Don't Be Blue

Today is Blue Monday. Apparently the most depressing day of the year.

I wrote this list of suggestions of uplifting sci-fi to help you beat the blues. Between them that's a seven hour schedule that's sure to cheer you up, however Blue your Monday is.

Man On The Moon

It's been fifty years since humanity took a giant leap onto our closest neighbour and we have been honouring the astronauts, but what about the real pioneers, the actors, writers and directors who pretended that they landed on the Moon merely for your entertainment? I wrote this to honour them.

"You've Been Away As Long As You Think You Have"

Is what the Seventh Doctor tells Ace upon her return to the present day (which may or may not have been 1989) in Survival, the last story shown in Doctor Who's first run.

1989 was the year that the Berlin Wall came down, a fatwā was declared on The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, the Hillsborough disaster claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters, the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre took place and the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

These are a few of my favourite things from 1989:

Film

The Abyss
James Cameron's SF underwater epic is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking. Surely nobody has ever worked harder on a film. The cast are fantastic, the story is brilliant and the CGI is still wonderful.

The Tall Guy
Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson are fantastic in this off-beat romantic comedy which parodies celebrity and musical theatre brilliantly. All of Thompson’s scenes, the Elephant! sequences and the Madness music video performance of 'It Must Be Love' are all wonderful.

Crimes And Misdemeanours
Woody Allen's experiment with structure sees a comedy and a tragedy entwine to great effect, whilst also managing to aask profound questions about the human condition. Allen, Martin Landau, Mia Farrow, Alan Alda, Angelica Huston and Jerry Orbach are fantastic.

Back To The Future, Part II
The second Back To The Future film is a great sequel that expands on the ideas and yet remains true to the spirit of the original. The DeLorean time machine travels further and visits an inspired 2015 which left a generation wishing for hoverboards and an alternative 1985 which successfully explores a divergent timeline in a mainstream piece of cinema and the scenes revisiting the 1955 events of the first film are brilliantly put together. Here's the trailer.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
The much-maligned fifth film is, marshmelons aside, much better than its reputation. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Laurence Luckinbill and David Warner are great. The story asks some big questions, provides some bold answers and is probably the film most in the mould of the original series of Star Trek. Here's the trailer.

Licence To Kill
In a great twist on the usual formula the sixteenth Bond film, 007 follows a vendetta, goes rogue and has his Licence To Kill revoked. Desmond Llewellyn and David Hedison are both wonderful, while Timothy Dalton is fantastic in his second and final outing as Bond which sees the best portrayal of the super spy sadly curtailed.

TV

Doctor Who: The Greatest Show In The Galaxy 4; Battlefield; Ghost Light; The Curse Of Fenric; Survival
The greatest show in the galaxy ends its twenty-fifth season with the wonderful last part of The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, the reveal of the Gods of Ragnarok is great, Sylvester McCoy is excellent in the Doctor's 'audition' for them, evoking the TV talent shows of recent years and his calm exit of the exploding tent is very, very impressive. In retrospect the line, "Entertain us...Or die" takes on a more unfortunate significance...
McCoy and Sophie Aldred return for the show's twenty-sixth season with Battlefield, a story with an undeservedly bad reputation. Jean Marsh, James Ellis, Angela Bruce, Marcus Gilbert and Robert Jezek are fantastic, McCoy's business is very funny, the simplicity of the chalk circle is great, the Destroyer make-up is astonishing, twisting the Doctor up in Arthurian legend works really well and the concept of his future catching up with him is a brilliant one, but the genius of this story is how the Brigadier is written. Nicholas Courtney is phenomenal as ever, his dialogue is wonderful and everything that goes right for him plays to the expectation that he'll pay the ultimate price and so the ending is surprising and well earned. Another story, another strange reputation. Ghost Light isn't nearly as complicated as some would have you believe. It could be clearer certainly, but the pieces of the puzzle are all there: the evolution and the experimentation. The dialogue is great: "damned tsetse fly", the list of things the Doctor hates, "the cream of Scotland Yard", the Doctor's change speech. Michael Cochrane, Ian Hogg, Sylvia Syms, Sharon Duce and Frank Windsor are wonderful. Ghost Light is a brilliantly macabre story that draws together elements from all over the place to create something incredible. The Viking mystery combines with the World War II setting in the next story to create a tangible sense of unease, while the Doctor and Ace take on "Evil since the dawn of time". The vampiric Haemovores descendents from an alternative future only repelled by faith are a very scary concept and the Ancient One looks amazing. Doctor Who is full of great scripts with ambition that is beyond the reach of the budget, this script is great and the story so epic in scale that it practically redefines the word epic and yet somehow it is still well and truly within the scope of this production and "Don’t interrupt me when I'm eulogising" is a brilliant line. The all-location shoot, the weather and the period detail all give the story a cinematic feel while McCoy, Aldred, Dinsdale Landon, Janet Henfrey, Nicholas Parsons, Tomek Bork and Ann Reid are all fantastic. The Curse Of Fenric is phenomenal. Rona Munro’s script for the last story of the season, Survival, is brilliant. Ace revisiting her old haunts, her seduction by the animal instincts and the climactic battle between the Doctor and the Master are all fantastic. McCoy, Aldred, Anthony Ainley and Lisa Bowerman are superb. The scenes in suburban Perivale are all the scarier for it, the planet of the Cheetah people looks great and the Cheetah people themselves are better than their reputation suggests. For a time this was the last ever Doctor Who story and although such a thing is never desirable, we couldn't have hoped for a better last ever Doctor Who story, the themes explored in the story made this a poignant bookend to the first ever story. The Doctor's closing monologue is wonderful and it is all the more incredible that the show was cancelled after a season as good as this.

Red Dwarf: Backwards; Marooned; Polymorph; Bodyswap; Timeslides; The Last Day
Series III is a massive sea change for Red Dwarf. It's got less grey, more Kryten, a new theme tune and a head sex change. The crew visit an Earth on which time runs Backwards and the result is a great mix of high minded SF and low brow humour. Robert Llewellyn makes an excellent debut and the opening crawl, Lister and Cat debating Wilma Flintstone and "Thankski veryski muchski, Budski!" are all fantastic, but the least said about Cat's visit to the bushes the better. Rimmer and Lister are Marooned, and Chris Barrie and Craig Charles are wonderful in a brilliant two-hander: Holly's "This is not a drill" opening, Rimmer's past life regression, "Ascension Sunday" and quoting Shakespeare, Lister story of how he lost his virginity and eating dog food, Cliff Richard and the closing line are all fantastic, but more importantly this is an absolutely wonderful piece of television. The shape-changing Polymorph works its way around the crew, robs each of them of an emotion and the resulting new dynamic is a great ensemble piece featuring the funniest mention of "alphabetti spaghetti!" ever heard. Rimmer and Lister Bodyswap and aside from some dubbing issues it's great, the Cat's "Jozxyqk!", the model work is beautiful and "Oh smeg! What the smeggin' smeg's he smeggin' done? He's smeggin' killed me!", the line boasting the most smegs per square inch. Another episode built around a brilliant concept, Timeslides enables the crew to step inside a photograph and time travel back to that moment, Lister's "in-smegging-credible" jump, the Cat's snowball and the briefcase bomb are all great interractions between the photographs and the real world, but it's the character moments that really shine: Danny John-Jules' Junior Angler sales pitch, Lister and Rimmer meeting and being embarrassed by their younger selves, the repetition of "cryptofascist", Hattie Hayridge's delivery of exposition and Chris Barrie's delivery of Rimmer's speech asking "Who is the rich man?" are all fantastic and despite his reputation for being difficult Special Guest Star Adolf Hitler puts in a very impressive performance. The true success of the series finale, The Last Day, is that Llewellyn's Kryten feels like he's been a part of the show much longer than six episodes and so the thought of losing him is all the more appalling, which is best exemplified by the Officer's Club scene, but Lister's defence of boxing, Rimmer's Samaritans story, Cat's gift, Kryten's dismissal of the existence of human heaven and Holly's potentially fatal pragmatism, "the Star Trek crap", viable targets and a great performance from Gordon Kennedy. Series III not only reinvents the look of the show, but ensures it will be around for a long time to come.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Schizoid Man; Unnatural Selection; A Matter Of Honor; The Measure Of A Man; The Dauphin; Contagion; The Royale; Time Squared; The Icarus Factor; Pen Pals; Q Who; The Emissary; Peak Performance; Evolution; The Survivors; Who Watches The Watchers; Booby Trap; The Enemy; The Price
Highlights from the second season include The Schizoid Man in which Brent Spiner is great as Data possessed by his own 'grandfather'. A Matter Of Honor is a great Klingon culture clash episode. The Measure Of A Man is a fantastic episode and a very thought provoking allegory for slavery. The Dauphin is a nice little Wesley episode with great performances from Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes and Whoopi Goldberg. Contagion is great, impressive visuals, an urgent threat and the realisation of the Iconians is compelling. The crew visit The Royale, a hotel based on the story of a pulp fiction novella, not a subtle episode but Brent Spiner and Sam Anderson are great. Time Squared is a nice little time travel mystery. Data and a doomed alien girl become Pen Pals in a touching episode that questions the validity and morality of the Prime Directive. Introducing the Borg brilliantly, Q Who is a game changer for the series with fantastic performances from Patrick Stewart, John de Lancie and Goldberg. Michael Dorn and Suzie Plakson are wonderful in The Emissary, an episode which adds depth to both Worf and Klingon culture itself. Frakes, Spiner and Roy Brocksmith are all great in Peak Performance.
The third season opens with Evolution which shows an invigorated sense of style and features great performances from Stewart, Spiner, Wheaton, Ken Jenkins and a returning Gates McFadden. Stewart and Anne Haney are fantastic in The Survivors, a personal look at omnipotence and a very touching use of SF. Asking big ethical questions and featuring great performances from Stewart, Ray Wise and Kathyn Leigh Scott, Who Watches The Watchers is another step up in quality. LeVar Burton and Susan Gibney are great together as LaForge seeks the solution to a Booby Trap on the holodeck and falls in love. The Enemy is a great Cold War-style thriller with fantastic dialogue and wonderful performances from Burton and Dorn. The negotiations for the galaxy's first stable wormhole in The Price are great and the ultimate cost is a great payoff in an episode which uses the Ferengi well and sets the scene for the next two spinoff series.

Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out
The first of Nick Park's animated shorts featuring Wallace and Gromit is wonderful. The construction of the rocket, the take-off, the visit to the moon and it's subsequent consumption are all fantastic. The moon's sole coin-operated robot occupant is great and the shot of Gromit in place of a workbench is hilarious.

Around The World In Eighty Days, With Michael Palin
Michael Palin attempts to follow Phileas Fogg's circumnavigation of the planet from Jules Verne's novel in eighty days and seven episodes. The journey takes him through sixteen countries by foot, train, ship, balloon and husky dog. It's brilliant.

Blackadder Goes Forth: Captain Cook; Corporal Punishment; Major Star; Private Plane; General Hospital; Goodbyeee
The phrase "trench humour" could not be more appropriate than in Blackadder Goes Forth. The lunacy and tragedy of the First World War supplies an excellent backdrop for the fourth series. Captain Cook sets up the new dynamic brilliantly. The next five episodes all examine aspects of a war Blackadder describes as "a war which would be a damn sight simpler if we just stayed in England and shot fifty thousand of our men a week", from the trial and the firing squad of Corporal Punishment, Hugh Laurie's wonderful performance as George as Georgina in Major Star, Lord Flashheart, the Twenty Minuters and a fate worse than death in Private Plane, everything Miranda Richardson does in General Hospital and the series finale, Goodbyeee, is a surprisingly effective and touching tribute to a lost generation.

Radio

Last Chance To See
Natural history programming and radio don't seem like an obvious fit, but Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine's radio trip around is a wonderful audio experience, but don't just take my word for it. The BBC have put it up on their website.

Books
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor
The prose is so beautifully written and the jokes so exquisite that it is almost a shame that it has to be part of Red Dwarf at all. The novel explores aspects of the TV episodes The End, Future Echoes, Waiting For God, Me², Kryten, Thanks For The Memory and Better Than Life, but expands upon them to a point that renders it far more than a simple novelisation. The first Red Dwarf novel is magnificent and I really cannot recommend it highly enough.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
The seventh Discworld novel visits a fictional country with Egyptian overtones and the best named ever conceived. It's a very funny and largely standalone novel that deals with articles of faith, assassins and the revelation that the finest mathematician on the Disc is a camel with another in a spectacular series of names.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Dragons versus coppers it may be, but the first novel to feature the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is the beginning of the modern era of Discworld. Less fantasy, but no less fantastic.

Where's Wally: The Fantastic Journey by Martin Handford
Wally's whereabouts among the Gobbling Gluttons, the Carpet Flyers, the Ferocious Red Dwarves, the Nasty Nasties, the Deep-Sea Divers and the Land of Wallies are unknown. Find him if you can.



Comics

Doctor Who: Time And Tide; Nemesis Of The Daleks
Time And Tide wait for no man, the nilistic Tojanans and their village look fantastic in a nice strip about hope. The Doctor meets Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer in Nemesis Of The Daleks, an epic if not particularly cerebral strip full of double page spreads featuring scores of Daleks and huge explosions courtesy of Lee Sullivan.

Lego Pirates: The Golden Medallion
When I was young I loved Lego, I still do if I'm honest, but Pirate Lego really captured my imagination. I wanted to build and play with the big pirate ship more than anything, but I couldn't afford it. It was with a heavy heart that I spent my pocket money on this comic book and I only bought it because it came with two pirate figures and a treasure map, but the comic really fired my imagination: "an interesting looking chest", drunkeness, hangings, prison breaks, shark bites, volcanic eruptions, a bonk and quite a sadistic ending.

Recommendations welcome.

Next month: 1988

"This Year's Been Bad Enough As It Is..."

"...without you giving things away" complains EastEnders character, Gita Kapoor, in another line from Doctor Who's Dimensions In Time.

1993 was the year that Czechoslovakia separated in the 'Velvet Divorce', Bill Clinton became President of the USA, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in London, the Maastricht Treaty formalised the Maastricht Treaty formalised the European Union and the space shuttle Endeavour was launched to fix a flaw in the Hubble telescope.

This was also the year I finished primary school and moved up to secondary school.

These are a few of my favourite things from 1993:

Film

Manhattan Murder Mystery
Diane Keaton turns amateur detective to investigate a murder, dragging her hapless husband Woody Allen into it. It's a joy to watch her initial excitement tempered by her husband's doubts, and then her interest wanes as her conspirators get more embroiled in the whodunnit.

Six Degrees Of Separation
"The Kandinski is painted on on both sides" aside, Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, Will Smith and Heather Graham are great in this tale of socialites, social conscience, celebrity and gossip.




TV

Red Dwarf: Psirens; Legion; Gunmen Of The Apocalypse; Emohawk - Polymorph II; Rimmerworld; Out Of Time
Series VI features a bold change of scenery with the crew aboard Starbug in search of their mothership. This is Red Dwarf without Red Dwarf. Psirens reintroduces the now Hollyless quartet and acts as a sort of pilot episode for the new format. Lister's amnesia is not just an excuse for exposition, but is also filled with some great character comedy. Highlights include "Hook, line, sinker, rod and copy of Angling Times", anatomical punctuation, Lister's first screen kiss and the two Listers sequence, while Richard Ridings, Anita Dobson, Samantha Robson and Jenny Agutter are all great in their cameo scenes. Antimatter chopsticks, space weevil and the nearly infamous red alert bulb scene are brilliant in Legion, an episode which takes a very complex SF idea and really runs with it, but also manages to keep a very high gag quota. Gunmen Of The Apocalypse is fantastic, Laredo looks brilliant, the fight sequences (both with and without special skills) are great and the Cat's reactions to his plans being adopted are incredible, while Jennifer Calvert, Steve Devereux, Stephen Marcus and Denis Lill are great: the episode is probably the best SF western ever made. Uncharacteristically at the time Emohawk - Polymorph II is a three-in-one sequel to the episodes Polymorph, Dimension Jump and Back To Reality, but the episode doesn't simply rest on those laurels and Rimmer's history of warfare as interpreted through haircuts, the dealings with the Kinatowowi and "Mr Lister's guitar survived intact" are great, but I have to admit the return of the Emohawk, Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibbley is a lot of fun this time around. Rimmer's cowardice causing the founding of Rimmerworld and the crew's subsequent visit are great ideas, the subtext of Liz Hickling's scene, Rimmer's incestuous ethics and Kryten's punch line to Derek Custer's escape plan are fantastic. The season finale, Out Of Time, has a darker feel to it as the reality bubble sequence ups the ante, but the jokes keep coming: Lister's log cabin, the visit to 1421 and Kryten's overreaction to his knowledge of the future are great. The darkness yields great character insight as the future Starbug crew are brilliant extrapolations, their stories of entertaining people from history who are "a bit dodgy" are excellent and the present crew's reaction to them is wonderful. The shocking fatalities, Rimmer's bravery and the cliffhanger ending are brilliant, even down to the sparks that hit the camera. The new format shifts the bunkroom scenes to the cockpit with great success and Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn are fantastic across all six episodes while the model shots, visual effects and the set design are all stunning throughout. The use of Space Corps Directives gags, the Cat's "deader-thans" and the Cat's nasal integrity have caused some to label this series as formulaic, but that's only bad if the formula itself is bad. This is clearly a winning formula: Series VI is fantastic.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary; Past Prologue; A Man Alone; Babel; Captive Pursuit;
Q-Less; Dax; The Nagus; Vortex; Progress; Duet; In The Hands Of The Prophets; The Homecoming, The Circle & The Siege; Invasive Procedures; Rules Of Acquisition; Necessary Evil
The original Star Trek has often been described as a 'Wagon Train to the stars' and the wild west parallels are even more apparent on Deep Space Nine: the space station as the western town, the sheriff, the bartender, the native, the common man. The show is deliberately darker in tone than its contemporary stable mate (see below), but still definitely Star Trek at heart. Emissary is a fantastic pilot: the opening sequence of the Battle of Wolf 359 is spectacular, Colm Meaney fits in perfectly on DS9 and the rest of the regular cast all make impressive debuts as do Camille Saviola, Felecia M. Bell and Marc Alaimo, Sisko and Picard's awkward relationship is fascinating, Kira's bluffing is great and Sisko's philosophical discussions with the aliens in the wormhole is compelling. The early episodes play with a sense of mistrust as Kira's loyalty is tested in Past Prologue as the Bajoran political situation and introduces Andrew Robinson as plain, simple Garak, a brilliant character who subtly proves he is neither, entirely in subtext. Odo finds himself A Man Alone as he investigates a murder in which all the evidence implicates him and the station's population turn on him: this episode's 'perfect murder' concept is very clever, the xenophobic mob scene is quite shocking for Star Trek and the beginning of Jake and Nog's friendship is very endearing. The aphasia virus of Babel is a brilliant idea, O'Brien's busyness is great, Quark's involvement in its spread is a nice touch and Kira's approach to finding a cure is fantastic. Scott MacDonald gives a beautifully alien performance as Tosk in Captive Pursuit and Meaney is great as a mutinous O'Brien. John De Lancie is very funny in the misleadingly titled Q-Less. Dax is a nice little courtroom drama and Anne Haney is nothing short of amazing as the arbiter. Armin Shimerman gets a chance to really shine as Quark becomes The Nagus briefly in the episode which reclaims the Ferengi from TNG, contains great references to The Godfather and Wallace Shawn is wonderful as Zek. Vortex is a nice Odo episode and Rene Auberjonois really seizes the opportunity. The B-story of Progress following Jake and Nog's business exploits is a lot of fun. The mind games and intricate deceptions of Nana Visitor and Harris Yulin's Duet make for a beautiful piece of allegorical television. The first season finale, In The Hands Of The Prophets, takes the debate about creationism or prayer in school into the Bajoran political sphere and features the first of many great performances from Louise Fletcher as Vedek Winn.
The second season begins with the three-parter The Homecoming, The Circle and The Siege which expands upon the increasingly murky world of Bajoran politics and builds slowly to a very exciting third episode. Jadzia undergoes Invasive Procedures and loses the Dax symbiont to another host, and the contrast in John Glover's performance as Verad before and after joining is great and the uncomfortable interaction between Sisko and this new 'old man' really makes this episode. Rules Of Acquisition is another nice Ferengi episode with some great Quark material and introducing the Dominion in a comedy episode is a very nice touch. Necessary Evil is a gritty noirish detective story with great flashbacks to Terok Nor in its heyday and yields insights into the relationships between Odo and Kira, and also Quark and Rom as well.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ship In A Bottle; Face Of The Enemy; Tapestry; Birthright; Starship Mine; Lessons; The Chase; Frame Of Mind; Suspicions; Rightful Heir; Second Chances; Timescape; Descent; Gambit; Phantasms; Attached; Inheritance; Parallels
The sixth season continues with the brilliant Ship In A Bottle featuring the return of Daniel Davis as Professor Moriarty and Dwight Schultz as Barclay in an inspired pairing. Marina Sirtis, Carolyn Seymour and Scott MacDonald are wonderful as Troi finds herself with the Face Of The Enemy and winging it as a Romulan spy. Q shows Picard some of life's rich Tapestry in Star Trek's version of It's A Wonderful Life, Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie are fantastic and the dialogue is some of the best of the series. Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner are both great in the uneven two-parter Birthright, the first part visits DS9 (see above), focuses on the wonderfully surreal dreams of Data and sends Worf off on a mission to liberate his father from prison, while the second is concerned solely with Worf and Klingon honour. Starship Mine is a great action movie for Picard, the baryon sweep is a sufficiently gruesome way to go and Data emulating Hutch is hilarious. Picard learns some Lessons about romantic involvement with a subordinate the hard way in an episode with a maturity and surprising ending. Picard takes up The Chase in an archaeological quest that unites the major humanoid species in a very Gene Roddenberry way. Jonathan Frakes is fantastic in the very dark Frame Of Mind. Gates McFadden is great as Crusher's Suspicions get her into trouble in a nice scientific detective story. Rightful Heir asks pertinent questions of faith and Dorn, Robert O'Reilly, Alan Oppenheimer and Kevin Conway are all fantastic. As the result of a transporter accident Troi has to contend with two Rikers in Second Chances and Frakes and Sirtis are great as they come to terms with their relationship, again. Timescape is a brilliant temporal thriller. The season ends with the first part of Descent which sees the return of the Borg and Spiner is wonderful as Data experiences his first real emotions and he really sells the cliffhanger.
The final season begins with the story's second part LeVar Burton excels in the torture scenes and McFadden is great in command of the Enterprise and Spiner is fantastic as both the sons of Soong. The two-parter Gambit was the first to break Roddenberry's space pirates taboo and does so in style. Phantasms takes Data's dreams into darker and even more bizarre territory, his scenes with Sigmund Freud are very funny and the turbolift scene is very shocking. Picard and Crusher are imprisoned and their minds Attached with brain implants and the result is a lovely episode for Stewart and McFadden. Spiner and Fionnula Flanagan are wonderful as Data finds his mother in Inheritance. Dorn is great in Parallels as Worf flits from one alternate universe to another and the initially subtle inconsistencies accumulate taking him further and further from the norm until the barriers between realities break down and all the possibilities collide spectacularly.

Century Falls
This six-part supernatural horror serial by Russell T. Davies of a mysterious village with a dark secret confidently builds slowly toward an impressive finale. Darker than Dark Season, it is astonishing that this story with its themes of loneliness, group consciousness, mob mentality and infant mortality was ever shown as children's television. Thank goodness it was, this is exactly what I wanted to watch at the age of eleven. The story is complex and engaging, the music is wonderful throughout, the effects are simple and far more effective as a result while Bernard Kay, Mary Wimbush, Georgine Anderson, Eileen Way, Beryl Cooke, Heather Baskerville, Tatiana Strauss, Robert James and Simon Fenton are all fantastic.

Northern Exposure: Survival Of The Species; Revelations; Duets; Grosse Pointe, 48230; Learning Curve; Ill Wind; Love's Labour Mislaid; Northern Lights; Family Feud; Homesick; The Big Feast; Kaddish for Uncle Manny; Mud And Blood; Sleeping With The Enemy; Old Tree; Three Doctors; The Mystery Of The Old Curio Shop; Jaws Of Life; Altered Egos; A River Doesn't Run Through It; Birds Of A Feather; Rosebud; Heal Thyself; A Cup Of Joe; First Snow
The fourth season continues as Ed becomes concerned about the Survival Of The Species and his post-apocalyptic nightmare is great. Maurice and Ruth-Ann fight over Ed in Revelations. Duets sees the welcome return of One Who Waits who has finally found Ed's father, while Kevin Conway is brilliant as the piano tuner. James Marsters and Dylan Baker are great as Maggie takes Joel to Grosse Pointe, 48230. Learning Curve is very touching as Holling returns to high school. An Ill Wind blows through Cicily and after some particularly violent and letigious foreplay, Joel and Maggie finally consummate their relationship and naturally overthink the aftermath, but the line "You broke my broken nose" and Maurice's warped logic after Chris saves his life are very, very funny. Maggie forgets sex with Joel entirely in Love's Labour Mislaid and upon remembering her conference with Joel and Mike is hilarious, Holling and Ruth-Ann make a great duo and Uncle Anku's last line is brilliant. Ed is fantastic as a wronged Joel's representative and the winter rituals of Holling, Ruth-Ann and Chris are great in Northern Lights. A Family Feud divides the Native American tribes, meanwhile Shelly and Holling have the quickest of quicky marriages in a very funny scene. The reveal of Shelly's redecoration is hilarious, Maggie's dream is great and it's sad to see Mike the Bubble man leave in Homesick. Shelly and Eve making Château Latour '29 is very funny in The Big Feast. Joel's uncle dies and Maurice organises Kaddish for Uncle Manny with fantastic military precision. Mud And Blood features the amazing line: "Weddings and rat turds." Ned Romero is wonderful, Ed's dubbing of The Prisoner Of Zenda into Tlingit is inspired, Maurice wrestling with his conscience is great and Ron's hypocitical bigotry is a very brave depiction in Sleeping With The Enemy. An Old Tree considered a historical landmark is under threat, Maurice's "Town dismissed" line is hilarious, while Shelly always singing is a great notion.
The fifth season sees Cicily expand to Three Doctors as Graham Greene's Leonard looks after Joel contracts Glacier Dropsy and Ed is called to be a shaman. Maggie's Nancy Drewing in The Mystery Of The Old Curio Shop and Maurice's attitude to growing old are great. The visiting dentist has most of Cicily terrified in Jaws Of Life, while Chris' reaction to a longer life expectancy is great. Joel worries that he's gone native and Chris and Bernard's twin relationship hits a bump in the surprising Altered Egos. Maggie's reinterpretation of Homecoming, Maurice's failed business deal and Ruth-Ann's tax audit are all great character moments in A River Doesn't Run Through It. Holling's attitude to sport is very refreshing in Birds Of A Feather and the competitive attitude to it's replacement in the Brick is great. Ed's film festival would have been great in Rosebud while the exploits of Cicily's fire department are very funny and Greene makes a welcome return as Leonard. Physician Heal Thyself is a lesson Ed learns the hard way, Holling is a surprisingly bad pupil in birth class and Maggie need for laundomat gossip is great. As Holling and Ruth-Anne learn that their grandfathers knew each other and that one ate the other, A Cup Of Joe sees cannibalism as an engine for social change and Maurice's attempt to inspire Chris to succeed in spite of his bet with Maggie is very touching. A patient that predicts her own death has a profound effect on Joel, Maurice is devastated when Shelly denies having loved him and Maggie becomes determined to get her nest finished before the First Snow falls.

Jeeves & Wooster
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie return for a fourth series as P.G. Wodehouse's double act and they are as wonderful as ever. Bertie Wooster becomes embroiled in six more fiendishly tangled webs and Jeeves saves the day six more times. Highlights include Bertie interrogating a toddler, a fancy dress party full of Edward the Confessors, "C Sir?" and Caesar, our heroes in drag, Alpine Joe and Bertie's wordless vocalised attempts to keep each of his two engagements from each of his two fiancées. Once again, Laurie's musical abilities are a wonderful addition and both 'Putting On The Ritz' and 'Oh By Jingo' sound brilliant. Elizabeth Spriggs, Robert Daws, Jean Heywood, Sylvia Kay, John Turner, Colin McFarlane and John Woodnutt are wonderful. The first three episodes are set in New York and the incongruity of the Brits abroad is a great seam of comedy and the art deco period detail is beautiful, while the return to Blighty for the late three episodes gives this series the feel of a 'greatest hits' of Jeeves & Wooster.

The Case-Book Of Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre; The Eligible Bachelor
Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke return for two more feature-length episodes and while both are wide of the mark for Conan Doyle purists, they are both also enormously atmospheric pieces of drama. The Last Vampyre flirts with horror and has a few great twists while Roy Marsden, Maurice Denham and Elizabeth Spriggs are fantastic. The mystery of The Eligible Bachelor is compelling. Brett's portrayal of Holmes' depression is brilliant and Simon Williams, Geoffrey Beevers and Mary Ellis are wonderful.

Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers
Nick Park returns to 62 West Wallaby Street and Wallace & Gromit accidentally rent out their spare room to a supervillain with an interesting line in remote control trousers. It's Thunderbirds meets Alan Bennett with some great chase sequences and visual gags.

Radio

Doctor Who: The Paradise Of Death
Bringing back Doctor Who was always going to be a tall order and the first concerted effort to do it on the radio neither reinvents nor recreates the Pertwee era of the television show, but falls somewhere in between. The story veers from an investigation of a theme park to a monoculture wrapped up in a pyramid scheme via Experienced Reality exposition, interstellar kidnapping and the Doctor fighting in drag. The Brigadier's painted toenails are great, as is his use of the word "nosebags", while the cliffhanger at the end of the first episode shouldn't work, but somehow it does. Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Harold Innocent, Peter Miles and Maurice Denham are wonderful. Jeremy Fitzoliver isn't nearly as annoying as his reputation would have you believe, instead he is indicative of The Paradise Of Death's greatest achievement: that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Music

Blur: Modern Life Is Rubbish
All traces of Baggy are gone as Blur's second album sees them turn to the likes of The Kinks for inspiration. The lyrics are at at turns sardonic and witty, while the music ranges from the vaudevillian 'Sunday Sunday' to the perky-yet-grungy 'Chemical World' and opening track 'For Tomorrow' is nothing short of fantastic.
Stand-Out Tracks: 'For Tomorrow'; 'Colin Zeal'; 'Star Shaped'; 'Blue Jeans'; 'Chemical World'; 'Sunday Sunday'; 'Miss America', 'Turn It Up', 'Resigned', 'Commercial Break' (hidden track)

E: Broken Toy Shop
The future Eels frontman's second solo album is a well-crafted mix of pop and rock which is a step closer to the level of melancholy his band would later achieve.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Shine It All On'; 'The Only Thing I Care About', 'Manchester Girl', 'Tomorrow I'll Be Nine', 'The Day I Wrote You Off', 'She Loves A Puppet', 'My Old Raincoat'

Pulp: Intro
This compilation brings together the singles and B-sides that the band released on Gift Records and hangs together well as an album in its own right. The last three tracks make up the wonderful Inside Susan: A Story In Three Parts and show that even B-Sides betray Pulp's blend of storytelling and style.
Stand Out Tracks: 'O.U. (Gone, Gone)'; 'Babies'; 'Styloroc (Nites of Suburbia)'; 'Razzmatazz'; 'Sheffield: Sex City'; 'Stacks'; 'Inside Susan'; '59 Lyndhurst Grove'

Books

Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett
Ankh Morpork has a killer on the loose in the fifteenth Discworld novel. Vimes has to track down a formidable firearm whilst in the midst of a City Watch recruitment drive to greater reflect the ethnic make-up of the city opening the Watch up to Trolls, Dwarfs and other non-humans and as such Detritus, Cuddy and Angua join the ranks respectively. "Gonnes don't kill people. People kill people."



Where's Wally? In Hollywood by Martin Handford
Wally and his friends lose themselves in Tinseltown. Along the way they take in silent movies, epics, musicals, westerns, SF and horror before Wally becomes a star himself.




Comics

Red Dwarf: The Case Of The Cashed In Contestant 3-7 & Duane Dibbley; The Shadow Time; The Cantabelis Tales; Ace Of Black Hearts; Lister The God; Super-Ace; Mimas Crossing, Time After Time; Dead Man's Bluff; Tomorrow Trouble; Home Of Lost Causes; The Case Of The Cop's Comedown; Young Flibble; A.J. Rimmer, P.M.; Heavy Metal; The Aftering
Many Red Dwarf comic strips followed the misadventures of the Dwarfers from the TV series (see above): The Cantabelis Tales is a strip wrapped around a beautiful parody of Chaucerian verse by Kev Sutherland, with some gorgeous art from Alan Burrows and a great twist in the middle. Some time travelling elite Cat warriors retrieve Lister The God to settle the Cat wars, the politics is well-handled, the fight sequences are great, it's nice to see both Hollies and Norman Lovett's likeness is impressive and the ending is brilliant. Time After Time is "a voyage to trip-out city" that brilliantly revisits The End, Me², Parallel Universe, Backwards, Polymorph, The Last Day, Meltdown, The Inquisitor, Quarantine and Future Echoes with a great punchline from Hollister and an intriguing ending. Dead Man's Bluff is Red Dwarf at its most 2000 AD, John Rushby's art is lovely and the schizophrenic cyborg with a hatred of Holograms is fantastic. Sole Series VI era strip, Home Of Lost Causes pre-empts Series VIII's resurrection of the crew in a nice sequel to Polymorph that features a great cliffhanger and some truly disgusting panels of a mutilated-yet-animated Kochanski. Heavy Metal is a slight tale to end on, but Jon Beeston's artwork is stunning, the FLOB is genuinely impressive and it's great to see Spare Head 3 back.
Other comic strips in the Red Dwarf Smegazine largely drew on ancilliary characters, alternative versions of the regulars and the events of the novels. The remainder of the excellent Jake Bullet story, The Case Of The Cashed-In Contestant does exactly that, Carl Flint's art in the Bullet strips is uncomfortable to look at and absolutely brilliant. The complex story features a cameo from Bob Monkhouse and builds toward a crossover with fellow Despair Squid "sad act" Duane Dibbley's strip. Dibbley is on the run for murder, whilst accompanied by a hallucination of his alter ego, the Cat, and seeking his true identity. The further adventures of the Back To Reality hallucinations and that one of them is himself hallucinating are a brilliant leap of logic. Sadly the strip ends on a cliffhanger and the promise of more that went unfulfilled. Jake Bullet however does return in The Case Of The Cop's Comedown which follows his train of thought as he plummets to his death and as his perception of reality unravels around him, it is brilliantly surreal with a cameo from Charles Hawtrey and another great cliffhanger ending. David Lyttleton's art for The Shadow Time and follow up strip The Aftering borders on the grotesque, but is absolutely perfect for this story of polymorphs loose on Garbage World with cockroachs, GELFs, Simulants and an elderly Lister for company. Ace Rimmer returns in three strips and meets an alternate Rimmer in each of them: Ace Of Black Hearts is nice strip that provides a truly evil version of Rimmer and reveals that our Ace is possibly even nastier, later he meets Super-Ace, Rimmer as a superhero and some great alternate versions of plenty of other TV characters and finally he encounters A.J. Rimmer, P.M., the best Prime Minister Britain ever had who got bored when politics got too easy until Ace provides him with Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont to make a his life more difficult. Mimas Crossing is an excellent gangster movie pastiche rooted very firmly in the background to the novels but with a dose of Bodyswapping, Trixie Labouche and Dutch are wonderful and the strip features fantastic cameos from Rimmer and Lister, more brilliantly horrific art from Lyttleton and a great use of the TV theme tune. Tomorrow Trouble is a prequel strip to The Inquisitor, which sees the judgemental simulant forced to assess his own worth and more great art from Flint. Perverted penguin prequel, Young Flibble, tells how the bird got his name, attire and hex vision, but is most impressive in its displays of debauchery. I was very fond of the Red Dwarf Smegazine and its 'expanded universe' attitude to comics. It's a shame it didn't last a little longer.

Ghost World: Ghost World; Yard Sale
The first chapter establishes the characters of Enid and Rebecca and defines Ghost World through their observations of other characters: the 'weird' stand-up, John Ellis, Bob Skeetes and especially the Satanists. Enid holds an exclusive Yard Sale, burt abandons it in favour of discussions about suggestive food, Melorra's political debut, shopping with Satanists (Rebecca's POV of their basket is fantastic) and the panel with Goofie Gus on the last page is great.

Games

Day Of The Tentacle
Zany is a word that is often hard to find a place for, but it is the most accurate description of Day Of The Tentacle. This point-and-click time travel adventure is fantastic: the story is brilliant, the graphics are wacky and the dialogue is very, very funny, while the gameplay, music, sound effects and voice acting are all great. Also it's not only a sequel to Maniac Mansion, but it also contains the first Maniac Mansion as well.

Sam & Max Hit The Road
Depicting the investigations of Sam & Max, Freelance Police™. This comedy point-and-click adventure ups the wackiness and humour of Day Of The Tentacle, combines it with a good dose of Monkey Island storytelling and some fantastic dialogue: "Of all the Daliesque tourist traps in the world, we had to walk into this one."

Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Yet another point-and-click adventure, this one is based on the original series of Star Trek features the voices of the original cast and genuinely feels like you are playing your way through eight new episodes of the TV show.

Doom
This first-person shooter is fantastic. The game's mix of extreme violence, problem solving and Satanic imagery was a winning conbination. That it spelled the beginning of the end of the point-and-click adventure games that I loved so much was unfortunate and I can't help resenting it slightly. In a genius piece of marketing, the first third of the game was made available freely as shareware and is presumably still out there somewhere on the internet, so do yourself a favour and download it.

Recommendations welcome.

Next month: 1992

S Is For...Stay Alive In '95

My nineteenth post for the A-to-Z Challenge, S is for... Stay Alive In '95:

I wrote a review-of-the-year type post of my favourite Film, TV, Radio, Music, Books, Comics, Games, Online and/or Art etc at the end of 2010 and enjoyed writing it enough to decide to keep writing them. So I've been working my way backwards, one year per month, and I've reached 1995:

Stay Alive In '95
I've borrowed this title from the sleeve notes for the single release of Pulp's 'Common People', the full quote is: "There is a war in progress - don't be a casual(ty). The time to decide whose side you're on is here. Choose wisely. Stay alive in '95."

1995 was the year that Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers disappeared, Nick Leeson caused the collapse of Barings Bank, the Oklahoma City bombing took place, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of double murder and astonishingly the state of Mississippi finally outlawed slavery.

These are a few of my favourite things from 1995:

Film

Mighty Aphrodite
Woody Allen does Greek tragedy and does it in style. Mighty Aphrodite is very, very funny. Mira Sorvino's performance is phenomenal, Allen and F. Murray Abraham are great.

Twelve Monkeys
Terry Gilliam's thought-provoking time travel thriller is fantastic. Inspired by La Jetee the film deals with temporal mechanics in an intelligent way. Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Frank Gorshin and Christopher Plummer are all great. Here's the trailer.

GoldenEye
Bond is back with a vengeance after a six year absence. The bizarre, but brilliant title sequence exemplifies the idea of adjusting Bond for a post-Cold War age. Pierce Brosnan takes on the role and makes it his own, while Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Alan Cumming, Michael Kitchen, Robbie Coltrane and Judi Dench are all wonderful and it's great to see Desmond Llewellyn back as Q. Here's the trailer.

The Usual Suspects
Bryan Singer's directorial debut is a brilliant and densely plotted film that takes in elements of heist movies and film noir to become probably the best in its genre. The cast and the twist in the tale are fantastic. Here's the trailer.

Apollo 13
Based on the true story of the thirteenth Apollo mission. The realism acheived aboard Apollo 13 is incredibly convincing, the cast are great and the sense of lunar apathy on Earth, followed by the sensationalism when the mission is at risk, are both very well played. Here's the trailer.


TV
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Past Tense; Heart Of Stone; Destiny; Prophet Motive; Visionary; Through The Looking Glass; Improbable Cause & The Die Is Cast; Explorers; Family Business; Shakaar; Facets; The Adversary; The Way Of The Warrior; The Visitor; Hippocratic Oath; Indiscretion; Rejoined; Starship Down; Little Green Men; The Sword Of Kahless; Our Man Bashir
The third series continues with two-parter Past Tense which addresses the issues of homelessness, unemployment and segregation on 21st centry Earth with a great guest cast. Heart Of Stone is almost a tragic love story between Odo and Kira with a great surprise ending and Nog's application for Starfleet Academy is a nice subplot. Destiny concerns Sisko's uncomfortable relationship with the mantle of Emissary, the interpretation and reinterpretation of the prophecy is great and O'Brien's embarrassment is tangible. Armin Shimerman, Max Grodénchik and Wallace Shawn are all great in Prophet Motive, a uniquely Ferengi spin on the concepts and mythology at the heart of DS9's pilot episode. Visionary is an intricate time travel detective story and Colm Meaney's dual performance is fantastic. Sisko goes Through The Looking Glass and fits in perfectly as a Terran freedom fighter in the Mirror Universe. Improbable Cause and The Die Is Cast are an outstanding two-parter which builds on the events of the season thus far and the mostly unexplored relationship between Odo and Garak is used to great effect, Rene Auberjonois and Andrew Robinson are fantastic, the interrogation scene and the space battle are particularly impressive and it's lovely to see Paul Dooley back. Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton ease with one another make the Siskos father and son trip in Explorers, the Cardassian coincidence is well played and the O'Brien and Bashir drunk scene is fantastic. Quark and Rom return home to deal with some Family Business, Shimerman, Grodenchik and Andrea Martin are wonderful in what is a fantastic Ferengi episode. Kira is reunited with Shakaar as Kai Winn risks a civil war on Bajor and the exterior shooting looks wonderful. The regular cast each embody a different host of the Dax symbiont in Facets and Shimerman as Quark as Audrid and Auberjonois as Odo as Curzon in particular are wonderful, while Nog takes his Starfleet exams and Grodenchik is adorable as proud father Rom. The paranoia caused by the Changeling infiltration of The Adversary is intense, the Odo versus Founder fight scene is impressive and the Founder's final words are revealed to be suitably chilling.
The fourth season begins with the flawless TV movie The Way Of The Warrior, which works like another pilot as the political landscape shifts once again, the Klingons become the enemy once more and Michael Dorn's Worf joins the cast. Brooks, Lofton and Tony Todd are wonderful in The Visitor's fantastic exploration of a relationship between father and son which transcends death. Bashir and O'Brien's friendship is tested as the Doctor's Hippocratic Oath compels him to help a group of Jem'Hadar, but the engineer chooses to break it for him. Nana Visitor and Marc Alaimo are wonderful together as Indiscretion throws Kira and Dukat together in a road movie-like episode and Sisko's faux pas is very funny. Rejoined is a love story that trades one taboo for another and Terry Farrell and Susanna Thompson make a beautiful couple. Starship Down is a great submarine thriller with some lovely interaction between its pairs of characters. Shimerman, Grodenchik and Aron Eisenberg are hilarious in Little Green Men, a comedy episode crammed full of B-movie references. The quest for The Sword Of Kahless is a great adventure yarn and Dorn, Farrell and John Colicos are terrific. Our Man Bashir is a fantastic Bond homage and a huge amount of fun.

Star Trek: Voyager: Caretaker; Parallax; Time And Again; Phage; Eye Of The Needle; Emanations; Prime Factors; State Of Flux; Heroes And Demons; Faces; Jetrel; Learning Curve; The 37's; Initiations; Projections; Non Sequitur; Parturition; Persistence Of Vision; Tattoo; Cold Fire; Maneuvers; Resistance
The Star Trek spinoff about a starship marooned in the Delta Quadrant and its long voyage home begins with Caretaker, Armin Shimerman's cameo scene as Quark is great, Ethan Phillips steals the show as Neelix, the location shooting and the visual effects are very impressive in what is the most equally balanced Star Trek pilot. It introduces all nine of its regular characters ably as well as several of the key relationships between them and sets up the premise of the series very well. The second episode, Parallax, is not yet business as usual for Star Trek: Voyager and the quantum singularity cause is effect A-story is fairly inconsequential, but the subplots tidying up unfinished business from the pilot are much more interesting. Time And Again is another time travel paradox episode and a nice little story to boot which expands on the role of Kes. The Phage-suffering Vidiians are a great SF concept and this episode avoids the silliness you would expect from lung theft and instead features some genuine ethical dilemmas and brings out the best in Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo and Phillips. The 'Harry Kim wormhole' allows the crew to peer through the Eye Of The Needle into the Alpha Quadrant in the first of many attempts to get home quicker and Vaughn Armstrong is great as Telek R'Mor. Emanations asks some interesting questions about the afterlife, gives Garrett Wang an episode to get his teeth and Jefrey Allan Chandler is wonderful as a reluctant recipient of euthanasia. The crew get another chance to get home in Prime Factors which sees the Starfleet and Maquis crews working together like never before and Martha Hackett is great as Seska. She comes to the fore again and the revelations keep coming in State Of Flux. Heroes And Demons is a very funny Doctor episode which features a hilarious performance from Picardo and a wonderful depiction of Beowulf. Faces is a very literal character study as Torres is split in half in, but it's a great episode as Roxann Biggs-Dawson is wonderful in both roles, Brian Markinson is fantastic and this episode turns the Vidiians into great horror movie-style bad guys. Neelix comes face to face with Jetrel, a thinly veiled Oppenheimer/Hiroshima parable which features great performances from Phillips and James Sloyan are great. Learning Curve is an atypical season finale, but it does acknowledge the Starfleet/Maquis divide and run with it convincingly for the last time (and as a plus features this line).
The second season begins with The 37's which works as a restatement of principles and effectively as a second pilot episode with wonderful performances from David Graf and Sharon Lawrence. Robert Beltran and Aron Eisenberg are great in Initiations, an episode that adds a much-needed layer of complexity to both the Kazon and Chakotay. Picardo and Dwight Schultz are as brilliant as ever in Projections, a fractal Cartesian nightmare for the Doctor as reality unfolds around him and the resulting episode is fantastic. Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill are great together as Kim gives up the perfect parallel life in Non Sequitur. Neelix and Paris overcome their jealousy and undergo Parturition in an episode that proves Phillips and McNeill are a great double act. Persistence Of Vision follows a well mined seam of hallucinations and fears made real, but does so with such style that it seems far more original. Beltran and Henry Darrow are both wonderful in Chakotay-centric episode Tattoo and Picardo is hilarious as the ill Doctor. Jennifer Lien is given a rare chance to excel as Kes in Cold Fire and she does not disappoint. Maneuvers advances the Seska storyline compellingly, the Kazon torpedo shuttle attack is impressive, Cullah's transporter use is gruesome and Beltran, Hackett and Anthony De Longis are great. Joel Grey is phenomenal as Caylem in Resistance and the relationship between his character and Janeway is very touching.

Father Ted: Good Luck, Father Ted; Entertaining Father Stone; The Passion Of St Tibulus; Competition Time; And God Created Woman; Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest
The series hits the ground running as the first episode, Good Luck, Father Ted is fantastic and highlights include Dougal's diagram, the Lord's prayer, Funland, duelling banjos and every scene with Tom. Ted and Dougal find themselves Entertaining Father Stone and Michael Redmond pitches his deadpan stoicism perfectly. Jim Norton is great as Bishop Brennan forces Ted and Dougal to protest against The Passion Of St Tibulus at the cinema and their signage has gone down in history, while Father Hernandez is hilarious. Competition Time introduces Ted's rivalry with Dick Byrne and the intercutting between Craggy and Rugged Islands, Dougal's fascination with Henry Sellars hair and the Elvises Presley are great while the simplistic treatment of alcoholism somehow manages to be funny and still does the show credit. Mrs Doyle's examples of bad language, Jack on automatic, mass fans, Jim's diagnosis, Ted as an accessory in Tom's lift and Dougal looking for change are all brilliant moments in And God Created Woman. Jack shuffles off this mortal coil in the last episode of the first series, Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest, and Dougal's last rites, the cut to 'Karma Chameleon' and the game of charades are all great.

Northern Exposure: The Great Mushroom; Mi Casa, Su Casa; Horns; The Mommy's Curse; The Quest; Lucky People; The Graduate; Little Italy; Balls; Buss Stop; Ursa Minor; Let's Dance; Tranquility Base
The sixth and final season continues with Maggie visiting Joel living atop The Great Mushroom and his various deaths are all funny. Marilyn follows soon after and Joel feels she undermines him, while Ed housesits for Maurice and takes on more than a few aspects of the owner's personality in Mi Casa, Su Casa. Alaska releases Joel from his contract which has a profound effect on him, while Maurice's Cicely Water venture causes a role reversal in the town in the brilliant hundredth episode Horns. Another death leaves Maggie wondering if The Mommy's Curse is hereditary and Walt's brief career in retail is great. The Quest for the Jewel City of the North takes Joel and Maggie on a bizarre journey and ends in a particularly poignant ending. If people who need people are the luckiest people, then Maurice, Phil and Michelle discover they are Lucky People indeed. Chris becomes The Graduate, the transcendental 45th Regiment are brilliant, the reveal of Holling's secret is shocking and the town's rallying around him is very funny. Phil discovers Cicely's Little Italy and finds himself at the centre of a family feud, while Ruth-Ann's radio career and Ed's suggestion of "early burnout" are very funny. Lester Haines' "tribal values" are initially hilarious and ultimately heartbreaking for Ed, the bowling team scenes are great and the rift between the Capras is a bold move at this stage in Balls. Michelle tries to direct a production of Bus Stop in Buss Stop, Hayden Keyes' forced perspective entrance and pointless trapdoor, Shelly's presentation skills and Maurice's theatre speech are great. Ursa Minor sees Ed looking after a baby bear. The effect of Cal's violin on Semanski, Phil's breaches of Tlingit etiquette and Marilyn's cotillion classes are hilarous in Let's Dance. Cicely's couples converge on Maurice's Tranquility Base in the final episode and every relationship is tested to one degee or another, Michelle is visited by Joel's hallucinatory Rabbi Schulman and the 'Our Town' montage at the end is great.

American Gothic: Pilot; A Tree Grows In Trinity; Eye Of The Beholder; Damned If You Don't; Dead To The World; Meet The Beetles; Strong Arm Of The Law;
Gary Cole, Sarah Paulson, Lucas Black and Nick Searcy are fantastic in Shaun Cassidy's horror TV series. The pilot episode introduces the town of Trinity in South Carolina, USA a well as its Sheriff, its Doctor and schoolteacher and Caleb has a particularly horrific tenth birthday as he loses his sister and father. A tree grows in Trinity in A Tree Grows In Trinity and David Lenthall is great as put upon coroner Webb. Eye Of The Beholder introduces the wonderful Tina Lifford, the horror quotient is high, Michael Burgess is great and the episode builds to a nice twist which sets up the the dynamic for the rest of the show. Brigid Walsh and Steve Rankin are great as Damned If You Don't shows that Lucas collects on debts. Searcy is excellent in Dead To The World, which again shows another facet of Lucas, but also feature a great use of Gail's character. Meet The Beetles is incredibly creepy and Caleb's grave idea gives a brilliant insight into his character. Strong Arm Of The Law is a great example of Sheriff Buck's sense of justice at work.

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave
Shaun and a flockful of sheep join Wallace and Gromit in Nick Park's third short film. It's what you might get if International Rescue used Thunderbirds for cleaning windows. Between the window cleaning and the flock acrobatics, the set pieces are wonderful. Wallace's romantic involvement with Wendoline is heartbreaking as you will them to get together, but as usual it's Gromit that steals the show. It's another animated tour-de-force.

Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge;
Alan's records some choice cuts of Christmas chat from a studio mock up of his home. Christian bellringers mingle with electrocuted golfers, a cross-dressing chef and Alan's new boss Tony Hayers. Featuring several Rover Vitesse product placement and a brilliant rendition of 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas'. Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, David Schneider, Kevin Eldon, Patrick Barber and Doon MacKichan are hilarious.

Music

Pulp: Different Class
The band's fifth album and their biggest break is made up of twelve of the best tracks ever. Dealing with themes of sex and social class, the lyrics are brilliant throughout. This album is fantastic.
Stand-Out Tracks: 'Mis-Shapes', 'Pencil Skirt', 'Common People', 'I Spy', 'Disco 2000', 'Live Bed Show', 'Something Changed', 'Sorted For E's & Wizz', 'F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.', 'Underwear', 'Monday Morning', 'Bar Italia'

Blur: The Great Escape
The fourth album could be seen as the antidote to its predecessor, The Great Escape is everything that Parklife is not. Moving its focus into suburbia and with a listless melancholic feeling hiding within even the jauntiest tracks, while the slower songs 'Best Days', 'The Universal', 'He Thought Of Cars' and 'Yuko & Hiro' take on a beautiful elegance.
Stand-Out Tracks: 'Stereotypes', 'Country House', 'Best Days', 'Charmless Man', 'Fade Away', 'The Universal', 'Mr Robinson's Quango', 'He Thought Of Cars', 'It Could Be You', 'Ernold Same', 'Dan Abnormal', 'Yuko & Hiro'

Supergrass: I Should Coco
Popular perception of this band probably stems most from 'Alright', but even at this stage they were already so much more. The band’s debut album rushes passed at breakneck speed and takes in a huge array of musical styles that should probably clash, yet the dexterity with which they are played sees them sit perfectly side-by-side. Beginning with several rockier tracks, each distinctively different from the last, building through slower towards a quite trippy penultimate track and a beautiful coda. 'Caught By The Fuzz' is easily one of the best songs ever written (especially in its sublime acoustic version), but it speaks volumes that it might not even be the best song on this album.
Stand-Out Tracks: 'I'd Like To Know', 'Caught By The Fuzz', 'Mansize Rooster', 'Alright', 'Lose It', 'Lenny', 'Strange Ones', 'She's So Loose', 'Time', 'Sofa (Of My Lethargy)', 'Time To Go'

The Presidents Of The United States Of America: The Presidents Of The United States Of America
Despite sometimes feeling more like a novelty album, this album is both grungy and catchy with some great self-deprecating lyrics.
Stand-Out Tracks: 'Lump', 'Boll Weevil', 'Peaches', 'Dune Buggy', 'We Are Not Going To Make It', 'Naked And Famous'

Books

Red Dwarf: Last Human by Doug Naylor
In a similar vein to series VI and VII, the third Red Dwarf novel is set aboard Starbug rather than its mothership. Last Human plays very intelligently with time and multiple realities, features some intersting descendents and incorporates elements from the TV episodes Psirens, Legion, Emohawk - Polymorph II, DNA and Quarantine. A rather more explicit novel than its stablemates, especially in its descriptions of the GELFs and the consummation of Lister's wedding...

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett
The eighteenth Discworld novel sees the witches caught up in a story not unlike The Phantom Of The Opera. Pratchett takes no prisoners joking at the expense of opera, musical theatre and goths. Any book containing the sentence "People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were the kind of people who didn't need people" is alright by me.

Comics

Ghost World: Hubba Hubba; The Norman Square
The fifth chapter sees Enid and Rebecca visit fifties diner Hubba Hubba
and the girls arrange a date with bearded windbreaker in a sequence which is the scenario for the film. Josh, Weird Al and the episode of Orlando are all very well depicted. The Norman Square finally acknowledges the Ghost World graffiti and sees elements of the backdrop to the girl's lives unravelling: Bob Skeetes phone is cut off, a solo Satanist and no more Norman as his bus stop is reactivated. Both chapters end on a very touching note.

Art
Benefits Supervisor Sleeping by Lucian Freud
The painting (below) captures its subject in a moment of stillness. It's refreshing to see a zaftig nude portrayed simply and seemingly without judgement. She is neither glamourised nor demonised, she just is.

Recommendations welcome. Next Month: 1994