Carruthers Ten Years On: October 2008

October 2008 on the Carruther's Blog was a busy one behind the scenes. Ten years later was equally busy with is why I'm posting this late.

We were picked up by the UK arm of Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die website and one of the videos was chosen for their Editorial Pick and we were invited in for a meeting. They sent us an email: "One of our video researchers was laughing a lot so we crowded round his computer and he was watching your porn-sitcom video. They're very funny little clips. I don't know if you noticed - but a couple of days ago you were our 'big deal' on the front page. We'd be very keen to have you guys continue submitting stuff for the site as it's actually funny - compared to most of the stuff that gets uploaded. So perhaps we should meet up and we can let you know a bit more about what we're doing, and you can tell us what you guys are doing and then we can formulate a cunning plan." and "your stuff is fucking funny - and is a joy to watch as is rare to find genuinely funny clips online."

It was a very exciting time and we put a lot of work into coming up with ideas. They were keen and offered us access to studio space, equipment and crew. Within a week, they had filmed and uploaded a remarkably similar idea to something we pitched and we never heard from them again.

For the record, we didn't meet Will Ferrell.

On the subject of the Sitcom Porn video, it was probably my favourite stuff to do on the blog. I used to come up with filthy name for a sitcom and then using MS paint I used to degrade the DVD cover. Looking back now, they still make laugh.

This piece of biting satire at the expense of George W. Bush. Remember him? I'm particularly pleased with the line "The man who puts the riot in patriot", which in retrospect now seems more appropriate when applied to the current incumbent.

A Time When Free Love No Longer Reigned And Corruption Ruled

Is how Basil Exposition describes 1997 in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery while predicting the return of Dr. Evil.

1997 was the year that Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister, Diana Princess of Wales died in a car crash, the Hale-Bopp comet reached its closest to Earth and an episode of Pokémon caused seizures in hundreds of Japanese children days after the trading card game was blessed by the Vatican for its lack of "harmful moral side effects."

In 1997, I was in My Fair Lady at school.

These are a few of my favorite things from 1997:

Film

The Ice Storm
This look at suburban escapism and sexual politics in two families has a fascinating tone to it, the seventies period detail is impressive and the visuals of the storm itself are amazing. Here's the trailer.

Tomorrow Never Dies
Pierce Brosnan's second outing as Bond is a brilliant tale of mass media manipulation, which in light of the phone-hacking scandal Rupert Murdoch's News Of The World seems all the more apt now than it did on its first release. Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Pryce, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Desmond Llewellyn and Vincent Schiavelli are fantastic. The formula is firing on all cylinders: the car, the gadgets, the stunts, the music and the opening theme are all great (although to put it in perspective, the opening theme was nearly this good). Here's the trailer.

Deconstructing Harry
Woody Allen's film about a writer explores his own emotional shortcoming through a series of vignettes is fantastic. Allen, Hazelle Goodman and Bob Balaban are great and hiring Robin Williams at the height of his popularity and then blurring his face is a very funny notion. Here's the trailer.

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
One part parody to two parts homage, this film evokes sixties-era James Bond with genuine affection and a peculiarly British sense of humour that it apparently takes a Canadian to realise. Mike Myers is fantastic in both his roles and has created two antithetical characters that are equally appealing and infectious. Mimi Rogers, Mindy Sterling, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Charles Napier and Seth Green are great. The set pieces are great and the aftermath of the henchmen's death scenes are fantastic. Here's the trailer.

Jackie Brown
Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Forster are fantastic in this Blaxploitation-esque film that is better than Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction combined. Here's the trailer.

Grosse Pointe Blank
John Cusack and Dan Ackroyd are great as competing assassins in this very funny comedy film. Any fim that contains the line "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?" is all right with me, but the dialogue is witty throughot. The soundtrack of eighties hits is great while the muzak during Blank's visit to the convenience store on the site of his childhood home is one of the best uses of music in the history of cinema. Here's the trailer.

TV
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Welcome To The Hellmouth & The Harvest; Witch; Teacher's Pet; Never Kill A Boy On The First Date; The Pack; Angel; I, Robot...You, Jane; The Puppet Show; Nightmares; Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight; Prophecy Girl; When She Was Bad; Some Assembly Required; School Hard; Inca Mummy Girl; Reptile Boy; Halloween; Lie To Me; The Dark Age; What's My Line?; Ted
From the very first scene of Welcome To The Hellmouth spectacularly subverting the expectations of the audience, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is awesome and practically perfect: the trademark dialogue gets a showcase, the characters of Buffy, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Giles are all fully formed. Ken Lerner is hilarious as Principal Flutie in the scene about Buffy's transcripts, The Master's entrance is suitably impressive. Buffy and her friends attempt to prevent The Harvest, the first of their apocalypses: Brian Thompson gives great evil, Kristine Sutherland is wonderful as Buffy's mother Joyce and The Master's "You've got something in your eye" line is the first sign that the Big Bad has got a sense of humour. An investigation into a series of attacks by a Witch marks Buffy's first use of the supernatural as a metaphor with a parent reliving their through their children and the psychological horror quotient is up with Cordelia's blindness, another girl's enforced muteness and Catherine Madison's imprisonment. Elizabeth Anne Allen and Robin Riker are both great and the 'out of character' dialogue they're both given is a really nice touch. It may be monster-of-the-week, but Teacher's Pet is not throwaway, but instead with Xander's dream and guitar solo, his tongue-tiedness at meeting Miss French and his embarrassment a discovering why she chose him this is Nicholas Brendon's first chance to shine. Never Kill A Boy On The First Date has a brilliant twist ending. An episode about possession by hyenas should be awful, but The Pack is much better than it must have looked on paper and once again Brendon is superb. Angel is the episode that defines the first season and raises the bar to a mythic level. Alyson Hannigan is always fantastic, so it's about time Willow gets a featured episode and I, Robot...You, Jane is great, Robia LaMorte makes an impressive debut as Jenny Calendar and the last scene is very funny. The Puppet Show expertly and repeatedly misdirects the audience and Armin Shimerman is wonderfully sinister and deadpan as Principal Snyder. As Sunnydale's Nightmares become reality Buffy proves it can provide a fresh take on even the most overused ideas and Buffy's nightmare scene with her father is very hard to watch. Teenage isolation causes invisibility in Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight is another example of Buffy dealing with a subject better than the competition, Charisma Carpenter is wonderful in her first opportunity to show that there is more to Cordelia than meets the eye and the last scene is very "cool". The first season ends with the fantastic Prophecy Girl: Xander practicing asking Buffy out on Willow, Buffy's reaction to finding out she will die, Porky Pig showing on a blood spattered television set, Cordy's driving, everybody liking Buffy's dress and Sarah Michelle Gellar is phenomenal.
After a lovely pop-culture referencing teaser, Season Two makes a bold start with When She Was Bad in which Buffy is a real bitca to everyone and only Cordelia will say so to her face, but this episode creates a brooding atmosphere and the last scene with The Anointed One is very funny. Some Assembly Required is Buffy does Frankenstein and does it in style, the grief stricken Mrs Epps is truly terrifying and it's another chance for Carpenter to shine. Spike and Drusilla turn up with a bang in School Hard and both James Marsters and Juliet Landau make a great debut, but it's also another great episode for Shimerman and Sutherland. Xander falls for an Inca Mummy Girl and the scenes of the gang laughing off the preposterousness of the mummy coming to life and then realising that's exactly what has happened, Willow's costume and Oz's attraction to her are all great. Reptile Boy is an ensemble piece with everyone getting a pretty equal share and Xander as a fraternity pledge and Willow wrestling with her conscience are he highlights. Buffy's first Halloween episode is an absolute classic: Hannigan is great as ghostly chaperone to the others, the first signs of Giles' past are intriguing and the concept that Halloween is usually the supernatural's night off is very nice touch. Lie To Me looks fantastic and the visit to The Sunset Club is wonderfully over the top and the last scene between Buffy and Giles is beautiful. Anthony Stewart Head is wonderful in The Dark Age which turns the audience's expectations of Giles on their head. The two-parter What's My Line? feels epic: Willow and Oz's eventual meeting is very cute, Mister Pfister is the most disgusting demon on the series, the cliffhanger is great, Juliet Landau really comes into her own, "I mock you with my monkey pants!" and Spike and Dru's role reversal. John Ritter is great as Ted, Joyce's new boyfriend and Sutherland is wonderful when given a little more to do, but Gellar is phenomenal when Buffy thinks she has killed another human being.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Darkness And The Light; The Begotten; For The Uniform; In Purgatory's Shadow & By Inferno's Light; Doctor Bashir, I Presume?; Business As Usual; Ties Of Blood And Water; Ferengi Love Songs; Soldiers Of The Empire; Children Of Time; Blaze Of Glory; Empok Nor; In The Cards; Call To Arms; A Time To Stand; Rocks And Shoals; Sons And Daughters; Behind The Lines; Favor The Bold & Sacrifice Of Angels; You Are Cordially Invited; Statistical Probabilities; The Magnificent Ferengi
The fifth season continues with The Darkness And The Light which sees a Cardassian taking revenge on Kira and killing off the members of her resistance cell, their debate has fascinating moral ambiguity. Odo's solidity and Kira's pregnancy come to an end in The Begotten and both of them have interesting emotional reactions to their adoptive 'children'. Sisko's pursuit of Eddington pushes him into a very grey moral area in For The Uniform and the allusions to Les Miserables provide an insight into the latter's martyr complex and Kenneth Marshall gives him an unsettling ambiguity. In Purgatory's Shadow & By Inferno's Light are a phenomenal two-parter that shakes up the status quo of interstellar politics once again and features fantastic performances from Michael Dorn, Alexander Siddig, Andrew J. Robinson and J.G. Hertzler. Robert Picardo, Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson are hilarious in Doctor Bashir, I Presume?, but the episode is by no means a comedy and Siddig is excellent as it takes a darker turn. Quark takes up arms dealing in Business As Usual until his conscience proves to much for him and he sets one side against the other while Steven Berkoff is terrifying and the scene with Kirayoshi in the pit is very funny. Ties Of Blood And Water concerns deathbed confessions and end-of-life care, Kira's speech about Ghemor's final breaths is very emotive and it's gratifying to see Jeffrey Combs back as Weyoun. Armin Shimerman, Wallace Shawn, Cecily Adams, Combs (in his other role as Brunt), Grodenchik and Masterson are all on form in comedy episode Ferengi Love Songs, with powerful men hiding in bedroom closets, Kira correcting Leeta's every complaint about Rom and Quark's joy at seeing his Marauder Mo action figures. Soldiers Of The Empire is like a pilot for an all Klingon Star Trek show and has very sinister air to it until Worf awakens the warrior within Martok and all the scenes between Dorn and Hertzler are fantastic. Children Of Time is one of the most inventive time travel episodes, the ethical dilemma at its core is exactly the sort of thing Star Trek should be about and Rene Auberjonois is wonderful as the older Odo. Marshall is great as Eddington goes down in a Blaze Of Glory and Nog's attempts to gain Martok's respect manage to be funny without being silly. A salvage mission to Empok Nor leads to a psychological thriller that is probably the creepiest episode of any Star Trek series. War is In The Cards while Jake and Nog barter and trade their way around DS9 in an enjoyable and frivolous tale with Weyoun and Winn's treaty negotiations relegated to a B-story and great performances from Brian Markinson, Louise Fletcher and Combs. The season finale, Call To Arms, packs so much into three quarters of an hour that it should probably feel crowded and yet despite the declaration of war, the laying of mines, the signing of the non-aggression pact between Bajor and the Dominion, the various goodbyes, the station's occupation and a news reporter on the front line and it is absolutely spectacular.
The first six episodes of the sixth season form a serial of the events of the Dominon occupation of Deep Space 9 and life during wartime: A Time To Stand shows a bruised and broken Starfleet, a triumphant Dominion aboard DS9 renamed Terok Nor and Sisko and his crew infiltrating enemy territory in a Jem'Hadar ship. Rocks And Shoals sees that ship destroyed and Sisko forced to make a deal with the enemy while the Vedek's protest is very shocking. Sons And Daughters sees Alexander and Ziyal both attempting to live in two worlds and both being failed by fathers Worf and Dukat and getting more from an adoptive parent in Martok or Kira respectively. It's hard to see Sisko's crew on a mission Behind The Lines without him and Odo's malaise is far scarier than any actual hostility. Favor The Bold & Sacrifice Of Angels form a two-parter within a six-parter which draw all the threads together with the most impressive space battle yet and some character moments: Morn the messenger, Quark the liberator, Rom's being too late, the Female Changeling's blasé attitude to the war, Dukat's descent into madness, the baseball and anyone who says the involvement of the prophets is a deus ex machina may have to fight me. The highlights of all six episodes are the scenes set aboard the occupied station and Visitor, Auberjonois, Shimerman, Combs, Alaimo, Grodenchik, Cirroc Lofton, Melanie Smith, Salome Jens and Casey Biggs are all fantastic throughout. You Are Cordially Invited to Worf and Jadzia's wedding and Jadzia's party, Sisko getting her back on track and Bashir and O'Brien's attack are all great. The genetically engineered savants are all fantastic and their predictions on casualty reports based on Statistical Probabilities are cold and dispassionate. Quark puts together The Magnificent Ferengi to rescue Ishka from the Dominion and the prisoner exchange scenes are very, very funny.

Star Trek: Voyager: Fair Trade; Coda; Blood Fever; Unity; Before And After; Real Life; Distant Origin; Displaced; Worst Case Scenario; Scorpion; The Gift; Day Of Honor; Revulsion; The Raven; Scientific Method; Year Of Hell; Concerning Flight; Mortal Coil
The third season continues with an end of an era for Neelix in Fair Trade, Ethan Phillips is wonderful as the torn Talaxian fearing his usefulness has come to an end he makes some questionable decisions to extend it. The twists and turns of Coda are great as it switches from genre to genre. Blood Fever is more than just a riff on Amok Time, Voyager's Pon Farr episode looks great, feels claustrophobic, features brilliant performances from Roxann Biggs-Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill and ends on captivating cliffhanger. Unity takes an intriguing view of the Borg and skilfully takes another step toward reintroducing them. Before And After uses time travel in a very innovative way to tell the story of a life lived backwards and Jennifer Lien gives a wonderful performance. Picardo and Wendy Schaal are fantastic as the Doctor experiments with a perfect holofamily in Real Life. As an allegory of Galileo's 'heresy' following Gegen's point of view in his search for Voyager with its pointed dialogue and impressive depiction of Voth culture, Distant Origin is fantastic. Voyager's crew are Displaced one by one in an episode with nice SF ideas and a great twist. Worst Case Scenario is great as an alternative view to life aboard ship and once again Martha Hackett is fantastic. After what is probably the best teaser in all of Star Trek, the season ends with the first part of Scorpion, the Borg pile is a very disturbing image, the realisation of Species 8472 is very impressive and the cliffhanger ending is great.
The fourth season begins with the second part and Jeri Ryan makes a fantastic debut as Seven of Nine, the arguments between Janeway and Chakotay are great, the space battles, the collision of the Borg Cube with the bioship and the Borg drones blown out of Voyager's airlock are stunning uses of CGI. The transitional episode The Gift features great performances from Kate Mulgrew, Ryan and Lien, but watching it is a bittersweet experience as although Jennifer Lien has always given great performances she has had more to do in her last three episode than she has in the last three seasons. Day Of Honor gives the relationship between Torres and Paris a shot in the arm and continues Seven's integration. Leland Orser's portrayal of a hologram's Revulsion is fantastic and Ryan is great in Seven's unexpected comedy scenes. The Raven delves into Seven's past and begins to show her potential. Seven's point-of-view shots in Scientific Method are some of the creepiest images in Star Trek and the competitive maladies conversation of Chakotay and Neelix is very funny. Mulgrew and Kurtwood Smith are wonderful in the phenomenal and epic two-parter Year Of Hell. Concerning Flight is very enjoyable, Mulgrew and John Rhys Davies are great and the realisation of Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine is very impressive. Neelix is resurrected after shuffling off this Mortal Coil and Ethan Phillips' portrayal of his ensuing crisis of faith is fantastic and asking big questions about the afterlife makes for good Star Trek.

Red Dwarf: Tikka To Ride, Blue
Largely single camera and studio audienceless, Red Dwarf VII is often stylistically closer to a comedy drama than a sitcom. Picking up where Series VI left off, Tikka To Ride sees the time-travelling boys from the Dwarf embroiled in the assassination of JFK, the mock up of the Zapruder footage is phenomenal, Michael J. Shannon is great as Kennedy and plot hole paradoxes aside the episode is very enjoyable. The Rimmer Experience and the accompanying Munchkin song from Blue are great.

I'm Alan Partridge: A Room With An Alan; Alan Attraction; Watership Alan; Basic Alan; To Kill A Mocking Alan; Towering Alan
Steve Coogan, Felicity Montagu, Barbara Durkin, Simon Greenall and Sally Phillips are fantastic throughout as Alan Partridge holes up in a Linton Travel Tavern whilst working for Radio Norwich and awaiting news of a second series of Knowing Me, Knowing You in A Room With An Alan, David Schneider is great as Tony Hayers Alan's bizarre Hayers flashbacks are inspired and the strangest thing is that most of the oddest of Alan's TV show pitch ideas all feel like they've been made in the intervening years. Alan's financial situation worsens in Alan Attraction and highlights include Alan sabotaging Lynn's efforts to economise, a visit to "a cracking owl sanctuary" and a great performance from Julia Deakin. Alan's promotional video for canal barge holidays and his agricultural radio debate in Watership Alan are brilliant, and Chris Morris is wonderful. Alan's zombie costume and cone theft are among the highlights of Basic Alan. Featuring a cringeworthy meeting with Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews as Irish TV executives, an Afternoon With Alan Partridge and Alan's biggest fan, To Kill A Mocking Alan is brilliant. Towering Alan sees our hero bounce back, albeit briefly, Kevin Eldon is great, Tony Hayer's wake is hilarious and Alan's triumphant cry of "Jurassic Park!" is genius.

Soul Music
On the face of it, Cosgrove Hall's seven-part animated adaptation of Terry Pratchett's sixteenth Discworld novel seems a tad juvenile in its interpretation, but the music-with-rocks-in soundtrack is nothing less than a work of genius as it makes its way expertly through the history of our own planet's rock music emulating era after era perfectly taking in The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Blues Brothers and more. The voices of Christopher Lee, Debra Gillett and Graham Crowden are great.

Brass Eye: Animals; Drugs; Science; Sex; Crime; Decline
This provocative news satire gives us opinions presented as fact, pointless bombastic graphics and celebrities purporting to be experts to sensationalise and create moral panic. The anatomically impossible plight of Karla the Elephant mobilises an army of well-meaning famous fools in Animals. Morris takes on Drugs and brazenly walks the streets of London asking for Triple-sod, Yellow Bentines and Clarky Cat, the drugs even the dealers aren't aware of, meanwhile David Amess MP asks a question in parliament about made-up drug, Cake. Science asks to believe in invisible lead soup, the 0836 whimper and the braintanglia of rudemath, which Jenny Powell, Nick Owen and Steven Berkoff (even more terrifyingly than in DS9, above) duly do. The introduction to Sex is very stark, the good AIDs/bad AIDs debate works very well and the Naval spin on the odd practices aboard HMS Watford. Crime gives us an acting masterclass from Vanessa Feltz as the unnamed victim, Ted Maul's description of Cowsick as "Dante meets Bosch in a crack lounge" with its overly literal visual accompaniment and astonishingly Rhodes Boyson MP's endorsement the deployment of Batman to fight crime. The season finale looks at the state of Britain and asks if it is in Decline, citing 'Me Oh Myra' by Blouse, the murder of Clive Anderson by Noel Edmunds and a jam-making company which encourages the use of illegal drugs to enhance performance as examples. Chris Morris, Mark Heap, Gina McKee, Kevin Eldon, Doon Mackichan and David Cann. Morris was right all along, TV news has become Brass Eye.

Radio

On The Town With The League Of Gentlemen: A Guest At The Dentons; Death By Mau Mau; Go To Joan Glover; Gunpowder, Treason And Plot; A Kind Of Loving; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The radio series features much of the same material as the first television series, but without the local shop or new road storyline and some brilliant audio exclusives in their place. A Guest At The Dentons introduces an unsuspecting listening public to Spent. The nun, Bernice as a DJ, Ingleby, Spent 4726's answer machine. Meanwhile the twin mayors, "You ever done bird, mate?" and the funrun are brilliant elements that are unique to Death By Mau Mau. Mr McHunt and Ms Plummer at Spent's school are fantastic additions in Go To Joan Glover. Gunpowder, Treason And Plot has the wonderful blacksmith scenes, "I look like Hamble" and Mark Gatiss as Miss Radcliffe Denton. Ingleby's date with Barbara and Bernice's disease in focus are great in A Kind Of Loving. The last episode shows us Spent at Christmas and two French Hens, Bernice's childhood radio show, Barbara's altered voice, Chinnery's apocalyptic handwashing and the A Christmsa Carol coda are all fantastic in God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

Music

Blur: Blur
The eponymous fifth album is an accomplished piece of work carrying the same lyrical prowess away from Britpop and towards a more lo-fi sound with raw guitars. The thought-provoking 'Beetlebum', the gleeful shoutiness of 'Song 2, the beat of 'M.O.R.' willfully plays against its name, 'On Your Own' is singalong pop, 'Death Of A Party' is a languid ballad, 'Look Inside America' is lo-fi at its absolute lo-est and is all the better for it, while 'Essex Dogs' is such a complex composition that has practically everything but the kitchen sink in it. The variety of this album is extraordinary and yet somehow consistent.
Stand Out Tracks: 'Beetlebum', 'Song 2', 'M.O.R.', 'On Your Own', 'Death Of A Party', 'I'm Just A Killer For Your Love', 'Look Inside America', 'Strange News From Another Star', 'Movin' On', 'Essex Dogs', 'Interlude'

Supergrass: In It For The Money
This album is no less energetic than the first, but focuses that energy into an absolute bloody masterpiece. The explosive tracks are still present with the likes of 'Richard III', 'Tonight' and 'Sun His The Sky', but the contemplative 'Late In The Day', 'It's Not Me' and 'Hollow Little Reign' reveal a wisdom that make those explosions all the brighter.
Stand Out Tracks: 'In It For The Money', 'Richard III', 'Tonight', 'Late In The Day', 'G-Song', 'Sun Hits The Sky', 'Going Out', 'It's Not Me', 'Cheapskate', 'You Can See Me', 'Hollow Little Reign', 'Sometimes I Make You Sad'

Cornershop: When I Was Born For The 7th Time
The band's third album takes the Indian sound and tinges it with Indie, Country and all sorts culminating with a Punjabi cover of 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)'
Stand Out Tracks: 'Sleep On The Left Side', 'Brimful Of Asha', 'Butter The Soul', 'We're In Yr Corner', 'Funky Days Are Back Again', 'Good To Be On The Road Back Home', 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)'

The Seahorses: Do It Yourself
Great guitars and strong absurd lyrics abound on what criminally transpired to be the only album from The Seahorses.
Stand Out Tracks: 'I Want You To Know', 'Blinded By The Sun', 'Suicide Drive', 'The Boy In The Picture', 'Love Is The Law', 'Happiness Is Eggshaped', 'Love Me And Leave Me', 'Round The Universe', '1999', 'Hello'

Books

Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Ankh-Morpork goes to war in the twenty-first Discworld novel. The novel deals with the motivations and is filled with pithy comment on the futility of its subject matter, not least Vimes' great speech about "Them". It's very difficult not to like a novel with this level of common sense, comedy and pieces of prose like "Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life."

Book by Whoopi Goldberg (and Daniel Paisner)
A very funny collection of stories and insights. Whoopi Goldberg is honest about having had this ghost written (although she saves the revelation until the last chapter).

Where's Wally? The Wonder Book by Martin Handford
Wally, Wizard Whitebeard, Wenda, Woof and Odlaw lose themselves among twelve fantasy worlds, including The Game of Games, The Cake Factory, The Odlaw Swamp, Clown Town, The Corridors of Time and the Land of Woofs.


Comics

Ghost World: October
The finale of Daniel Clowes' most famous comic ends with a beautifully poignant whimper.

Doctor Who: Endgame 4; The Keep; A Matter Of Life And Death; Fire And Brimstone; By Hook Or By Crook; Tooth And Claw 1-3
The last part of the Eighth Doctor's first strip, Endgame, is the most barmy and shows signs of things to come as the strip becomes brasher and more playful. The Doctor and Izzy visit The Keep in a strip that ties in nicely with the TV stories The Ark In Space and The Talons Of Weng-Chiang and has a truly shocking epilogue that shows there will be consequences. A Matter Of Life And Death sees the return of scores of the Doctor's enemies and allies as a celebration of the strip for Doctor Who Magazine's 250th issue. Picking up two hundred years after The Keep, Fire And Brimstone takes the strip into a complex story arc with an exciting Daleks versus Threshold strip. By Hook Or By Crook is a very odd one shot that nicely develops the relationship between Izzy and Doctor. The first three parts of Tooth And Claw are very different in tone, but Fey Truscott-Sade is a great addition, the syringe wielding monkeys are terrifying and Part Three ends on a great cliffhanger.

Recommendations welcome.

A Space Odyssey

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

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

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

These are a few of my favourite things from 2001:

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





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

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




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

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




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





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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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







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