypse? The Pom Rom Zom Com from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg is very funny with a great script, a great cast and a great soundtrack. Here's the trailer.





Goodbye Lenin!
A great film about how the reunification of Germany affected the day-to-day life of everyone in East Berlin, except one. Here's the trailer.






The Incredibles
A supervillain draws a couple of superheroes come out of retirement and discovers to his cost that its become a family business. Not a spoof, nor a parody but a tribute to a genre that is far more realistic and well observed than most of the big-budget live-action superhero adaptations combined. Here's the trailer.


The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Bill Murray, Angelica Huston, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum are all wonderful in a film that features eclectic aquatic animation, incredible cross section sets and Seu Jorge singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese. Here's the trailer.




Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry's tale about memory is constantly changing, visually astounding and has great performances across the board. Here's the trailer.





The Village
M. Night Shyamalan's fantasy thriller was widely misunderstood on cinematic release and has been unfairly overlooked ever since. There are great performances across the board with a special mention for Bryce Dallas Howard. I don't mind admitting that the twist had me completely fooled, but by the time it comes the viewer is well and truly thinking like a villager.

The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers
Geoffrey Rush is fantastic as the man in search of a character to call his own in this biopic that pulls no punches. Featuring flawless representations of films from throughout Sellers' career and leaves you wanting to watch them all. Here's the trailer.

Blake's Junction 7
Awkwardness abounds as the scourge of the Terran Federation Avon and company bump into Blake and Servalan during a stop off at Newport Pagnell motorway service station. Great fun if you know Blake's 7 and great fun if you don't. Here's a trailer.



TV
Angel: Harm's Way; Soul Purpose; Damage; You're Welcome; Why We Fight; Smile Time; A Hole In The World; Shells; Underneath; Origin; Time Bomb; The Girl In Question; Power Play; Not Fade Away
Harm's Way begins with a hilarious Wolfram & Hart recruitment video, features a brilliant chopstick fight and it's about time Mercedes McNab got her dues. Soul Purpose is another great dream episode with Angel's hallucinations of his friends and Fred's autopsy and Spike single-handedly ending armageddon and turning the world into a beautiful, happily-ever-after-candy-mountain place where all our dreams come true are both wonderful. Tom Lenk fits in perfectly as Andrew in Damage and he's back to his storytelling best. The hundredth episode, You're Welcome, is a masterpiece. Charisma Carpenter returns and puts in another great performance as Cordelia comes out of her coma and it's a joy to have her back and hear her take on the new situation. The episode builds beautifully to a heartbreaking ending. The World War II flashbacks of Why We Fight are great and Eyal Podell gives Lawson a real intensity. Smile Time is hilarious and disturbing in equal measure, and features some great puppetry. A Hole In The World asks "Who would win in a fight: cavemen or astronauts?" It's another great ensemble piece as the troops rally to save Fred. Lorne's sudden act of violence is a surprise, the reveal of Gunn's unwitting involvement is a sucker punch. Jonathan M. Woodward and Alec Newman are great as Knox and Drogyn respectively, but the scenes between Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are flawless in what is possibly the saddest piece of television ever. Shells picks up where the last episode left off and while Denisof and Woodward are as great as ever it's all eyes on Acker as Illyria. There is a lot of talk about layers in Underneath, Adam Baldwin's entrance as Marcus Hamilton is incredibly gory and yet belies why he's chasing Eve, Acker and Denisof continue to be wonderful and the reveal that Wolfram & Hart's hell dimension is a suburban ultra-right-wing version of The American Dream is very funny. Vincent Kartheiser returns in Origin as the Connor it would have been a joy to watch, Dennis Christopher is wonderful as Cyvus Vail, it's great to see Jack Conley back as Sahjhan, once again Denisof is fantastic as a man on the edge and Sparky's bulb proffering is hilarious. Illyria rescues Gunn and the reveal of Sparky's latest victim is great, however she is unable to control her powers and becomes a walking Time Bomb that could go off at any moment, the time skips her excess powers create are interesting and her despatching four regular characters in seconds is pretty shocking, meanwhile the Rosemary's Baby-esque plotline with the Fell Brethren has some hilarious parental dialogue. Angel and Spike visit Italy in The Girl In Question, the flashback of Spike and Dru in Italy in the 1950's is very funny, Carole Raphaelle Davis is hilarious as the gypsy-hating buxom CEO of Wolfram & Hart's Italian office and the elusiveness of The Immortal adds to his appeal, but this episode that gives us Angel and Spike as a comedy double act also features the return of Fred's parents and sees Illyria's bittersweet impersonation of their daughter and the effect it has on Wesley. The episode is stylishly shot to differentiate between the two plot strands. David Boreanaz really keeps you guessing as Angel's apparent acceptance of Wolfram & Hart's evil clients sinks to new depths in Power Play as he joins the Circle of the Black Thorn and convinces the rest of the gang that he's just as bad. The series finale, Not Fade Away is fantastic and filled with great moments: Angel signing away his claim on the Shanshu prophecy, Lorne's last day, Angel's last day, Spike's last day, Spike volunteering to betray Angel, Lorne's "I'm out" speech, Gunn killing the senator while she's still on the phone, the reveal of Illyria blocking the car, Lorne's exit and Lindsay's reaction to it, Illyria lying to Wesley, Angel picking out the operative word in Hamilton's speech about how his blood is filled with the ancient power of The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart, Illyria taking revenge on Cyvus Vail and the final scene. This series came to a premature end and doesn't have a happy ending, because it doesn't really have an ending at all and yet it doesn't finish on a cliffhanger either. This episode says the fight never ends, it says atonement never ends.

Star Trek: Enterprise: Proving Ground; Countdown; Zero Hour; Storm Front; Home; Borderland, Cold Station 12 & The Augments; The Forge, Awakenings & Kir'Shara
The search for the Xindi superweapon is a bit of an oddity with few episodes standing out. Proving Ground however sees it in a wider political context and features another fantastic performance from Jeffrey Combs. Countdown and Zero Hour are a suitably impressive climax to the season and end on a great cliffhanger. Storm Front mixes the temporal cold war with the second world war and sees aliens changing history and assisting the Nazis in an occupation of the USA. The newsreel footage of Hitler's visit to New York in Part II is a very nice touch. When Enterprise finally returns Home and the crew disperse, three plot strands explore the repercussions separately of each other. The three-parter Borderland, Cold Station 12 and The Augments is crammed with action and yet finds time for Brent Spiner to be very charismatic as Arik Soong. This is precisely what the Xindi epic needed. After three years without them The Forge, Awakenings and Kir'Shara finally sees the creation of the Vulcans that we know and love from the Star Trek series set after the prequel and thankfully it's a great story that gets them there.

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
The mini-series picks up where season four's finale left off and must have alienated newcomers in their droves. It shamelessly takes no prisoners in utilising several of the plot strands of the series that preceded it. This two-parter gives the series a sense of closure that Bad Timing did not and contains one of television's best death scenes.

Nighty Night
Julia Davis is great as Jill, a widow whose husband is uncooperatively still alive. The rehabilitation of Angus Deayton began here. Somehow each episode manages to be more extreme than the last.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Chapters Eleven to Twenty
More animated tales of clone attacks from Genndy Tartakovsky. Highlights include Mace Windu's singlehanded defeating an entire droid army and the fight Anakin and Asaaj Ventress through the trees and the rain.

QI
Bombs, Beavers and Biscuits are among the subjects under discussion for Stephen Fry's Quite Interesting panel game.




Black Books: Manny Come Home; Elephants And Hens; Moo-Ma And Moo-Pa; A Little Flutter; Party
The show that elevated slovenliness to an art form is back. Manny has begun working next door at monolithic Goliath Books with Simon Pegg as the boss that walks a fine line between corporate and congenial, meanwhile in his absence Bernard has let his misanthropy reach new lows, Manny Come Home gets everybody back on the same page. Elephants And Hens is made up of two distinct and hilarious plots: Bernard and Manny attempt to write the children's book to end all children's books (it's about an elephant and a balloon) via some wonderful flights of fancy, while Fran spectacularly ruins a hen night. Manny's Moo-Ma And Moo-Pa pay him a visit and The Shining-style bar-under-table scenes are great. Bernard has A Little Flutter and the letter he writes to the woman working in the bookies is hilarious. Manny almost uses the word Party as a verb, and the trio share a few cutting home truths in the final episode.

Radio
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Fits The Thirteenth to Eighteenth
Twenty-Three years after the last series, five years of living on prehistoric Earth for Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect come to an end as they are catapulted back into galactic politics, reunited with Slartibartfast, take on the Krikkitmen and meet Agrajag. This radio adaptation of Douglas Adams' novel Life, The Universe And Everything is closer to the novel than its successors.

Music
The Zutons: Who Killed…
The Zutons' sound is distinctive and yet varied and the band's debut album is a confident, assured, thoughtful, inventive and above all fresh outing.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Zuton Fever'; 'Pressure Point '; ''You Will You Won't'; ' 'Confusion'; 'Railroad'; 'Not A Lot To Do'; 'Remember Me'; ' Don't Ever Think (Too Much)'

Books
The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
The first adventure of Lucifer Box, the noted portrait artist, resident of Number 9 Downing Street and agent for His Majesty's Secret Service. This book is bold, wonderful and constantly surprising.





Comics
Ex Machina: The Pilot; State Of Emergency
This story of a superhero in politics by Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris is an intriguing mix between the day-to-day grind of Mitchell Hundred's mayoral position and his 'destiny' as The Great Machine. First strip The Pilot has the bravest shock ending I can think of in comics, but don't just take my word for it you can download Issue #1 for free. Its follow up, State Of Emergency, is a fascinating commentary on the awkward relationship between politics and art.

2000 AD: There's Something About Mary
A prequel of sorts to the movie Shaun Of The Dead (above), this strip shows how Mary become a zombie and has a nice twist regarding her dead companion in the film. I love 2000 AD and I feel a bit bad that I'm shortchanging it in these posts because I can never remember when I read what and in which prog. I'm going to try and improve on that, but until I do this strip looks beautiful and has got just the right amount of red on it.

Y: The Last Man: Comedy & Tragedy 2, Safeword, Widow's Path; Tongues Of Flame; Hero's Journey; Ring Of Truth 1-2
The second part of Comedy & Tragedy concerns the staging of a play about the last man on Earth and Yorick's reaction to it. Yorick is forced to confront his survivor guilt in Safeword in terrifying fashion. Blood is spilt as Yorick, 355, Dr. Mann & Ampersand attempt to cross the Widow's Path blockade. Tongues Of Flame examines what remains of faith after the Gendercide and presents another flasshback to the moment it happened 15,000 feet above ground. We follow Hero's Journey from childhood to Amazon to searching for her brother. The first two parts of Ring Of Truth see the trio (and their monkey) in San Francisco and it looks like whatever killed all the men has finally caught up with Yorick.

Tales Of The Vampires: Tales Of The Vampires 2-6; Spot The Vampire; Jack; Father; Antique; Dust Bowl; Taking Care Of Business
Exploring the wider Buffyverse, Joss Whedon's Tales Of The Vampires framing story is a rewarding tale in its own right. Jane Espenson invites you to Spot The Vampire in the style of a children's puzzle with a nice twist ending. The hunt is on for Jack the Ripper in a beautifully illustrated strip reveals why we'll never find him. Father is a lovely story of a Vampire who carries some responsabilities beyond the grave. Antique is Drew Goddard's sequel to TV episode Buffy Vs Dracula and features a great Buffy Vs Dracula fight, but also an interesting emotional attachment to Xander from his master. Dust Bowl is about a farmer turned Vampire who doesn't know that he's a Vampire and is forced to learn the rules the hard way. A Vampire who believes he is Taking Care Of Business for God meets someone who believes they are God in Ben Edlund's satifying little tale.

Doctor Who: Bad Blood; Sins Of The Fathers; The Flood 1-6
The Eighth Doctor gets in the midst of Bad Blood between Sitting Bull's Lakota Indians and Custer's US Cavalry, which is complicated by the return of Jodafra and Destrii. Scott Gray's script and Martin Geraghty's art are great and the ending is shocking. Sins Of The Fathers catch up with the Doctor and Destrii and her heroism earns her a place in the TARDIS. The first six parts of The Flood are fantastic: the look of Camden, Destrii's cultural misunderstandings, the new look of the Cybermen are all great, but after 38 years their motivation is the most believable yet. It's also incredibly prescient as the most Russell T. Davies-style strip with an epic storyline, newsreaders, a fannish scientific advisor, etc...

Recommendations welcome.

“You’re Going To Have A Hell Of A Year”

So says the Tenth Doctor to Rose the last time he met her (and the first time she met him), in the last few moments of Doctor Who's The End Of Time, Part Two and the first few moments of 2005.

This was the year that the Huygens probe landed on Saturn's largest moon Titan, the Kyoto Protocol went into effect, the women of Kuwait were granted the right to vote, controversial drawings of Mohammed were printed in a Danish newspaper and the Live8 concerts took place across the world.

Personally, I worked on shows like 1905, Weave and 13 Rooms. I left my job in the bookshop and found work in a call centre, then later I left the call centre to work on Sleeping Beauty.

These are a few of my favourite things from 2005:

Film
Serenity
Joss Whedon’s Firefly hits the big screen and really feels like it belongs. This is that rare commodity: the Science Fiction action film featuring characters that are real people just trying to get through the day. It’s criminal that there was never a sequel. Here's the trailer.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Martin Freeman, Zooey Deschanel and Sam Rockwell are all great in the big screen version of Douglas Adams’ SF comedy tale. The film successfully interprets the story for a new audience and proves to be robust enough to include new elements as disparate as singing dolphins, the point-of-view gun and the romance between Arthur and Trillian. Here's the trailer.

The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse
As Royston Vasey faces the end of its world, its inhabitants stray into ours to plead with their creators to save their lives. The bleakness of the real world, the vibrancy of Vasey and the colour of The King’s Evil all combine to make this film much more than the sum of its parts, with Ray Harryhausen-style stop-motion animation thrown in as well. Here's the trailer.

TV
Doctor Who: Rose; The Unquiet Dead; Aliens Of London & World War Three, Dalek, The Long Game, Father's Day, The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances, Boom Town, Bad Wolf & The Parting Of The Ways, The Christmas Invasion and its prelude
The triumphant return. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are wonderful. Rose starts us with a bang, it’s like a traditional four part story, but with Rose experiencing the first half, while the Doctor is rushing through parts three and four at the same time. The Unquiet Dead is a wonderful Victorian romp with great performances from Eve Myles, Simon Callow and Alan David and marks the first of the ‘celebrity historicals’. Aliens Of London & World War Three is both the most far fetched story this season and also the most realistic. Yes, it has farting aliens, unerring missile accuracy and a space pig in it, but it also shows Jackie and Mickey reeling from Rose being missing for a year, shows aliens using our own government against us and gives the Slitheen a very plausible motivation for their actions. As the first new two-parter it also features the first new cliffhanger ending and gives us three cliffhangers simultaneously. Dalek successfully puts Skaro’s finest back on top. It looks like a battle tank, kills almost everyone in sight, but still manages to illicit pity from Rose and a lust for revenge from the Doctor. I don’t understand why The Long Game is so derided. This episode deserves to be lauded as an excellent satire on media propaganda, and yet people seem to miss the point. Simon Pegg and Anna Maxwell-Martin are wonderful in my favourite episode this year. Father's Day is a touching tale and Rose’s dilemma is palpable with great performances from Piper, Camille Coduri and Shaun Dingwall. Gasmasks are terrifying to behold and the scariest thing in horror to an adult is a lost child. The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances uses both of these to create a tense World War II chiller. This two-parter has beautiful Blitz design, features one of the best cliffhanger resolutions in the history of the show and one of the best lines of dialogue in the history of the English language: “What’s life? Life’s easy. A quirk of matter. Nature’s way of keeping meat fresh”. The story introduces John Barrowman as Captain Jack, but it’s Florence Hoath’s Nancy that steals the show. Eccleston and Annette Badland are wonderful in Boom Town. The two-part finale Bad Wolf & The Parting Of The Ways brings the “Bad Wolf scenario” to a fantastic close. Russell T. Davies and Christopher Eccleston gave Doctor Who both a zeal and a gravitas that cannot be underestimated. Despite appearances the Children In Need episode with no onscreen title is an essential prelude to The Christmas Invasion. This episode has possibly the hardest task of any episode ever, to introduce the another new Doctor to a Christmas Day audience. It illustrates the strength of the surrounding cast with great performances from Piper, Coduri, Noel Clarke, Penelope Wilton and eventually David Tennant. Fantastic.

Star Trek: Enterprise: Observer Effect; Babel One, United & The Aenar; Affliction & Divergence; In A Mirror, Darkly; Demons & Terra Prime
As Enterprise draws to a close, the links with other Star Trek series are strengthened significantly. The crew are unaware of being lab rats in an Organian experiment in Observer Effect which makes a refreshing change for some of the regular actors. The three part Babel One, United & The Aenar is meandering story that sees the foundation of the alliance that would lead to the Federation, sees the Romulans at their sneakiest and includes another great performance from Jeffrey Combs. Affliction & Divergence is Enterprise at its most fannish: Section 31 are back, there is fallout from the Augment crisis and the change in Klingon foreheads is explained, but despite what on paper looks like too much, it also manages to be a great story as well. The two part In A Mirror, Darkly is from a different TV show altogether. A glimpse into how the show might have looked in the mirror universe, which gives the regulars an opportunity for very different performance and also sees the welcome return of the 23rd century’s sets, uniforms and vibrant colour scheme. Demons & Terra Prime sees humanity on the eve of the coalition of planets at its most xenophobic. With great performances from Jolene Blalock, John Billingsley, Linda Park, Connor Trinneer, Harry Groener and Peter Weller. This would have been a much better note to end the series on.

The Thick Of It
Chris Langham's weariness as Hugh Abbott MP is palpable as he presides over a department which announces a policy and flip flops to an entirely contradictory policy and then flop flips back again. Second guessing and overreaction abound in the corridors of power (and for a couple of scenes in the broom cupboard of power).

Nighty Night
Even bleaker and barmier than the first series. Julia Davis is even more manipulative as Jill Bulb, nee Tyrrell, and Rebecca Front, Ruth Jones and Ralph Brown are all great, but Mark Gatiss steals the show out from under them.

Funland
A sordid soap opera with a compelling storyline. It is beautifully directed and boasts great performances throughout, astounding art direction and a series of cliffhanger endings that keep upping the ante.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Chapters Twenty-One to Twenty-Five
Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated series continues, with highlights including the animated cave paintings, Shak-Ti’s staff fight and Palpatine’s kidnap leading right into the opening crawl of the third prequel film.

The Quatermass Experiment Remake
David Tennant, Mark Gatiss and Indira Varma are wonderful in this live remake of Nigel Kneale’s first Quatermass serial set in a slightly odd hybrid of 1953 and now. A great TV experiment.

Mr Benn: The Gladiator
Another lovely slice of costume-related time travel whimsy from David McKee.




Casanova
David Tennant, Shaun Parkes, Peter O'Toole and Laura Fraser are all astonishingly good in a wonderful script by Russell T Davies that bounds along beautifully.

QI
The Quite Interesting quest reaches C with shows about Campanology, Cockneys and Cummingtonite, as well as this.


Radio
Chris Addison’s The Ape That Got Lucky: Language And Communication; Social Development; Science And Technology; Man Or Monkey?
Addison charts our first fumbling steps up the evolutionary to undisputed Top Species (capital T, capital S) and our subsequent development of tools, social conventions and language. “This show is made up almost entirely of language” and contains some insulting Esperanto. Featuring the excellent Jo Enwright in roles as varied as the first woman who ever spoke, the wife of a comatose inventor and a cow being milked.

Nebulous: The Night Of The Vegetarians; The Lovely Invasion; The Dust Has Landed; Madness Is A Strange Colour; The Coincidence Machine; The Man Who Polished The Sun
The year is 2099 and the first series of this loving Post-Withering parody, Professor Nebulous proves that vegetarians can't be trusted in The Night Of The Vegetarians, a sort of The Quatermass Experiment meets Meglos in a geodesic dome. Later Earth undergoes The Lovely Invasion and Nebulous is the only dissenting voice. Surely they can't be all they seem, can they? In The Dust Has Landed, K.E.N.T. finds itself competing with a rival organisation the Legitimate Organisation Undertaking General Humanitarian Business Operations Requiring Optimum Unconditional Global Harmony, or L.O.U.G.H.B.O.R.O.U.G.H. and contending with the professor's ex, played by Julia Deakin. Madness Is A Funny Colour as Garrow paint begins sending people honest Bod-bothering people into schizopathic psychophrenia, Harry who no longer has the luxury of eyes becomes the only salvation. The Coincidence Machine causes a build-up of coincidences threatens both our universe and a parallel universe (that’s different) with coinciclasm. The Man Who Polished The Sun cements David Warner's Dr. Klench as the arch nemesis of Nebulous and shows that Harry's reward is also his punishment. K.E.N.T. can do.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Fits The Nineteenth to Twenty-Sixth
The adaptation of the last two books of the trilogy in five parts was never going to be straightforward. The previously demolished Earth has somehow reappeared, Arthur has returned to it and fallen in love with a girl called Fenchurch, who then disappears. The Book is becoming The Bird. Ford, Zaphod, Marvin and at least two Trillians are each wandering independently through The Whole Sort Of General Mish Mash. This is a fitting end to twenty-seven years of radio hitchhiking and features wonderful performances from William Franklyn, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Bill Paterson, Jane Horrocks, Toby Longworth, Stephen Moore, Rula Lenska, Saeed Jaffrey and Douglas Adams among many many more.

Doctor Who: Storm Warning; Sword Of Orion; Invaders From Mars; The Chimes Of Midnight Parts One & Two
From Paul McGann’s opening monologue in Storm Warning it's clear that the Eighth Doctor is back and he’s going to be magnificent. Gareth Thomas and Hylton Collins put in great performances and the story serves as a great debut for India Fisher’s Edwardian adventuress Charley Pollard. Sword Of Orion is like a Cybermen ‘best of’ album and is all the better for it. David Benson's impersonation of Orson Welles in Invaders From Mars is nothing short short of miraculous. The story posits that aliens really did invade during the famous broadcast of The War Of The Worlds in 1938 and John Arthur is deliciously evil as Cosmo Devine. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without The Chimes Of Midnight. The first two parts are beautifully atmospheric and dialogue like “Edith was a very stupid girl, she may not have known it was impossible when she did it” is wonderful.

Music
Gorillaz: Demon Days
The second album from the animated band is more like a concept album than the first, but since the band themselves are mostly conceptual this isn't as unwieldy as it might be in other more flesh and blood hands. The album has a raft of great singles, but spare a thought for 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head' is a great yarn told by Dennis Hopper and 'Don't Get Lost In Heaven' is Gorillaz viewed through the lens of The Beach Boys, which show the Gorillaz are as inventive as ever.
Stand out tracks: 'Kids With Guns'; 'Dirty Harry'; 'Feel Good Inc'; 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head'; 'Don't Get Lost In Heaven'

Supergrass: Road To Rouen
The fifth album features longer and more orchestral tracks than the trio's usual fare. The tone shifts towards darker realms, but does so without taking itself too seriously. If it's a concept album, then it successfully manages to avoid the cliché and maintain variety within its theme. I suppose we will never discover what happened to 'Tales Of Endurance, Parts 1, 2 & 3'. Despite the serious nature of most of the album 'Coffee In The Pot' shows that this is still the same band and they can still have fun and the album title itself is a reassuring pun. A beautiful album.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Tales Of Endurance, Parts 4, 5 & 6'; 'St. Petersburg'; 'Sad Girl'; Roxy; 'Coffee In The Pot'; 'Road To Rouen'; 'Low C'

Books
The Call Of The Weird by Louis Theroux
Theroux returns to the USA to pay visits to many of the stars of his Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends. Highlights include Survivalist Mike Cain, ex porn star JJ Michaels and alien hunter turned vampire slayer Thor Templar.




Charlie Brooker’s Screen Burn
Bile aimed squarely at the likes of Big Brother, 24, Cold Feet, The Frontier House, Hollyoaks, Touch The Truck and everything in between.






Comics
Ex Machina: Tag; Fortune Favors; Fact Vs Fiction; Off The Grid
Proving that Ex Machina deals with issues that comics rarely dare to, whilst still managing to keep a superhero in the mix and not cheapen said issue. Tag follows New York’s mayor Mitchell Hundred through his backing of gay marriage, while fending off assassination attempts from the religious fanatics and someone from his past. Fortune Favors shows that there are no easy days for Hundred. Fact Vs Fiction sees a copycat attempt to pick up where 'The Great Machine' left off whilst Hundred serves jury duty, neither ends well. Off The Grid concerns lies and sees Hundred's mother finally tell him the truth while a machine deceives him.

The Vesuvius Club Graphic Edition by Mark Gatiss & Ian Bass
Lucifer Box ventures into new territory and graphic is certainly the word as the unveiling of one character is unflinchingly anatomical. The artwork, by the illustrator of the novels, is languid and the adaptation of the novel is compelling.

Doctor Who: The Love Invasion; Art Attack; The Cruel Sea; Mr Nobody; A Groatsworth Of Wit
The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in comics for a brief but impressive run. They travel to Earth in 1966 and overcome The Love Invasion preventing an alien from averting humanity’s forays into space for our own good. A visit to see the Mona Lisa leads to a story that is arguably a modern riff on this scene in Art Attack. Rob Shearman's The Cruel Sea is the jewel in the crown of this run. Epic, spooky at times surreal. Mr Nobody is a nice little inspirational tale. The 'finale', A Groatsworth Of Wit, is a complex and fascinating 'celebrity' historical ,which ends with a panel clearly dedicated to Christopher Eccleston. The artwork and likenesses are impressive throughout.

Serenity: Those Left Behind
Helping to bridge the gap between the end of Firefly and set the stage for the movie Serenity (see above), Those Left Behind takes no prisoners featuring as it does the return of several recurring characters from the TV series, while Inara leaves Serenity and Shepherd Book is increasingly uncomfortable staying aboard. The script and art just feel right.

Online
Noise To Signal
A great source for books, comics, film, games, music, net, print, radio and TV criticism. Unfortunately it's no longer updated, but thankfully the archive remains online. A straw poll of my favourite articles yields subjects as varied as: the Science of Romance in an episode of Futurama, the friendship dynamic in Shaun Of The Dead, Alan Partridge's character flaws, the history of road safety public information films, Torchwood's Children Of Earth reviews, Dorian Gray's hair, a very thorough three-part article on Dollhouse and a philosophical debate asking at what point do you stop being The Sugababes? Sadly missed.

R. Tam, Sessions: Session 416, Second Excerpt; Session 1, Excerpt; Session 22, Excerpt; Session 165, Excerpt; Session 416, First Excerpt
Five short clips released as viral marketing for the movie Serenity (see above). They feature Summer Glau as River Tam and writer and director Joss Whedon as her interviewer. The sessions provide an insight into the events at The Academy that unsettled River so much. They were released out of chronological order and form an intriguing story, presented here in the order they were made available online:



Recommendations welcome.