Air Date: 18 December 1966 Director: Chuck Jones and Ben Washam Original Network: CBS Budget: $315,000 Stars: Boris Karloff, June Foray, Dallas McKennon, Thurl Ravenscroft, and the MGM Studio Chorus
The Background: In 1955, children’s author and poet Theodor Seuss Geisel (known by his pen name as “Dr. Seuss”) wrote and illustrated a 33-line poem titled “The Hoobub and the Grinch”, which was the catalyst for a more expansive piece of work focusing on the mean-spirited Grinch. Inspired by himself, his wife’s ongoing medical problems, and the rampant commercialisation of Christmas, the story was completed within weeks and reportedly received critical acclaim, with the titular character becoming an instant and surprisingly complex Christmas icon. After collaborating on animated ventures during the Second World War, Dr. Seuss and legendary cartoon director Chuck Jones reunited (despite Dr. Seuss’s initial apprehension) to adapt the story into a television special. Jones insisted on complete creative control and expanded on the original story to flesh out characters like Cindy Lou Who (Foray) and Max (McKennon) and inserting musical numbers to pad the runtime. Though released amidst a slew of other animated Christmas specials, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!impressed when first broadcast; over the years, it has become a universally loved Christmas classic, with the cartoon noted as a timeless, heart-warming festive tale. It was so successful that it inspired follow-up cartoons years later, two financiallysuccessful cinematic remakes (one a Jim Carrey showcase and the other an all-CGI throwback) and even a bizarre slasher film in 2022, to say nothing of a slew of other Dr. Seuss adaptations over the years.
The Plot: The monstrous Grinch (Karloff) hates Christmas with a passion. When the joyful holiday cheer of Whoville (The MGM Studio Chorus) become too much for him, the Grinch disguises himself as Santa Claus and sets out to ruin Christmas by stealing the town’s presents!
The Review: The cartoon is set in Who-ville, on Christmas Eve, where the joyful and excited Whos are happily preparing for the big day by decorating the biggest Christmas tree they can find and displaying it proudly in the centre of their village (“Opening”). They’re also hard at work decorating their houses, and the entire village, with tinsel, wreaths, garlands, baubles, and Christmas joy galore (“Trim Up the Tree”) which, in conjunction with the heavy snowfall, quickly turns Who-ville into the most festive place around…maybe ever! However, while all of Who-ville likes Christmas a lot, the sour Grinch, who lives atop the desolate and foreboding Mount Crumpit, does not. Although the narrator (Karloff) informs us that “no one quite knows the reason” why the Grinch hates Christmas so vehemently, it’s speculated to be because his heart is “two sizes too small” and his hatred extends to the entirety of Who-ville. He glares from his cave, joined only by his faithful dog, Max, the only living creature the Grinch shows any remote affection for. The Grinch tells Max that he’s desperate to keep the Whos from making a racket with their Christmas joy and presents, even their sumptuous banquets, where they gorge themselves on a seemingly endless supply of food, and their insistence of gathering in the village to sing and ring bells (“Welcome Christmas”). After fifty-three years of Who nonsense, the Grinch has reached his limit; the Grinch is inspired by a snow-caked Max to assume the guise of jolly ol’ Saint Nic and storms into his cave (dragging Max along) to whip up a suitable outfit (“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”). Once complete, the Grinch forces Max to act as his reindeer, loads up a “ramshackle sleigh” with some black sacks, and sneaks into Who-ville in the dead of night while all the Whos are tucked up in bed, oblivious, easily clambering into their houses via the chimneys and stealing every present under each tree with glee!
After stealing Christmas, the miserly Grinch has a change of heart regarding the festive season.
Emboldened by his wickedness, the Grinch does this for every house, wrecking their trees, pinching their Christmas stars, rolling up their gifts in rugs, and even stealing candy canes from sleeping Who children and clearing out their “ice boxes” (“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Reprise)”). However, just as he’s stuffing a Christmas tree up a chimney, he’s discovered by sweet, innocent, Cindy Lou Who; to pacify the child, the Grinch quickly thinks up a lie, convincing Cindy Lou that he’s going to fix a fault with the tree’s lights. After placating her with milk and a cookie, the Grinch leaves the house barren and ransacked, with barely a microscopic crumb left behind. Once he’s cleared out all of Who-ville and piled his sleigh high with his stolen wares, including the village tree, he heads back up Mt. Crumpit, with poor Max desperately pulling the overloaded sleigh through the snow while being mercilessly whipped. Once at the top, the Grinch prepares to dump everything over the side (“A Quarter of Dawn”), gleefully anticipating the despair of the Whos once they realise Christmas isn’t coming this year. However, when the Grinch pauses to bask in their anguish, he’s surprised to find the Whos’ spirits remain as high as ever! They gather in the village, joining hands and ringing in the season with their bells and song (“Welcome Christmas (Reprise)”), their hearts as warm and large and full of Christmas cheer even without the presents and decorations. Considering the Grinch believes that Christmas is purely about the gifts and excess, he’s confused by this but, as he puzzles out the quandary, he realises that “Christmas” is about more than just things bought from shops. This revelation drives him to save his plunder from their plummet, empowered by the sudden increase in his heart size and the true spirit of Christmas. Now cheerful and joyous, the Grinch and Max ride into Who-ville and return everything they stole, restoring Christmas to the village and even joining them for Christmas dinner, carving the roast beast and allowing the spirit of the season to fill him from head to toe (“Finale”).
The Summary: It might surprise you to know that I’m not really a fan of Dr. Seuss. I didn’t grow up reading his bizarre stories, nor was How the Grinch Stole Christmas! part of my annual Christmas tradition. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it broadcast on television here in the United Kingdom, so my experience with the good doctor and his colourful characters is limited solely to their later live-action and CGI adaptations. All this is to say that it wasn’t until Christmas 2023 that I randomly decided to finally give this a quick watch and share my thoughts on it since it’s such a well-known and beloved holiday tale and children’s story. Unsurprisingly, given who directed it, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is suitably Chuck Jones-ian in its animation style; there’s a raw fluidity to the cartoon, meaning you can tell that countless hours of work went into animating every frame, and the characters and their environments are ripped straight from Dr. Seuss’ famous work, literally bringing the static images to life in all their sketchy glory. As you’re probably aware, it’s also a musical, with its songs (particularly Ravenscroft’s rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”) becoming as synonymous with the festive season as the titular miserly creature and being revised and covered not just for future adaptations of the story, but to coincide with the season. The story is a whimsical and timeless ditty, full of enjoyable little rhymes and colourful, memorable, oddball characters; the Whos are strange, furry humanoids who embody Christmas cheer and happiness and their town, though small and buried in snow, is a place of light and love where the Whos live peacefully and with lots of food and comfy houses to keep them snug and warm.
A whimsical fantasy tale with a timeless, heart-warming message.
Naturally, this is juxtaposed by the Grinch; a green-furred, sour-faced gremlin, the Grinch despises the Whos, and Christmas, and has glared at their village with anger, enraged by their noise and excess, every December for the last fifty-five years! Although no definitive reason is given for his dislike for Christmas, it basically comes down to him lacking in Christmas cheer, misunderstanding the meaning of Christmas, and feeling conflicting waves of jealous, disgust, and personal insult since he’s not part of any of the Whos’ celebrations. Believing that the Whos will sing a different tune if all their Christmas possessions are stolen, the Grinch slinks around like a snake, swiping everything he can get his hands on (even lightbulbs and ice cubes!), and easily fooling curious Cindy Lou with his forked tongue. However, the sight and sounds of the Whos retaining their Christmas spirit even without possessions is enough to change the Grinch’s demeanour completely; this is a fundamental lesson of many Christmas tales and it’s shown in beautifully simplistic detail here. The Grinch never considered that Christmas was as much a state of mind as it was about food, decorations, and extravagance, and the love and warmth of this revelation lightens his mood and turns him around on the season completely. It’s simple and much of the depth is buried beneath the whimsical songs and cartoonish fantasy, but it resonates nonetheless and is an important lesson for kids to learn (basically, be grateful for what you have and don’t just think about presents!) While I’m not always Dr. Seuss’ biggest fan, I enjoy the visual and thematic appeal of the Grinch and his heartwarming story, and this fun little animated short is a great addition to your Christmas viewing every December,
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Is How the Grinch Stole Christmas! an annual tradition for your Christmas? Have you read the original story and, if so, what do you think to its different adaptations? Are you a fan of the Grinch character and the colourful, bizarre Whos? Why do you think the Grinch hated Christmas so much? Are you a bit of a Grinch around this time of year? What Christmas movies and specials are you watching this year? Whatever your thoughts on How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, leave them in the comments or on my social media and go check out my other Christmas content across the site.
In the episode “Me2” (Bye, 1988) of the classic British science-fiction comedy show Red Dwarf (1988 to 2020), it is revealed the Arnold Rimmer’s (Chris Barrie) last words were “Gazpacho soup!” and that he made a point to celebrate November 25th as “Gazpacho Soup Day” after a particularly traumatising visit to the Captain’s Table.
Series Two
Air Date: 6 September 1988 to 11 October 1988 Director: Ed Bye OriginalNetwork: BBC2 Stars: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Norman Lovett, David Ross, and Charles Augins
The Background: Back in the mid-1980s, creative duo Rob Grant and Doug Naylor created Dave Hollins: Space Cadet, a sci-fi comedy show for BBC Radio 4 influenced by sci-fi classics like Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974) and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams, 1978; Bell, 1981) and which laid the foundation for what would become Red Dwarf. Their concept of a comedy set in space was initially a hard sell due to its sci-fi trappings, despite the duo emphasising character and comedy over genre. With impressionist Chris Barrie and Liverpudlian “punk poet” Craig Charles cast as bickering duo Second Technician Arnold J. Rimmer and Third Technician Dave Lister, respectively, and joined by tardy singer and dancer Danny John-Jules and sardonic stand-up comedian Norman Lovett, Red Dwarf eventually came to TV screens in early-1988. Despite viewing figures dropping throughout the six-episode first series, five million viewers tuned in for the pilot episode and audience feedback was so strong that the BBC greenlit a second series, which was really where the show hit its stride. Afforded greater influence, and a bigger budget, Grant and Naylor took the chance to expand the show’s setting, even moving out of their comfort zone to introduce a mechanical character who would later join the main cast. Having established their audience, the second series was received far more favourably and was on its way to becoming a cult hit. Some ten years later, Grant and Naylor enhanced the first three seasons with additional digital effects, replacing model shots with CGI and even revising lines and jokes, which resulted in these Remastered episodes being largely criticised. Nevertheless, Red Dwarf proved consistently popular even after the duo parted ways; after alengthy absence, Red Dwarf returned with a three-episode special in a questionablerevival that arguably struggled to match the quality of its earliest seasons.
The Plot: Deep space mining ship Red Dwarf drifts aimless in space three million years into the future, crewed only by Dave Lister, the last human being alive, Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of his deceased superior officer, a humanoid cat (John-Jules), and the ship’s neurotic computer, Holly (Lovett). Their long journey back to Earth is side-tracked by a distress call from confused android Kryten (Ross), an addictive virtual reality game, a leak in the fabric of space and time, and a journey to a parallel dimension where women are the dominant gender.
The Review: Red Dwarf was a popular show in my house when I was a kid. I was too young to remember the first series, however, and our VHS collection of the show started here, with series two, presumably because my dad either didn’t have the means to record the first series when it first aired or never thought to do so. Re-runs of the first series wouldn’t come around until much later, so I grew up watching the second to fifth series with considerable regularity. When I finally did watch the first series, I wasn’t very impressed; there was something lifeless and stilted about the presentation and the jokes that was decidedly at odds with the presentation of later seasons, but even the second series, which aired later in the same year as the first (something I still find astounding; I would’ve expected it to come the following year), has improved dramatically in every way save for that oddly ominous, lengthy, and out of place introductory sequence that would thankfully be ditched for something more upbeat in the third series. Still, you can see how far the series has come just from Holly’s brief recap of the plot that accompanies each episode’s title sequence; not only is Holly rendered in a more aesthetically pleasing way, but his jokes land a lot better, with his quip about having to life at the bleakness of existence and his collection of singing potatoes being just two examples.
Lister finds some new distractions to help vary his long days in deep space.
When we catch up with the Red Dwarf crew, things aren’t too far off from where we left them in the last series; although it seemed Lister and Rimmer came to an understanding and were prepared to show each other mutual respect, that’s not quite the case as Lister openly mocks Rimmer’s desperate attempts to learn Esperanto, proudly piles up his mail (despite it all being junk mail and useless mail order items) and winds Rimmer up about his $£8,500 debt to the “Outland Revenue”, and openly reads his diary (even narrating select sections to the Cat). Yet, their relationship is notably less antagonistic now; Lister bakes a spanner-shaped cake for Rimmer’s death day and not only seems genuinely happy to celebrate the occasion but also tries to help Rimmer’s intoxication with a triple fried egg sandwich with chilli sauce and chutney. Similarly, Rimmer, despite the fact that he can’t stand Lister, is dismayed that he would throw away their relationship in favour of three weeks of happiness with Kristine Kochanski (C. P. Grogan). Lister’s still the same cheerful slob; excited at making contact with another ship, he makes the effort shine his boots, toss on his cleanest t-shirt (“with only two curry stains on it”), and hammer his wretched socks to make himself somewhat presentable despite emphasising that they’re “not on the pull!” and Lister’s staunch refusal to refer to Rimmer as “Ace” leads to Rimmer encouraging him to wear his day-glow orange moonboots, which stink so badly that even the uptight hologram is reduced to tears by their rancid odour. What little emotion Lister showed at being the last man alive is mostly disregarded as he’s settled into his new, bizarre life, however he still craves happiness with Kochanski, to the point where he’s willing to die alongside her after discovering a stasis leak to the past, and is so distraught to find she’s already married that he launches into a great broken-hearted soliloquy about how women always leave him for “total smegheads”, nice guys they can rely on and who aren’t complete slobs. “Stasis Leak” (Bye, 1989) also sees Lister so elated to be reunited with Olaf Petersen (Mark Williams) that he embarrasses him in front of two ladies, and expressing excitement at seeing his long-dead friends again and a brief flash of regret at having taken them for granted. This episode also ends with the revelation that Lister will one day travel to the past and marry Kochanski, a plot point never revisited in future episodes (which is probably for the best as, while this Future-Lister is an arrogant jerk).
The series explores themes of slavery, friendship, and gender equality with a comedic, sci-fi flair.
Much of Lister’s characterisation shifts towards advocating for equality, both for machines and women, whom Rimmer treats with equal measures of indifference, disrespect, and misogynistic apathy. The series introduces the concept of humanoid androids (or “mechanoids”) whose only function is to serve their human masters like butlers; Lister finds Kryten’s life of servitude particularly grating, seeing it as a form of slavery, and actively encourages him to think of himself, work towards his dreams of having a garden somewhere, and exposes him to the works of James Dean and Marlon Brando to try and break his programming and make him more independent. Rimmer is far less respectful and mindful, referred to Kryten as “it” and giving him a ridiculously long list of tasks, including painting a grandiose portrait of him. Lister also vouches for the Skutters (now referred to as Pinky and Perky and depicted as being obsessed with John Wayne and playing cowboys and Indians), reasoning that they only do what they’re told to do and cannot be expected to understand complex instructions or be pro-active, though he does later quip that he “wouldn’t trust them to open a can of beans” when Rimmer suggests they can perform a caesarean. When Holly endangers the crew in “Queeg” (Bye, 1989), drawing the ire of Rimmer and even the Cat, a new authoritarian artificial intelligence, Queeg 5000 (Augins), replaces Holly (accusing him of having an IQ of six, relying on the Junior Encyclopaedia of Space, and sending them in circles for over a year), reducing him to a nightwatchman and enforces far stricter rules. While Rimmer is initially impressed by Queeg’s regime, Lister is dismayed and hurt on Holly’s behalf; while Rimmer demonstrates a lack of empathy towards machines, Lister shares a half-baked story about a pair of shoes with artificial intelligence (or “souls”) and feels bad for Holly being replaced like he was expendable. Similarly, Lister attacks Rimmer’s reliance on cheap tricks, lines, and even hypnosis to deceive women, emphasising that they’re people who deserve respect rather than trickery or contempt. Lister is excited to explore a parallel universe, where females dominate, but Rimmer is disgusted and insulted by Arlene Rimmer’s (Suzanne Bertish), perverse magazines that depict “hugely deformed” male models draped themselves over sports cars and her attempts to hypnotise him and use the same tactics he was previously so proud of to try and seduce him. Since holograms can touch each other, he comes to fear Arlene’s aggressively sexual advances and refuses to acknowledge that she’s simply treating him with the same disrespect and fetishisation he showed women. Arlene even goes so far as to challenge Rimmer, accusing him of being a “boring masculinist”, which runs parallel to Deb Lister’s (Angela Bruce) descriptions of how males fought for equality in this universe.
The series delves deeper into Rimmer’s background and neuroses to flesh out his grating quirks.
Like Lister, Rimmer has largely become accustomed to his newfound life (or, in his case, death). Lister still accuses him of using his condition as an excuse to fail in “Better Than Life” (Bye, 1989), where Rimmer becomes despondent by his reliance on the Skutters since they’re so stupid that they cause more harm than good; he later gets his revenge, and demonstrates his adaptability (or, more accurately, cunning) by simply waiting for a Skutter to return to its duties so he can win a game of draughts by default. This series really expands on Rimmer’s fascination with aliens; mockery from Lister relates that Rimmer equates any strange happenings, however minor, to extraterresital lifeforms. His first guess when the crew wake up to find they’ve lost four days overnight in “Thanks for the Memory” (ibid) is aliens and he attempts to piece together evidence that they were abducted and had their memories erased in an elaborate attempt to communicate. We also learn much about Rimmer’s childhood, which goes a long way to explaining his neurotic and antagonistic character; he’s shaken when he receives a letter informing him of his father’s (John Abineri) death, something he was obviously aware of given they’ve been lost in space for three million years but which still rattles him. However, his turmoil comes not from sadness, as Lister assumes, but out of complex mixture of hatred and respect for his father, an abusive and judgemental patriarch who was so fixated on his sons getting into the Space Corps that he’d withhold food if they couldn’t answer astronavigation questions (resulting in Rimmer almost dying from malnutrition) and stretch them on a traction machine. Still, Rimmer desperately wanted his father’s approval and attempts to find some solace in Better Than Life; although initially ecstatic to get the autograph of his “all-time favourite fascist dictator”, Napoléon Bonaparte (Reece Clarke) (using his “bad hand”, no less), promoting himself Admiral, and even signing a copy of his memoirs, he’s denied hearing his father’s approval thanks to the Cat’s selfishness and the game’s more malevolent side soon comes through. Rimmer revels in rekindling his fling with Yvonne McGruder (Judy Hawkins) but is soon a desperate a despondent husband and father to seven unruly children; Rimmer’s brain cannot handle nice things happening to him, reducing him to an unkempt alcoholic in the blink of an eye and leaving the crew awaiting a slow and painful death by killer ants, earning him only further contempt from his ship mates because of his diseased mind.
The Cat’s attempts to indulge his selfish sexual desires are constantly thwarted throughout the series.
The Cat also noticeably grows as a character; while he’s still obsessed with food, fashion, and sex and largely self-absorbed, he often accompanies Lister on his jaunts around the ship and jumps at the chance to indulge himself in Better Than Life. He delights in ordering a tank of live goldish, seasoning them and singing a fun song as he toys with them, dreams up a wardrobe so big that it crosses an international time zone, and insists that he’s a pro at golf despite his strategy being to avoid hitting his “egg” in favour of hurling his club across the green. The Cat’s imagination also extends to a catchy dance number, “Tongue Tied”, that he views on the dream recorder. Although the Cat lacks the empathy to cheer Rimmer up after he’s shaken by his mother’s note, and actively scuppers Rimmer’s fantasy, he debuts his “wise old cat saying” gag to share his unique cat wisdom, and also disagrees with Kryten’s servant status (though more because he finds the idea of following orders ludicrous), and later admonishes Lister for screwing with Rimmer’s memory with a love affair with Lisa Yates (Sabra Williams). The Cat also showcases more of his love for fashion; he’s aghast at having to hide his colourful clothes in “Stasis Leak”, is distraught when Queeg forces him to work for food and ruins his hands, and even creates a garish customised gold spacesuit and needs to be literally dragged away form his own reflection! The Cat’s constant horniness comes up throughout the series; in “Better Than Life”, he dates both a mermaid, Miranda (Debbie King), whose top half is a fish in an amusing sight gag, and Marilyn Monroe (Debbie Ash), whose attentions eventually annoy him. The Cat is so excited to rescue the Nova 5’s crew that he spends a whole day getting ready and doesn’t seem bothered when they turn out to be dressed up skeletons. When he’s actually around women in “Stasis Leak”, however, he’s driven into such a frenzy that his usual cool is lost and he’s denied the chance to act on his libido. Rimmer later hypocritically scolds the Cat for only thinking about sex rather than a long-term commitment, though the Cat asserts that he’s willing to settle down with the seven or eight perfect girls. The Cat is ultimately disappointed and disgusted to find that his counterpart in the parallel universe isn’t a female cat, but a scruffy and overly enthusiastic dog (Matthew Devitt). Appalled by the Dog’s appearance and stench, the Cat actively avoids his counterpart, who eagerly tries to engage with the Cat and impress him with his dance moves.
Not only is he more versatile, Holly pulls an elaborate prank to teach the crew a lesson in appreciation.
Holly is just as clueless as ever; still half-assing his duties at keeping Red Dwarf on track, he spends his time “totally [revolutionising] music” by decimalising it and inventing new notes, though this results in a completely impractical redesigning of traditional musical instruments that even Lister isn’t impressed by. Still, Holly is more interested in sharing this bizarre idea than in relating distress signals, would rather have the crew guess what his announcements are about even though they have no way of knowing what’s happened, and is even slow to warn of a meteor strike, resulting in them chastising his uselessness. Holly’s absent-mindedness makes him slow to tell Lister that Red Dwarf ran out of cow’s milk “yonks ago” and has been supplemented it with dog’s milk, but he’s still switched on enough to suggest hunting down the black box in “Thanks for the Memory” and to leave a pre-recorded message on the device warning the crew from watching it. Despite Holly’s animosity towards the postal service, he has been playing postal chess with Gordon (Gordon Salkilld), an eleventh-generation computer with an IQ of 8000 who proves to be as quirky and off his rocker as Holly, and even ends up joining the crew in their adventures either using a clunky mobile television unit or on Lister’s wristwatch. The crew’s despair at Holly’s unreliability means they’re understandably sceptical of his dimension-crossing “Holly Hop Drive”; although it doesn’t work as Holly intended, it does shunt them into the “fifth dimension”. Since this isn’t the first time Holly has “flamingo’d up”, it’s surprising when he’s able to explain how parallel dimensions work, especially as he wasn’t able to explain what a stasis leak was. Like the others, Holly also has a female counterpart, Hilly (Hattie Hayridge), who’s equally scatter-brained; unlike his doomed love affair with a Sinclair ZX-81, this relationship goes well for Holly, with Holly not even need a wig to impress Hilly. Series two spotlights Holly tremendously in “Queeg”; the crew loses their patience when Holly endangers them, with Rimmer in particular exasperated when damage to the hologram simulation suite causes him to glitch out (allowing Chris Barrie to showcase his impressions as he imitates Lister, the Cat, and Holly). Holly is initially resentful of them for not sticking up for him but is won over when Lister’s easily convinced of his capability even after witnessing him consult his book. Reinvigorated by the crew’s faith, Holly challenges Queeg for control; despite suggesting any other game, Holly’s forced to take his rival on in a game of chess and is resoundingly defeated, much to the despair of the crew. However, Holly delights in revealing that the totalitarian Queeg was an elaborate hoax to teach the crew to appreciate him, flaws and all.
The series is bolstered by an expanded supporting cast, including standout future stars like Kryten.
Series two is also bolstered by some guest stars; some, like Petersen, Kochanski, and Captain Hollister (Mac McDonald) return from the last series thanks to the stasis leak and a flashback to prior to the accident that wiped out the crew. Things are kept interesting by the likes of the “Groovy Channel 27” presenter (Tina Jenkins) and a number of celebrity look-a-likes and other roles showcased in “Better Than Life”, the first time the show was filmed on location, but Kryten is easily the most memorable guest star. Kryten is an overly polite and affable mechanoid whose sole function is to serve; in fact, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor’s later novelisations revealed that Kryten’s overbearing cleanliness made him directly responsible for the Nova 5’s crash and the death of its crew (something alluded to in series seven). When he’s not serving humans without question, he enjoys watching Androids (an amusing parody of Australian soap opera Neighbours (1985 to 2022)) and dreams of a life tending to a garden. Kryten is a little different to how he’s portrayed in later episodes; slightly more effeminate and dressed up in a glossy penguin suit, he fusses over every little thing and admonishes his dead crew for their dishevelled appearances and unsociable eating habits (with the exception of the “absolutely perfect” Ms. Tracey). Because of his programming, and centuries of isolation, Kryten carries his duties out to the fullest extent and doesn’t seem to realise that the three are dead; when the Dwarfers force him to face the truth, though, it’s heavily implied that he was simply living in a state of intense denial. While it seems like Lister’s efforts to break his programming have gone to waste, Kryten eventually rebels in spectacular fashion, painting Rimmer sitting on a toilet and bombarding him with insults before heading out for a jaunt on Lister’s space bike. Lister finds a kindred spirit in his female counterpart, Deb, with them enjoying drinking contests and delighting in the two Rimmer’s awkwardness. They actually find common ground and hold a normal conversation, which is more than can be said of the Rimmers, who struggle to make small talk when Arlene’s not treating him like a sex object and being uncomfortably rapey in her advances, branding him “frigid” when he doesn’t put out and raising concerns over Rimmer’s treatment of women. Despite this, Lister isn’t impressed by Deb’s drinking and love for curries, criticising aspects of her that define his own character while simultaneously chastising Rimmer for not realising that Arlene reflects his despicable attitude towards women, and ending up being used and impregnated by his female counterpart to again raise some questions about our main character’s attitudes towards and treatment of women.
The Summary: Even though it aired later in the same year as the first series, Red Dwarf’s second season definitely has a far more interesting and engaging visual presentation. It’s possible the creators were afforded a bigger budget as we’re no longer subjected to the same drab, boring ocean grey (or is it military grey…?) corridors of the titular ship; Red Dwarf’s corridors are darker, moodier, and sport arcade machines and grates to make them far more interesting to look at. We get to see more of the ship; although the general appearance of Lister and Rimmer’s quarters is basically the same, the overall presentation seems far livelier this time around. Similarly, the drive room has been completely redesigned; rather than being a largely lifeless and empty grey room with a simple bank of monitors, it’s now a bustling, colourful hub of activity with a distinctly 1960s sci-fi flair. Series two debuts the observation dome (where Lister shares his memories of Lisa Yates and his father’s death), the hologram simulation suite (where footage of previous episodes represents Rimmer’s dreams and memories (alongside him singing Frank Sinatra’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” sans trousers), and the introduction of other ships, such as the Nova 5 and the show’s first additional spacecraft, Blue Midget, an insect-like shuttle that allows the crew to venture off-ship; it’s not as iconic as its successor, Starbug, but it adds some visual variety and it’s fun seeing the cockpit all decked out like a trucker’s cab. Some of these additional effects are better than others; the transitions to Better Than Life and the visual effect of the multiple monitors in the hologram simulation suite is poorly implemented but some clever camera techniques allow the crew to celebrate Rimmer’s death on a small habitable moon (though Rimmer’s holographic projection cage wouldn’t appear again, and rightfully so as it doesn’t even make sense in this series as he was able to travel to the Nova 5 without issue). The Remastered version of the show adds some additional effects, such as all-CGI ships replacing the traditional models, a glitch effect being spliced onto Rimmer in “Queeg”, and removing the admittedly odd looking mermaid shot.
Despite some odd plot choices, series two is full of hilarious moments and surprisingly tight on continuity.
The writing was much tighter and more enjoyable overall this time around; the characters were given much more depth and more to do and interact with, which really helped the comedy. Some standouts include the revelation that Lister attended Art college but dropped out after ninety-seven minutes because of the unreasonable timetable, Kryten’s reaction to the unmistakable reality of his crew’s fate (resulting in one of the best reactions in the entire series, “My God! I was only away two minutes!”), and Rimmer flipping out over his Outland Revenue debt despite being three-million years into deep space and the human race being extinct. Other favourites of mine include a news report about a missing page from the Bible proving it to be fictious, the revelation that Rimmer’s only had sex once and his subsequent reaction to remembering this admission, the description of Rimmer’s psychedelic, hallucinogenic trip on “Freaky Fungus” that saw him attack two senior officers after mistaking them for armed giraffes, and Rimmer’s story about being betrayed by his childhood friend Porky Roebuck while in the Space Scouts. Surprisingly, considering how lax Red Dwarf became with its continuity, there are many references and ties to the first series: we get to see the dream recorder this time, Rimmer’s outfit is exactly the same and he wears his dress suit and medals again, and “Parallel Universe” finally answers how they got two babies without a woman onboard, though the idea of Lister taking a pill or having an abortion never comes up after he inexplicably falls pregnant. Similarly, “Stasis Leak” offers the first of many questionable plot threads; the visual effect allows the crew to travel to the past (but conveniently not bring anything back through, despite the crew being unaffected by the return trip), and ludicrously suggests that a space ship five miles long only has two stasis booths. Furthermore, Lister and Rimmer end up competing to try and rescue Kochanski and Rimmer’s past self, respectively (Rimmer’s even oddly excited at the idea of two versions of him being on the ship despite how badly it went in series one), rather than simply hijacking a Blue Midget and escaping (or staying on Ganymede) before the accident occurs; they even could’ve loaded others onto the ship as well, but this wouldn’t be the last time the show ignored a solution like this.
By expanding the visuals, cast, and personalities, series two was a big step up from its predecessor.
Still, series two is packed with great episodes; “Better Than Life” is probably the best episode of the series and was clearly a favourite of the show’s creators as it formed the basis for their second Red Dwarf novelisation, albeit in a far more sinister context. In the show, the “total-immersion videogame” Better Than Life is a relatively harmless virtual reality simulation that grants the players anything they desire, only for Rimmer’s deep-rooted neuroses and self-deprecation to ruin the experience; in the books, it traps the crew in their own personal haven, wasting their bodies away and causing them a great deal of pain and heartache. I also enjoy “Kryten”, though I wonder if it might’ve been better placed as a later episode in the series given how the character was promoted to the main cast going forward; I love Rimmer’s macho bravado somewhat akin to his later alter ego, “Ace” Rimmer, a façade that falters when Kryten flusters him with fluent Esperanto, and Kryten’s redecorating of their quarters, which sees him throw out a cup of mould that Lister was specifically breeding just to annoy Rimmer. “Thanks for the Memory” explores Lister and Rimmer’s changing relationship; Lister not only offers Rimmer practical advice, he’s genuinely motivated to help Rimmer experience true love when he implants Lisa Yates into his memory. This not only improves Rimmer’s mood and self-confidence but also amusingly creates a strange period of his life where he went on an eight-week bender living Lister’s life, remembers being an orphan despite his parents being alive, and had his appendix removed twice. Although Lister stresses that Rimmer’s love and appreciation for Lisa were stronger and more real than his own, Rimmer demands to literally erase and bury his humiliation. I also really enjoy “Queeg”, especially as a wake-up call for the crew and as an exploration of their dysfunctional friendship, and “Parallel Universe” was ahead of its time in many ways with its frank deconstruction of the male/female dynamic. Overall, Red Dwarf’s second series is a vast improvement over the first; the writing, jokes, and visuals and character dynamics make every episode a riot. From Holly’s praise for the benefits of dog’s milk and “blind spot” for sevens, the fantastically bleak elevator safety video (complete with cyanide pills), to Rimmer attacking the captain, the multiple character variants showcased by the confusion of time travel, to the idea that men routinely give birth in an alternative dimension, series two is better in almost every way compared to its predecessor. The ship is far livelier, the crew have more to do and toys to play with, and series two absolutely set the standard for subsequent seasons…until Doug Naylor randomly went back to the dullness of the first series for the eighth series.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
What did you think series two of Red Dwarf? Do you agree that it’s an improvement over the first series? Which of the jokes was your favourite? What did you think to the changes in the relationship dynamic between Lister and Rimmer, the exploration of Holly’s character, and the Cat’s development? Were you a fan of Kryten and Queeg? Which episode of series two was your favourite? Why do you think the crew didn’t just stay in the past? Would you like to see more seasons and specials, maybe one that finally closes the book on the Red Dwarf story, or do you think it’s best to leave it be for now? How are you celebrating Gazpacho Soup Day today? No matter what you think, feel free to leave a comment about Red Dwarf down in the comments and on my social media.
On this day, the 23rd of November, in 1963, the longest-running and most successful science-fiction television series ever, Doctor Who, first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom. Since then, the rogue Time Lord has gone through numerous incarnations, travelled throughout the entirety of the past, present, and the future, and is widely celebrated as one of the most iconic and recognisable mainstream cultural icons in the world.
Season Twelve, Serial Four: “Genesis of the Daleks”
Air Date: 8 March 1975 to 12 April 1975 UK Network: BBC One Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter, Michael Wisher, Peter Miles, James Garbutt, and Roy Skelton
The Background: In 1963, Sydney Newman, the Head of Drama at the BBC, commissioned a show that would appeal to children and adults alike to fill a gap in the BBC’s schedule. Following writer Cecil Webber’s initial outline and its debut episode, a collaborative effort saw Doctor Who terrify audiences with the introduction of the Time Lord’s long-running and iconic antagonists, the Daleks. Created by Terry Nation and designed by Raymond Cusick, the Daleks went through numerous designs and were specifically created to evoke fears regarding the dangers of war and nuclear fallout, and immediately became as synonymous to the series as the Doctor as younger viewers cowered in fear behind their sofas. By 1975, the Doctor’s various incarnations had battled the genocidal pepper pots on eleven separate occasions and the show was hitting its stride thanks to the mainstream popularity of the iconic Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Genesis of the Daleks was Nation’s return to the series after a brief hiatus; although script editor Robert Holmes preferred to develop new monsters for the show, Nation was encouraged to explore the tyrannical race’s origin, having worked on a Dalek comic book serial in the interim. Crucially, Nation introduced the character of Davros (Wisher), creator and mastermind of the Dalek race, whom he infused with fascist ideologies to tie into producer Philip Hinchcliffe’s desire for a more atmospheric and mature production than its more juvenile predecessors. Although Genesis of the Dalekscaused some controversy for its violence and darker moments, the serial has been widely lauded as one of the finest of its era, and in the entire run of the show; Davros, especially, went on to become one of the Doctor’s most iconic and persistent antagonists, and the serial galvanised the Daleks as his most fearsome foes.
The Plot: Foreseeing a time when the malevolent Daleks (Skelton) will lay waste to the entire universe, the Time Lords task the Doctor (Baker) to travel to the planet Skaro at the time of the Daleks’ creation. There, he and his companions find themselves in the midst of a generations-long war between the Thals and the Kaleds, led by maniacal scientist Davros, the progenitor of the Daleks and whom the Doctor must overcome to prevent his greatest enemies from terrorising the universe.
The Review: Genesis of the Daleks may very well be the quintessential Dalek story, and the most iconic of all the classic Doctor Who serials, not least because it stars perhaps the most famous incarnation of the Doctor, the Fourth Doctor, masterfully portrayed with maniacal glee by Tom Baker. Baker’s madcap performance, infectious grin and enthusiasm, and bonkers outfit is one of the most memorable versions of the Doctor and, for many – including myself – still the first person you think of when thinking of Doctor Who. When I was a kid, Doctor Who wasn’t on television, so my primary exposure was through the various novelisations, a handful of videogames and other adaptations, and the few brief snippets featured in documentaries and such. Strangely, my first true Doctor was the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), though I can’t remember exactly how or why; still, I had the novelisation and cassette version of Genesis of the Daleks and the old Dalek Attack videogame (Alternative Software, 1992) on the Amiga drew heavily from this and other Dalek serials to cement the genocidal pepper pots, and this wacky version of the Doctor, as unforgettable elements of the sci-fi series. Genesis of the Daleks takes place after the Doctor was exiled to Earth; ever the renegade, his Time Lord superiors eventually grew tired of his rebellious ways and stranded him on Earth in the 20th century in the guise of the Third Doctor, stripping him of the secrets of his craft, Time and Relative Dimension in Space (TARDIS), but this ban was lifted after the events of The Three Doctors(Mayne, 1972 to 1973), so the Doctor is understandably annoyed when he’s abducted by a Time Lord (John Franklyn-Robbins) following his adventures in The Sontaran Experiment (Bennett, 1975). The Doctor’s annoyance turns to intrigue, however, when the Time Lord tasks him with destroying (or otherwise pacifying) his most persistent enemy, the Daleks, before they can threaten all of time and space, a mission that the Doctor willingly undertakes not just to cripple his most lethal enemy but also to get the officious overlords off his back once and for all.
The Doctor is determined to discover, and prevent, the creation of the Daleks.
Although the Doctor accepts the mission, he’s still aggravated to find that the Time Lords have taken the liberty of transporting him and his companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Sladen) and Doctor Harry Sullivan (Marter), to the Dalek home world, Skaro, a war-torn planet ravaged by conflict between the Kaleds and the Thals that has made it largely inhospitable, thus subjecting himself and his friends to considerable danger from the ongoing conflict and the lingering radiation in the air. All too soon, the Doctor and Harry are separated from Sarah Jane and imprisoned by the warmongering Kaleds, who take shelter from the toxic atmosphere in technologically advanced domes created by their horrifically crippled, but no less genius, lead scientist, Davros. Time quickly becomes the Doctor’s enemy as Davros not only prepares a coup d’état to overthrow the Kaled government and roll out his plans to irrevocably change Skaro by forcing his species to mutate into ghastly, mutant creatures that are dependent on his heavily-armed Mark III travel machine but also seizes the Doctor’s Time Ring, his only means of returning to the TARDIS once his mission is complete. The Doctor is horrified to see that the Mark III is, in fact, a prototype Dalek and to learn that Davros’s plan is already well underway, meaning he’s forced to charm the Kaled elite into opposing Davros to buy him some time. Having encountered the Daleks on numerous occasions before, the Doctor is well aware of the threat they pose but finds himself in a unique position where the Daleks have yet to become a nigh-unstoppable army, are largely confined to a laboratory, and where Davros has yet to technically commit the crime he’s being judged for. Although the Doctor threatens Davros with death, commandeering his life support functions to coerce him into destroying the Daleks, this can be interpreted as an empty threat since the Doctor’s morality is such a strong aspect of his character. This is further emphasised when the Doctor prepares to destroy the fledgling Daleks and hesitates, considering the ramifications of his actions not just because the Daleks are “innocent” but also because generations of people will be united to oppose them in the future, meaning that the Daleks, for all their evil, can inspire progress and co-operation simply through their malevolent existence.
Unlike unremarkable Harry, Sarah inspires a revolution and encourages the Doctor to destroy the Daleks.
The Doctor and Harry are separated from Sarah for the majority of the serial; while the two are held captive in the Kaled dome, Sarah is captured by the Thals alongside Sevrin (Stephen Yardley), a “Muto” (though, aside from being dishevelled and dirty, I’m not sure what Sevrin’s mutation is supposed to be) unique among his kind as he expresses kindness and sympathy towards even the “Norms” who have long ostracised his people. Sarah, Sevrin, and the other prisoners are put to work loaded deadly munitions onto the Thal’s rocket, their trump card against the Kaleds, and find that their captors are just as ruthless and harsh as the Kaleds. Ever the proactive optimist, Sarah inspires the prisoners to make a break for it while they still have the strength, a campaign that leaves several of them dead and her and Sevrin back in Thal custody. It’s also Sarah, rather than Harry, who argues in favour of destroying the Daleks when the Doctor suffers a crisis of conscience; she pragmatically argues for genocide since that’s not only their mission but also the only way to truly stop the Daleks from spreading death and destruction across the galaxy. This exchange, perhaps one of the most memorable and character defining moments of the entire series, goes almost entirely without comment from Harry, who’s more concerned with making a decision quickly before they’re discovered. Indeed, although he acquits himself well by saving the Doctor from a landmine and holding various Kaleds hostage, and echoes the Doctor’s snarky attitude towards his captors, Harry really doesn’t do much of anything except be someone for the Doctor to talk to (which he doesn’t really need considering he’s of vital interest to the Kaleds) and spout the occasional witty remark.
Despite Davros’s commanding presence, the Doctor finds allies in each of Skaro’s warring races.
The Doctor finds other allies amongst the three warring races of Skaro; in the Kaled dome, he finds his first sympathiser in Senior Researcher Ronson (Garbutt), a man of science who is so intrigued by the existence of extraterrestrials that he saves the Doctor from certain death. Ronson is just one of many Kaleds who question Davros’s increasingly insane orders; Gharman (Dennis Chinnery) and Kavell (Tom Georgeson) are two key components of the revolution against Davros after becoming disillusioned by his orders to strip the eventual Kaled mutates of all conscience and morality. Although Kavell is reluctant to assist in opposing Davros after the mad scientist has Ronson killed as a patsy for the devastating Thal attack, he joins Gharman in leading a (mostly) bloodless revolution. Interestingly, Gharman is surprisingly reasonable; rather than seeking to assassinate Davros, he’s willing to work alongside him to rebuild their race but with an eye on morality, rather than merciless slaughter. Sadly, Gharman is all-too-trusting; when Davros’s right-hand man, Security Commander Nyder (Miles), feigns sympathy to his cause, Gharman and his other supporters first face a painful lobotomy and then are out-right executed by Davros, who takes a pitiless approach to betrayal. This is just one of many ironic and hypocritical stances for Davros since it was he who secretly colluded with the Thals to provide them with the chemical formula necessary to destroy the Kaled dome, thus obliterating much of his opposition in the Kaled council and bringing his race to the desperation of near extinction. Davros’s actions also lead to him being celebrated as a hero to the Thals since their missile strike effectively ends the thousand-year war of attrition; victory sees the Thals promise to be far more benevolent but blinds them to Davros’s obvious betrayal, leading to many of them being slaughtered by the Daleks. Still, thanks to the Doctor’s warnings, Thal soldier Bettan (Harriet Philpin) organises a small resistance comprised of both Thals and Mutos who covertly enter the Kaled bunker and seal it off in the serial’s conclusion, suggesting the promise of unification between the two races.
The Dalek threat looms over the serial, with them asserting themselves by the finale.
Although still in the prototype phase of their existence, the Daleks remain very much a threat throughout this serial; the entire plot revolves around preventing them from not only rising to power but also threatening all of time and space in the future, something the Time Lords – and the Doctor – believe is inevitable given the Daleks’ lust for power and conquest. Thus, their threat looms over Genesis of the Daleks like a black shadow; when Davros demonstrates his Mark III travel machine, the Kaleds are intrigued and have no idea of danger the machine poses, with even Ronson thinking the Doctor is mad for his horrified reactions and the likes of Gharman recognising the machines as their ultimate fate due to radiation exposure. Davros regards the Daleks as his greatest creation; he’s convinced that the Kaleds need to forcibly evolve – mutate – to achieve total victory over their enemies, shedding the confines of a conventional emotional and physical form to become pragmatic, aggressive conquerors. His experiments have already resulted in some of the first Daleks, which are horrific creatures that attack the Doctor when he tries to blow them up, yet Davros is fully prepared to sacrifice what little humanity remains in the Kaleds in favour of these abominations if it means achieving total victory. Davros refuses to cease his plot (and couldn’t even if he wanted to as his workshops are now fully automated) or to consider that his mutates are evil, fully believing that Dalek supremacy will bring about universal peace, but reveals the extent of his megalomania by admitting that he is thrilled by the virtual God-like power afforded to him by the Daleks. Naturally, this hubris becomes his downfall; while he scoffed at the notion of programming concepts of “pity” and “mercy” into the Daleks, he ends up pleading for his life when they become independent enough to turn against him and begin their own path of conquest.
Megalomaniacal schemer Davros proves an intellectual challenge for the Doctor.
Before Genesis of the Daleks, the Dalek hierarchy was denoted by the colouration of the warmongering aliens; generally, the black, red, or gold variants were seen to be “in charge” but all Daleks operated in a unified thirst for knowledge, power, and conquest. Genesis of the Daleks shows that they were the brainchild of one man, a crazy Victor Frankenstein-like invalid whose physical handicaps seem to have only augmented his vaulted intellect into insanity. Davros is largely seen to be a cold, composed, pragmatic scientist; he offers solutions and platitudes to the Kaled elite to pacify them and lull them into a false sense of security, but openly lords his intellectual superiority over any who dare question him. Confined to a Dalek-like wheelchair, Davros is brains rather than brawn, relying on the sadistic Nyder and those loyal to his cause, dependencies he hopes to replace with the Daleks, whose firepower and capabilities are beyond those of any man. Davros is perfectly characterised as a highly intelligence, focused, manipulative megalomanic; he swears fealty and allegiance to Councillor Mogran (Ivor Roberts) while plotting his death, presents himself as the ultimate Kaled patriot while betraying their secrets to the Thals, and concocts elaborate deceptions that confuse and frustrate even Nyder in order to get all his enemies together in one place and eliminate them. Davros is intrigued by the Doctor, not least because he matches his intellect but also because of his knowledge of the future; while Davros has remained unchallenged on Skaro, meaning all his observations and scientific proclamations are taken as gospel, the Doctor offers proof of life beyond Skaro and things outside of Davros’s expertise. Determined to ensure that the Daleks run unopposed throughout the galaxy for centuries, Davros subjects the Doctor to torture, forcing him to detail his previous encounters with the Daleks so that Davros can prepare them for any potential weaknesses and failures, adding an additional objective to the Doctor’s mission as he scrambles to destroy the recording and keep the Daleks from benefitting from his future knowledge.
The Summary: Genesis of the Daleks really leans into the parallels between the Kaleds (and the Daleks) and the Nazis; as if their xenophobic hatred towards the Thals and the Mutos wasn’t enough, with the likes of the surprisingly complex General Ravon (Guy Siner) taking perverse pleasure in torturing and executing both races, the Kaled’s uniforms, salutes, and discriminatory brutality make these comparisons openly explicit. Davros himself is clearly modelled after Adolf Hitler, being both a charming and affluent leader who has saved as many lives as he has taken, but also a malicious and cruel despot who seeks to conquer and destroy – even sacrificing his own people, if necessary – all to prove his intellectual superiority. This has led to a thousand-year war of attrition where both sides started with high-tech weaponry and are now reduced to trench warfare, archaic weapons, and conserving resources. Skaro’s nigh-inhospitable environment and the inevitability of genetic mutation leads Davros to construct a heavily-armed travel machine that stands as the pinnacle of his species’ “evolution”, a creature that will stamp out weakness and imperfection wherever it goes, yet his obsession with this goal blinds him to the fact that the Daleks lack the morality to recognise allies or see him as their leader since he’s physically inferior. One thing I enjoyed about Genesis of the Daleks was the complexities of the characters; there’s dissension within Kaled society, with the scientific community butting heads with the military and governmental arms, and even Ravon and Nyder have a rivalry, with them only stomaching each other’s methods because Davros wills it and Davros’s word is law. The Doctor delights in stirring the pot in his favour; he bamboozles his Kaled captors with gobbledegook, sows the seeds of doubt and conflict, and even pleads with Davros to give up his mad schemes and put his intellect towards good deeds, though this latter gamble doesn’t pay off as well as the others and even his charismatic scheming almost leads to Harry and Sarah being killed in the Thal’s missile strike.
Despite the atrocities of war perpetuated by the Daleks, the Doctor hesitates to commit genocide.
The Doctor is placed in a unique position in Genesis of the Daleks; his mission is to stop or otherwise interfere with the creation of the Daleks, with the implication being that he’s been authorised to commit genocide, but he hesitates to go through with this when he considers the morality of his actions and the good that comes from the Daleks (specifically the alliances between different races and planets to oppose them). Ultimately, this decision is taken out of his hands when a Dalek causes the explosion, but the Doctor still placed the explosives in the laboratory, making him partially responsible, but the serial takes pains to further absolve the Doctor of having too much blood on his hands by stating that he’s merely delayed their rise to power but approximately a thousand years. The Daleks are presented in a unique light here as well, initially being not just subservient to Davros but outright controlled by him, either directly or through his orders. For the most part, they obey without question, gunning down targets with a flash of strobe lighting and idling along with a quiet (if awkward) menace. Many Kaleds are in awe of the machines and forget about the wretched abominations controlling them; these squealing, inhuman beasts are the result of Davros’s experiments (many of his earliest, more unstable creations stalk the sewers, with a particularly laughable Styrofoam clam attacking Harry at one point) and represent, in his eyes, the pinnacle of Kaled evolution. Genetically designed to more remorseless and adaptable, Davros designs the Daleks too well; after all his bluster advertising the ruthlessness and ambition of his creations, it’s amusing how surprised Davros is when they inevitably turn on him. While he had once scoffed at the suggestion of placating the Daleks, he ends up begging – screaming – for mercy when they gun down his loyalists and turn their weapons on him, with his (seemingly) last act being to reach for the button that would destroy his automated production lines. This is, however, the greatest example of hypocrisy on Davros’s part and he paid the ultimate price for his reach exceeding his grasp, but we’d later discover that he would survive this assassination attempt and it can be argued that his influence changed the Daleks for the worst. His later appearances show that the Daleks being reliant upon Davros or descended into civil war rather than being a dominating, unified force like before, simply because the Doctor’s presence and interactions with Davros saw him take efforts to ensure his survival.
In addition to adding to the Daleks’ mystique, the serial put an instantly-iconic face behind their creation.
As always with classic Doctor Who, the biggest problem with Genesis of the Daleks is the budget; exteriors are simple redressed quarry pits and countrysides adorned with fog and limited explosions, and the interiors are rather drab and grey, though this actually works here since the Kaleds and the Thals put all their resources into military and scientific might rather than aesthetics. The sewers and cave systems are as laughable as the puppet effects, but I’m okay with that as they has a whimsical, tangible charm that’s often lost in today’s CGI-heavy productions. The Daleks themselves steal the show, as ever; there’s only a handful of them but the exude a great sense of menace, primarily due to the Doctor’s reaction to and warnings about them, and in their efficiency at causing the serial’s actors to writhe around in exaggerated pain when blasted by their death rays. Genesis of the Daleks dives deeper into their origins than ever before, showing that the Daleks never really had a chance to be anything but amoral monsters as they were specifically engineered to be that way, but also demonstrating that they were once analogous to humans. Many Kaleds, while loyal and indebted to Davros, vehemently oppose stripping themselves of all morality and humanity, and there’s a definite suggestion that both the Kaleds and the Thals simply want the war to end. Both are unscrupulous, xenophobic, and destructive races but a thousand-year war will probably do that to you; with neither side willing to concede, the only option for peace is to eradicate the other, and once each side believes they’ve achieved this victory they’re more than willing to try and rebuild a more functional and less destructive society. There’s a reason Genesis of the Daleks is so beloved and, while it has some flaws, it remains a timeless Doctor Who story. The Doctor shines through it all, bringing energy, a contemplative curiosity, and a desperate plea for reason and his interactions with Davros were as much a highlight of the serial as seeing the Daleks slowly usurp their creator and the over-the-top performances of characters like Nyder. Putting a more human face behind the Daleks, one that could converse and show emotion and offer an intellectual challenge to the Doctor, was a great idea and the serial remains one of my favourites simply for its depiction of the Daleks, who cast a shadow over every episode as a looming threat before vowing to realise their potential as the supreme beings in the universe.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Is Genesis of the Daleks your favourite classic Dalek serial? Was the Fourth Doctor your favourite incarnation? What did you think to this exploration of the Dalek’s origins, and do you like the concept of Davros? Do you think the Doctor was right to question committing genocide or do you think the ends would’ve justified the means? Were you disappointed that Harry didn’t have more to do? How are you celebrating Doctor Who Day today? Let me know your thoughts on Doctor Who and this classic Dalek story in the comments or leave a reply on my social media.
Air Date: 8 June 2022 to 13 July 2022 Network: Disney+ Stars: Iman Vellani, Zenobia Shroff, Matt Lintz, Nimra Bucha, Aramis Knight, and Mohan Kapur
The Background: In 1939, Fawcett Comics introduced readers to the magically-empowered boy-turned-superman Billy Batson/Captain Marvel; however, a 1953 lawsuit forced them to cease publication of their Captain Marvel comics and allowed Marvel Comics to trademark the name for themselves. While Stan Lee and Gene Colan’s Mar-Vell ended up being more famous for his death from cancer, his mantle was continued by a number of successors, most notably Carol Danvers. However, before she took name Captain Marvel, Carol went by Ms. Marvel, an identity later adopted by young Kamala Khan, an Inhuman Muslim girl who idolised Carol. Created by Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jamie McKelvie, Kamala’s adopting the Ms. Marvel mantle and subsequent solo series marked the first time a Muslim character headlined a Marvel publication and she drew significant praise from the Muslim community and for representing a marginalised youth demographic. After Captain Marvel(Boden and Fleck, 2019) proved a critical and commercial hit, star Brie Larson expressed interest in including Kamala in the MCU, something Marvel Studios were keen to do considering the character’s diversity and mainstream popularity. Development of a six-episode series for streaming service Disney+ began in 2019, with the writers keen to stay true to the source material (despite some alterations to Kamala’s powers) and tell both a coming-of-age story for the fledgling heroine and explore aspects of the Muslim faith and traditions through Kamala’s whimsical perspective. Newcomer Iman Vellani won the title role and her outfits and costumes, which are infused with cultural trappings, were designed by Arjun Bhasin; the showrunners also took great pains to ensure cultural authenticity throughout the entire process. Despite complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Marvel released in weekly instalments on Disney+ and the first three episodes received a cinematic release in Pakistan. Although suffering from short-sighted hatemongering, the show was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback; reviews praised the blend of quirky humour with its authentic representation of Pakistani-American culture, Vellani’s performance, and the depiction of her new powers, and Ms. Marvel was heralded as a turning point for the MCU and mainstream representation of the Muslim faith. Although there has been no mention of a second season as of this writing, Kamala and her family featured prominently in the The Marvels (DaCosta, 2023), ensuring that the character has a future in the MCU in one form or another.
The Plot: Sixteen-year-old Kamala Khan (Vellani) idolises Captain Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) but her strict Muslim mother, Muneeba Khan (Zenobia Shroff), disapproves of her constant daydreaming. Already struggling to fit in at school and juggling the minefield of a teenage social life, Kamala’s world is changed forever when she acquires cosmic powers from a family heirloom and discovers a mystical background to her family lineage.
The Review: So, first of all I think it’s only fair to say that I know practically nothing about Ms. Marvel; if she’s appeared in some of the crossover events I’vr read, it was usually in a minor, supporting role and just about all I know about her is that she’s a Muslim girl with stretchy powers and has become quite popular in recent years. I say this only to establish that I went into Ms. Marvel without any kind of expectations, thus I didn’t really care that they altered her powers and, as I understand it, her origin into an amalgamation of her comic book counterpart, perennial sidekick Rick Jones and the Nega-Bands, and even a splash of the various Green Lanterns from DC Comics. I think it was probably a good idea; it ties into the mystical slant to the MCU’s cosmic side, separates her from Doctor Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, and makes her powers a little more visually diverse. Kamala is probably the most relatable and grounded MCU protagonist yet; a young high schooler who’s just trying to find her way in the world, she’s an avid fan of the Avengers, specifically Captain Marvel, and makes fun animated videos about them and the battle against Thanos (Josh Brolin). Thanks to Scott Lang/Ant-Man’s (Paul Rudd) podcast interviews, she and the rest of the world have a pretty good idea of what happened in this battle but, despite the effort she puts into her videos, she only has two subscribers, barely any views, and a lot of her comments are just spam…which I can totally relate to! Kamala represents the MCU’s core audience in many ways; youngsters who have grown up with these films and characters and want to emulate them, decorate their rooms in superhero paraphernalia, and eagerly attend conventions so they can dress up as their heroes and be around likeminded, hardcore fans. Kamala is so excited about AvengerCon that she and best friend Bruno Carrelli (Lintz) cobble together an impressive costume for the event and she’s amazed in the finale when her father, Yusuf (Nimra Bucha Kapur), tells her that her name can be translated to mean “marvel”, which only makes her idolisation of Danvers even stronger.
Kamala idolises CaptainMarvel and is absolutely adorable but has a strained relationship with her mother.
If there’s a word to describe Kamala, it’s “adorable”! She’s a little shy and introverted and other kids and even teachers are dismissive and rude to her, but she’s not exactly harassed like in a lot of high schools. Her powers do give her a newfound confidence that sees her become more assertive and engaging but she remains a bit clumsy and accident prone and is constantly reprimanded by her mother, Muneeba, and her try-hard principal (Jordan Firstman) about her constant doodling and daydreaming. Like all teens, she’s at a crossroads in life and is always being told that she needs to think about her future; her belief that girls should be able to make their own choices, to go out into the world and discover themselves, is met with stern disapproval by her mother since she firmly believes that Muslim women need to get married, put down roots, and start a family rather than drift away into fantasy, something Kamala can’t help but do as she has such an overactive imagination. Her relationship with Muneeba throughout is thus strained throughout; while she accepts Bruno and her older brother, Aamir (Saagar Shaikh) can seemingly do no wrong, Muneeba has high expectations of Kamala and isn’t impressed that she wants to “go to a party…at night” while dressed in a tight costume. To Yusuf’s chagrin, Muneeba initially openly admits that she doesn’t trust Kamala and she is constantly frustrated by her stubbornness. Kamala does truly love her parents, and wants to make them proud, but she also wants to pursue her dreams; this results in her causing them pain and shame when she lashes out at Muneeba’s insistence that Yusuf accompany her to AvengerCon and when she’s forced to disrupt Aamir’s wedding to safeguard her family and friends later in the series.
Muneeba’s strict nature stems from her relationship with Sana but she comes to accept and encourage Kamala.
Muneeba is quite the contradiction a lot of the time; she’ll defend Kamala and be warm and loving towards her one minute, and then chip away at her self confidence and desires the next. Because of this, Kamala has a much closer relationship with her elderly grandmother, Sana (Samina Ahmad), who is a dreamer just like her. Aamir and Kamala were raised on stories of how young Sana (Zion Usman) was forced from her home during a period of social unrest known as “The Partition”, which saw India divided up following years of British oppression. Separated from her mother, Aisha (Mehwish Hayat), and her father, Hasan (Fawad Khan), Sana was led back to her father by a mysterious trail of stars, but Muneeba was driven to leave her homeland after Sana’s tall tales brought her nothing but persecution and shame. Muneeba hasn’t had the easiest life, to be fair; she shares with Kamala how difficult it was after the Partition and how she found solace in the United States through the local mosque, their community, and, most importantly, her family. Indeed, there’s no question that she doesn’t love and care for Kamala; both her and Yusuf just want the young girl to be safe and to not be ogled over and Muneeba is clearly distraught when Kamala disappears in Karachi while investigation Sana’s past. Having long denied that magic that is a part of their heritage, the show eventually brings Muneeba closer to her daughter and her mother; when Kamala’s powers are revealed to her, she accepts her and even provides her with an upgraded costume, with Yusuf christening her “Ms. Marvel” in the finale and the two encouraging her to use her powers for good while still whittling over her wellbeing because parents gotta parent.
After initially struggling with her powers, Kamala masters them as she embraces her past and true self.
Kamala’s powers are activated by a mysterious bangle sent to her by Sana; this bangle is one of at least two and was discovered back in the 1940s on the dead body of an unidentified blue humanoid by a group of interdimensional travellers known as the Clandestine. When Kamala wears it, she’s bathed in a strange cosmic energy and beset by visions of her grandmother’s escape from India, which eventually lead her to the Clandestines and discovering that she shares their bloodline as a Djinn, a mythological race of people from the Noor dimension who have been interpreted as both angels and demons in folklore. Alongside Bruno, Kamala tries to get to grips with her powers, which don’t come with super strength, speed, or dexterity but do allow her to form hard light constructs that, after many pratfalls, she’s able to run and jump on, form shields with, cover herself in a protect crystalline armour of sorts, and occasionally “embiggen” herself to give her stretchy limbs like her comic book counterpart. Visually, these powers manifest quite well but the CGI is a bit wonky and cartoony at times; it could be argued that this ties into her artistic side but that’s a bit of a stretch (no pun intended). Unsurprisingly, considering the young cast, Kamala’s unstable powers flare up as a metaphor for puberty at one point; she flees to the toilets when her nose glows (like with a spot) and her other best friend, Nakia Bahadir (Yasmeen Fletcher), offers her a period pad when she misreads the situation. Despite having no formal training, Kamala generally holds her own in a tight spot; when attacked by Kareem/Red Dagger (Aramis Knight), she’s at a disadvantage due to his superior acrobatic and fighting skill but still defends herself, at least on instinct. When the Djinn try to force her to co-operate with their plot and gate-crash Aamir’s wedding, Kamala fends them off mostly through instinct and panic and is only able to focus her powers when Bruno is injured in the fracas. Indeed, Kamala’s powers quickly exacerbate her struggles to find her place in the world; often misunderstood at home and an outsider at both school and the mosque, she doesn’t always feel like she belongs and this means her powers are often dangerous to those around her, which only makes her question herself further. It’s only after literally reliving Sana’s past and reconciling with her mother, and accepting her newfound heritage, that Kamala is able to master her powers for the finale and win the support and appreciation of her community.
Damage Control, particularly Deever, are now fully framed as a prejudiced and antagonistic force.
However, because of her public demonstrations of power, Kamala attracts some undue attention. She’s immediately identified as a potential threat by the Department of Damage Control (DODC), which is now firmly an antagonistic government agency in the MCU that uses Stark Tech to track down and isolate or imprison potentially dangerous superpowered people. Here, they’re primarily represented by agents P. Cleary (Arian Moayed) and Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner); however, it’s Deever who takes the most explicitly antagonistic role as she immediately targets the local Muslim community, disrespecting their culture and traditions at every turn, and then uses armed forces to barricade and openly attack Kamala and her friends at school. When Cleary realises the bad press this will bring them thanks to Kamala having her former friend turned avid supporter Zoe Zimmer (Laurel Marsden) livestream the incident, he orders Deever to withdraw but she refuses to listen and even advocates for lethal force simply because the confused and unstable Kamran (Rish Shah) refuses to get down on the ground when ordered. There’s definitely a sense that Deever fully believes she’s doing the right thing and protecting lives from dangerous individuals but she also makes many subtle prejudice comments that edge her closer to the black and out of the grey. Damage Control have no qualms about subduing their targets, interrogating and threatening vulnerable high schoolers, and locking prisoners in supermax prisons, which is literally the opposite of what the organisation was founded for and their trigger-happy agents are clearly positioned as an allegory for the racial prejudice and gung-ho nature of America’s police department throughout history, but particularly in recent years.
Najma’s obsession has driven her to violence and leads her to sacrifice herself to atone for her actions.
Kamala also attracts the attention of the Clandestines, Djinn who were trapped on our world decades ago and have been trying to return to the Noor dimension ever since. Their leader, Najma (Bucha), reveals to Kamala that they’ve existed on Earth for hundreds of years, maintaining their youth and vigour thanks to the Noor, an extradimensional energy from their dimension and which is channelled by the bangle. Initially, Najma adopts a warm and friendly demeanour as she asks for Kamala’s help in returning them home and Kamala believes helping them would make up for the mistakes she’s made since receiving her powers, but Najma quickly becomes far more sinister as she leads the Clandestine in forcibly acquiring the bangle. Kamala is stunned by this, even after Bruno’s initial research suggests that helping the Djinn could result in an explosive catastrophe and is even more shocked when an impromptu trip to the 1940s reveals just how malicious Najma can be. When Aisha fell in love with Hasan and chose a life amongst humanity, she hid the bangle from her fellow Djinn to keep them from destroying the world by breaching the Veil of Noor and thus consuming the Earth with the Noor dimension’s destructive energy. For her defiance, Aisha was fatally stabbed by Najma and the Clandestines have been searching for the bangle ever since; when they recognise its power in Kamala, Najma sends her son, Kamran, to befriend her so they can acquire it, but they’re so obsessed with returning home that they quickly turn to violence to achieve their goals. When Kamala returns from the past, she unwittingly breaches the Veil, resulting in a rift between dimensions that vaporises on contact and grows increasingly destructive. Although Kamala isn’t able to talk Aisha out of approaching the rift, she is able to convince her to close it; her sacrifice saves the world and sees Kamran endowed with powers comparable to Kamala’s for the finale, which sees him struggling with both them and his emotions.
The Summary: Honestly, I have very little knowledge of Muslim religion or the history of India and Pakistan; it’s not something that’s ever really come up in my life and, while I’m aware that it’s a very rich and spiritual faith, my exposure to it is understandably limited since that’s not my culture. However, it’s naturally a central aspect of Ms Marvel and is presented in a very engaging and digestible way. It helps that Kamala is struggling to find her place in the world; she’s just as uncomfortable and awkward at school as she is at mosque (where women are literally separated from the men by a partition), around her “aunties”, and when being dressed up for Aamir’s wedding. Born and raised in New Jersey, she’s very much a modern American girl; she likes superheroes and YouTube and isn’t exactly an expert in her culture and heritage like her elders. Consequently, it makes sense for people to relate some of the tradition and folklore of her people to her, so it never comes across as blatant exposition. When in Karachi, Kamala is awestruck by the colours, the bustling crowds, and how different it is from the graffitied streets of her neighbourhood, where her culture is primarily kept alive in homes, the mosque, or annual Eid Al-Adha celebrations. A lot of the Muslim faith and culture is reflected through Nakia’s small side story; she chooses to wear a hijab as part of her identity but also actively advocates for more equality for her gender by running for the Mosque Board, a pursuit she accomplishes with Kamala’s encouragement. One thing I particularly liked was that, despite how strict Muneeba is, she fully accepts Bruno; she regularly texts him about Kamala’s life, much to her embarrassment and, since he doesn’t have a family, he’s kind of been adopted by Kamala’s, to the point where he’s invited to join them for Eid and helps sort out their tech issues.
Kamala certainly isn’t short on allies and potential boyfriends as she uncovers the truth about her heritage.
This culture is also represented by Sheikh Abdullah (Laith Nakli), a relatively down to earth religious figurehead who cares for everyone in their community despite holding on to the tradition of separating the genders to preserve their modesty. Still, he unknowingly offers Kamala some useful advice when she struggles with how to use her powers and greets the constantly disrespectful Deever with ridicule when she shows up at his mosque looking for Kamran, stalling her and allowing Kamala, Bruno, and Kamran to slip out garbed in the sheikh’s flimsy disguises, and also imploring Kamran not to hurt others just because they hurt him. The partnership between Bruno and Kamran is one of desperation; Bruno clearly has a crush on his long-time friend Kamala and is slighted when she takes an instant like to the fit and mysterious new kid, Kamran, who drives a fancy car and is into the same music and movies as she. It doesn’t help that Kamran constantly calls him “Brian”, which is a genuine mistake on his part, but Bruno remains loyal to Kamala even though he feels hurt. Ultimately, this quasi-love triangle resolves itself since Bruno eventually accepts an unprecedented opportunity to put his near-genius technological skill to good use at to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Kamran is forced to flee the country after his very public display of power in the finale. While in Karachi, Kamala also connects with Kareem, an adept vigilante who is the latest in a long line of scarfed vigilantes dedicated to defending the world from threats like the Clandestines. A mysterious organisation operating out of an elaborate temple hidden behind a restaurant, the Red Daggers are far better equipped and adept than Kamala and help her to further home her powers through training as well as filling in some gaps about the Djinn, and opening her eyes to their true threat. As adorkable as Kamala and Bruno’s friendship is, her banter with Kareem is just as entertaining and the two have real chemistry; in fact, Kamala has great chemistry with all her supporting cast, winning over Zoe with her heroic nature and even quickly patching up a falling out with Nakia after failing to tell her about her powers.
Kamala’s coming-of-age story is wonderfully told and allows her personality to shine through her cosmic powers.
At its heart, Ms. Marvel is a coming-of-age story. Kamala is an wide-eyed, enthusiastic dreamer who isn’t quite ready to take her first steps into adulthood but is on the cusp of facing some big changes in her life as she inevitably gets older. When low or bored, Kamala daydreams Captain Marvel and the Avengers as construction paper cartoons, which distracts her from reality; these animation techniques are also frequently employed to bring her imagination, elaborate plans, and even her text messages to life, which really gives the show a distinct visual style. When she gets her powers, Kamala’s first instinct is to help people and emulate her heroes, something she struggles with due to her inexperience and her youth and the damage she causes impacts her self-confidence almost as much as Muneeba constantly trying to keep her head out of the clouds. This, as much as the budget, is why her constructs are rarely more elaborate than shields and platforms but, when Muneeba accepts her and helps complete her superhero outfit, she’s able to do so much more with her powers, from “embiggening” her entire body to containing Kareem’s raging powers with a cocoon of her own. Kareem reacts to his powers with fear and panic and, having lost his mother and finding himself hounded by Damage Control, lashes out despite Kamala and her friends trying to protect him. His anger and instability make him extremely dangerous and everything Kamala feared she was after just a few mistakes but also provide Ms. Marvel with the perfect opportunity to put her newfound confidence to the test and defend Kareem from himself and others. This earns her the respect and protection of her grateful community, who shield her and allow her to escape just as she does for Kareem, whom she talks down and arranges safe passage to Karachi so he can come to terms with his powers and potentially use them for good, as she has learned to. The result of this is that the once unsure and awkward girl who stood unconvinced in her cosplay outfit now stands tall and proud in a comic-accurate outfit and ready to truly live up to the standards of her heroes by defending her community.
Ultimately, Kamala embraces her powers and identity and is set for a much bigger adventure!
I really enjoyed Ms. Marvel. I was honestly worried that I wouldn’t really connect with it since I’m not exactly the target audiences but it’s a really fun and charming coming-of-age story with an absolutely adorable main character. I loved Kamala’s awkward enthusiasm and her attempts to strive for her own independence while still being respectful to her elders and really connected with her strife; what teenager hasn’t felt their parents are holding them back, after all? I appreciated that she wasn’t a pouty, moody teen and that she always strived to make amends with those she’d hurt and that she was driven to do the right thing after being inspired by Captain Marvel. The Djinn aspects were an interesting adaptation of Indian folklore; while Najma is the only Clandestine who really matters, she’s quite a compelling antagonist since she just wants to return home and is willing to kill and even sacrifice our entire world to achieve that. There’s still a fair amount of mystery surrounding them and the bangle; although we learn a bit about the Noor and the Djinn, it’s not revealed why the bangle was in a Ten Rings temple, what the creature was that was holding it, and the series ends on a massive cliff-hanger as Kamala spontaneously trades places with Captain Marvel to set up their feature-length team up. Not only that but Bruno’s investigation into Kamala’s powers reveals that she’s different from her family and potentially her fellow Djinn because her DNA contains a “mutation”, effectively making her the MCU’s first acknowledged mainstream Mutant, clearly laying the foundations for bigger things in the character’s future. Most importantly, though, none of this overshadows Ms. Marvel’s main plot; it’s a visually unique series that flies by despite most episodes being nearly an hour long and I really enjoyed all the quirky and colourful characters, their lovable interactions with Kamala, and the acknowledgement of the hardships her people have gone through in the past. What it lacks in action it more than makes up for with entertaining dialogue and character beats and establishing a new corner of the MCU, one both grounded and cosmic in its scope and which further broadens the diversity of this ever-growing superhero universe in compelling and interesting ways.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Did you enjoy Ms. Marvel? What did you think to Kamala; did you find her adorable or did you think she was annoying? Did you enjoy her interactions with her family and friends and her doubts about her powers and place in the world? Were you annoyed that they altered her powers and origins and what did you think to the Djinn and their plot to return home? Did you like Kamala’s final costume, the revelation that she’s a Mutant, and Damage Control being cast as villains? Do you think the series did a good job of representing Indian culture and folklore or did that alienate you? What are some of your favourite Ms. Marvel stories and moments and are you excited to see her in future MCU projects? Feel free to leave your thoughts about Ms. Marvel in the comments or on my social media, and be sure to check out my other Captain Marvel content!
Season One, Episode One: “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”
Air Date: 13 August 1997 Director: Trey Parker UK Network: Channel 4 OriginalNetwork: Comedy Central Stars: Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Mary Kay Bergman, Franchesca Clifford, and Isaac Hayes
The Background: In 1992, Matt Stone and Trey Parker took some glue, construction paper, and an old 8 mm film camera and created The Spirit of Christmas, a short animated film in which four young boys accidentally bring to life a killer snowman. A Fox Broadcasting Company executive then commissioned the duo to create a follow-up short, Jesus vs. Santa, in 1995, which quickly became one of the first viral videos and led to the commission of a full series. Allegedly produced on a budget of $300,000, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” was a laborious process for the duo, who used the same traditional stop-motion techniques as their earlier shorts to bring their vulgar humour to life. The episode took about three months to complete, and about ten minutes of the story ended up being cut, and received poor results from test audiences. Comedy Central took a chance on the concept, however, based on the previous shorts and the duo’s previous shorts, and “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” was heralded as a huge successdespite complaints over its toilet humour and crass content. Since then, the hand-animated techniques have given way to computer animation that replicates the construction paper aesthetic of the duo’s early work, and South Park has become a popular and successful cultural phenomenon, with the creators now able to produce episodes within just a few days to stay on the pulse of current events.
The Plot: While hanging out at the bus stop before school, Eric Cartman (Parker) tells his friends about a nightmare he had about being abducted by aliens. Although reluctant to believe the incident actually happened, he begins sprouting an extraterrestrial probe from his anus, sending his friends into a panic when Kyle Broflovski’s (Stone) brother, Ike (Clifford), is abducted by alien Visitors (Parker).
The Review: South Park made an impression right from the start with its mock advisory warning at the start of each episode and jaunty little opening theme song; I especially enjoyed how the show would eventually change up the intro, adding new characters and updating the animation techniques and even aging up and altering some of the characters (even if you couldn’t always tell on sight alone). The episode proper opens with our four main characters – “big boned” foul mouth Eric Cartman, Jewish Kyle Broflovski, troubled everyman Stan Marsh (Parker), and poor Kenny McCormick (Stone) – happily singing at the bus stop before being interrupted by Kyle’s oddly shaped baby brother, Ike. This evidently isn’t the first time Ike has followed Kyle to the bus stop, so he’s pretty annoyed at his persistence; so much so that Kyle swiftly sends his brother packing with a good ol’ kick up the ass! Right away, the four kids stand out; they each look and sound different, with Cartman being the most vulgar (referring to Ike as a “dildo” despite not actually knowing what that is) and Kenny’s voice and face being constantly obscured by his trademark orange parka. While Cartman might not know what a dildo is, Kenny does; in fact, Kenny would go on to exhibit a working knowledge of such sexual topics far beyond his years, even if we never clearly hear what he says, though Kyle’s habit of playing “Kick the Baby” would largely be forgotten following this. Cartman is feeling the effects of a lack of sleep, brought about by a terrible nightmare where he was abducted by aliens the kids dub “Visitors”. He dreamt that the grey-skins took him up to their spacecraft and conducted bizarre, invasive experiments on his rectum. Although Cartman is insistent that the whole thing was a terrible dream (after all, his mum did say so), Kyle and Stan insist that he had an actual encounter with alien lifeforms, who have been known to abduct people and mutilate cows.
Cartman refuses to believe he’s been fitted with an anal probe, even after Ike is adducted and Kenny is killed.
While Cartman nervously laughs this off as them attempting to scare him, he’s stunned when their friend and school cook, Jerome “Chef” McElroy (Hayes), drives past and gives a picture-perfect description of the aliens Cartman saw in his “dream” and describes, in disturbing detail, the anal probes they like to forcibly insert into their victims. Thanks to his friends constantly ragging on him about it, Cartman stubbornly refuses to believe that aliens are real (even when he starts literally farting flames from his ass!) so, when Kyle is thrown into despair when he sees Ike being abducted by two Visitors, he receives little sympathy from his friend and even less from the cantankerous school bus driver, Veronica Crabtree (Bergman). While the town’s then-sole police officer, Officer Barbrady (Parker), turns a blind eye to the rampant mutilation of cows, reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and military vehicles being spotted all over town (completely missing a Visitor luring a whole herd of cows away right before his eyes), Kyle is stuck enduring his school day, terrified for his brother and the fate that awaits him when his father (as opposed to this overbearing mother, Sheila (Bergman)), finds out that he (as in Kyle) didn’t look after Ike. Unfortunately for the young Jew, his teacher, Herbert Garrison (Parker), refuses to excuse Kyle from class even when he politely asks Mr. Garrison’s puppet companion, Mr. Hat (ibid), for permission to leave. Chef initially tries to cheer Kyle up with a song about making love, but flies into action when he learns of Ike’s abduction and pulls the fire alarm so the boys can get out of school. This reaction is motivated by his assumed knowledge of the Visitors and also a strange mechanical device that spontaneously emerges from Cartman’s flaming ass and suggests that the aliens are trying to communicate. Cartman remains adamant that this is all part of an elaborate prank by his friends, even when a signal from the alien spacecraft causes him to suddenly break into a cheery rendition of “I Love to Singa”. Kyle, however, lets his anger get the better of him and demands (by screaming down Cartman’s ear) that the aliens return his little brother; consequently, a UFO hovers down and blasts at them when Kyle defiantly throws a rock at their ship. The projectile sends Kenny flying right into the path of a stampede of terrified cows, but it’s Officer Barbrady’s car that finally does in the muffled youth.
It turns out the Visitors simply wanted to make peace with Earth’s bovine population….
Despite this, Cartman remains unconvinced; he even refuses to believe that Kenny’s actually dead (even when Kyle pulls the boy’s head off and rats start eating his corpse) and storms off home to his mother, Liane (Bergman), and the delights of a “chocolate chicken pot pie” and Cheesy Poofs. Although Kyle pleads with Stan to help him out, Stan has problems of his own; he’s been invited to meet his crush, Wendy Testaburger (Bergman), at Stark’s Pond after school but he’s so besotted with and nervous around her that he can’t help but explosively vomit whenever she speaks to him. Kyle begrudgingly accompanies him and ends up interrupting their date when Wendy is enthralled by his story of alien abduction; much to Stan’s dismay, they end up going to get Cartman to use him as bait to lure out the Visitors rather than making “sweet love” as Chef encouraged. Cartman thus ends up tied to a tree in the middle of a forest and encouraged to keep farting until a massive alien satellite dish emerges from his ass and signals the Visitors. Kyle delivers an impassioned plea to the Visitors to return Ike, having learned that he really values the little squirt, but, when they completely ignore his appeal, he flies into a foul-mouthed rant that finally sees Ike released from their ship. The Visitors then reveal their true intentions for coming to Earth were to make contact with the cows, whom they have determined are “the most wise and intelligent” species on the planet and that their mutilation was all a mistake on the part of a severely apologetic Visitor named Carl. After leaving the cows with a special device that allows them to compel people to break into song and dance, the aliens leave, taking Cartman with them. The next day, Cartman is unceremoniously dumped back to Earth at the bus stop, where his friends are waiting, suffering from a bout of pinkeye and continuing to deny that the Visitors were real, or that he was ever abused by their unusual experiments.
The Summary: I’ve been a huge fan of South Park since it first aired; I can’t really remember how we first came to learn from it, but it must’ve been from TV spot and adverts for its impending debut on late-night TV over here. Interestingly enough, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” somehow wasn’t the first episode of the show I saw; instead, it was “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig” (Parker, 1997). Quite how I missed the first four episodes of this massive cultural phenomenon are beyond me, but I was a kid at the time so probably distracted by videogames and hormones. Regardless, as a big fan of The Simpsons (1989 to present) and Beavis and Butt-Head (1993 to 1997; 2011), I was enamoured by this crude cartoon with its vulgar content, hilarious use of censored swear words, and surreal concepts but, as I revisit the series from the very start, it’s hard to deny that this first episode is a little rough around the edges. Obviously this applies to the animation style, which is very jerky and lacks the polish of later (and more recent) episodes, but it also applies to the voice acting and characterisation, though I can accept all of this as it was a pilot episode meant to kick-start the series and pretty much all of these issues were addressed throughout the first season and beyond. I’ve always found South Park’s crude presentation part of its appeal; there’s something inherently amusing to see these characters awkwardly shuffle about the place, seeing the UFO’s shadow against the background, and Ike’s oddly-shaped head flapping about this place (this was, of course, long before it was revealed that Ike was Canadian). There’s a clear amount of effort put into bringing this episode to life using these laborious methods and, while the characterisations aren’t quite as we know them now and many of the voices aren’t quite as refined, the core elements that would dictate the course of the next few seasons and later be so cleverly subverted are all here. One of the most obvious examples of this is Liane Cartman; while she’s clearly an enabler and an overly doting mother as she would be characterised as later in the show, she has a little more backbone here as she not only lets in Cartman’s friends after he explicitly tells her not to but also snaps at him to not “be difficult” when he initially refuses to indulge their alien fantasies.
While the show would outgrow some of its gags, many of this episodes jokes set the tone for the first series.
“Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” also introduces us to just how wacky South Park’s inhabitants can be; Mr. Garrison is clearly unstable, banging on about how Christopher Columbus was the “Indian’s” best friend and discovered France and projecting a far more sinister persona through his puppet, and Chef is constantly breaking into song and asides about sex. One of the most amusing aspects of this episode for me is Ms. Crabtree’s selective deafness; this means that when the boys mutter insults at her, they have to come up with amusing soundalikes like “rabbit’s eat lettuce” to throw her off. Equally amusing is the subplot involving Officer Barbrady’s attempts to round up the missing cows; Barbrady would sadly be pushed to the side as South Park expanded and progressed, but I always enjoyed his cluelessness and it always cracks me up seeing the cows lining up to escape town on a train and the conductor (Stone) warning them not to use their “cow hypnosis” on him. Of course, a recurring theme in this episode is Cartman’s adamant refusal that he’s been abducted and experimented on by aliens; even when he sees a crop circle in his image, he dismisses it as being Tom Selleck rather than him, which is just scratching the surface of how toxic and stubborn the little psycho would become. Kyle and Stan have always been largely interchangeable characters but there’s enough to make them stand out; from Kyle’s concerns for his brother (a focal point of the episode) to Stan’s crippling vomiting whenever Wendy is around, the boys certainly do have a lot to deal with even when aliens aren’t invading their town. While Kenny is the least developed of the four, he still stands out since you can’t hear anything he says, he’s got a hell of a dirty mind, and he’s left dead before the episode’s end. Overall, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” is a fun first outing for the crassest mountain town on television; while it’s rough around the edges and subsequent episodes in even the first season are stronger in terms of jokes, presentation, and narrative, this first episode still makes an impression and, if anything, is refreshing to revisit since it’s before the cast ballooned out and the scope of the show started to focus more on political and social commentary.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Did you enjoy “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”? What did you think to it, and South Park in general, when it first aired? Which of the four main characters is your favourite and why? Do you prefer the cruder animation on show here? Would you like to see some of the elements introduced here return to the show? What are some of your favourite characters, episodes, and moments from South Park? How are you celebrating South Park’s anniversary this year? No matter what your thoughts on South Park, I’d love to hear from you so feel free to drop your comments below or leave a reply on my social media.
Air Date: 21 June 2023 to 29 July 2023 Director: Ali Selim Network: Disney+ Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Don Cheadle, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Cobie Smulders
The Background: January 1962 saw legendary duo Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduce the Skrulls to Marvel Comics readers. This race of warmongering shape-shifters have long hounded Marvel’s heroes but are perhaps best known not just for their long-standing conflict against the Kree but also the divisiveSecret Invasion story arc (Bendis, et al, 2008 to 2009), an eight-issue story accompanied by multiple tie-ins and spin-offs that detailed a lengthy and aggressive infiltration of Earth’s mightiest heroes, Following their live-action debut in Captain Marvel(Boden, 2019), the Skrulls have appeared sporadically throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but took centre stage in this series, which MCU head honcho Kevin Feige claimed would impact future MCU productions. The series was also produced as a means to explore the potential of Nick Fury (Jackson), a character mainly utilised in a supporting or administrative role, and evoke the atmosphere of classic Cold War/espionage thrillers (rather than load the narratives with superpowered imposters) by playing into the paranoia and distrust of the original storyline. Although Secret Invasion received heavy backlash for utilising AI for its opening title sequence, the series was praised for its darker, more mature direction; the tension and drama evoked through the narrative was equally praised, as was Jackson’s performance, though some found Secret Invasion to be a dull and tedious affair.
The Plot: Nick Fury, former director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) returns to Earth to investigate and intercept a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have infiltrated all aspects of human life and society.
The Review: Secret Invasion is a six-part miniseries that takes its title from the action-packed Marvel event of the same name. In many ways, the plot of this series is what I originally envisioned would permeate the MCU when Captain Marvel’s first trailer dropped. Before the movie recast the Skrulls as sympathetic refugees, I imagined we’d see an extended plot concerning their infiltration of human society throughout Marvel’s movies, however that didn’t actually happen. On the one hand, I was glad of this as plots like that annoy me for how cliché they are but, on the other hand, it’s resulted in this miniseries that takes that basic concept and significantly downplays its scope to deliver what’s actually more of a character inspection of Nick Fury than a significant shake-up of the MCU status quo. At first, though, it seems like this isn’t the case; the opening sequence of the series sees recurring MCU side character Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) pursued and killed by Talos (Mendelsohn), revealing him to have been a Skrull in disguise, and this same episode ends with frequent Avenger ally Maria Hill (Smulders) dead and Fury himself publicly blamed for her murder thanks to the actions of Skrull revolutionary Gravik (Ben-Adir). However, although Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine (Cheadle) co-stars, now working as an advisor to the United States President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney), he’s the only Avenger-level inclusion in Secret Invasion, which reframes the paranoia and subterfuge of the source material into less of a colourful classic of bombastic superheroes and more of a political thriller in the same vein as Captain America: The Winter Solder(Russo and Russo, 2014) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier(Skogland, 2021). In fact, this last comparison is startlingly apt as much of Gravik’s plot to wipe out humanity and the motivations of his Skrull loyalists is reminiscent of Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) and her Flag Smashers; the show even has a similar visual style and focus on grounded and practical explosions, again keeping things gritty and intriguing but perhaps at the cost of being a visually engaging, unique, or exciting narrative.
Nick Fury takes centre stage, showcasing a more nuance and vulnerable side to his character.
Fury returns to Earth after being absent for some time; he’s spent what’s said to be years out in deep space aboard the S.A.B.E.R. space station, working with Skrulls to establish an outer space defence network for the Earth. However, what he’s really been doing is hiding; ever since returning from the Blip, Fury is noted to have changed. His age is constantly brought up, and even he admits that the years he spent gone have caused him to lose more than a step or two; his appearance is dishevelled for most of the series, meaning it’s a thematic celebration when he visits one of his many gravesites and retrieves his iconic eye patch and coat, and much of the series focuses on exploring Fury in a way we’ve never seen before. Far from the influential spy of spies, Fury is recontextualised as a simple agent who got lucky; Talos tears into Fury, telling him that he owes his entire career to the information and assistance offered to him by the many Skrulls who agreed to act as his eyes and ears in return for a safe haven and we get to see a far more nuanced and vulnerable side to Fury. Specifically, flashbacks and de-aging effects show him in his younger days, forging an alliance with Talos and the Skrulls and even falling in love with the Skrull Varra (Charlayne Woodard), who takes the form and life of Priscilla and eventually marries him. Feeling a deep sense of obligation and respect towards the Skrulls, Fury promised to find them a new home in return for acting as his personal spy network, but was unable to deliver on this promise, infuriating Gravik and many of his followers, and therefore Fury has a personal stake in outing the Skrull infiltration since he’s largely responsible for their antagonism towards humans. Fury and Talos were united in their belief that the Skrulls would be accepted by humanity if they were willing to compromise; if they defended the Earth and kept their true selves hidden, they would be safe and able to thrive, but many came to resent having to hide themselves and joined Gravik in scheming to wipe out humankind. While Fury’s main concern is safeguarding the world, he maintains the belief that Skrulls and humans can co-exist throughout the series and constantly pleads with Gravik to end his vendetta despite how personal he makes their conflict. Ultimately, it’s a much deeper characterisation of Fury; we see him more relaxed, less authoritative, incredibly vulnerable, and relying on a handful of trusted allies to curb Gravik’s threat before it’s too late, while exploring how utterly broken he was following the Blip and his inability to prevent such a disaster.
Talos sacrifices everything to campaign for human/Skrull relations, which inspires G’iah.
One of the best aspects of Secret Invasion is the relationship between Talos and Fury; since their first adventure, the two became close friends and were united in their love of humanity and the belief that the Skrulls need to work together with humans to be accepted and safe. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of resentment between them in Fury’s absence; Talos is frustrated that Fury refuses to open up to him about his near-death experience and feels slighted that Fury would use his people to his own ends, but they maintain a begrudging mutual respect since they both know they need each other to oppose Gravik. Talos is grieving the loss of his wife, Soren (Sharon Blynn), at Gravik’s hands, his ousting from the Skrull council in favour of Gravik’s more fanatical ways, and the fracturing of his relationship with his daughter, G’iah (Clarke), who’s signed up to Gravik’s cause both to spite her father and because she resents having to hide away. Talos’s motivations in stopping Gravik are thus as multifaceted as Fury’s; his personal vendetta against Gravik sees him explode in a violent and uncharacteristic rage on more than one occasion and he’s left heartbroken and frustrated when G’iah continues to give him the cold shoulder even after she learns the truth about Gravik and his plan and decides to work against him from the inside. Talos is convinced that the Skrulls will be accepted by humanity if they prove themselves through heroic deeds, so much so that he teams up with Fury to defend President Ritson from Gravik’s attack and ends up fatally wounded as a result. Although the series initially makes it a bit unclear, this sees Talos killed before he can reconcile with G’iah and leaves Fury devastated; on the plus side, G’iah connects with Priscilla, who performs a traditional (if sadly intimate) funeral for her father and his death is enough to push G’iah into fully standing against Gravik, if only to get revenge. Spirited and forthright, G’iah is also young, brash, and quite bratty; she joins with Gravik mainly out of spite and continues to subscribe to the belief that the Skrulls deserve their own home rather than to hide amongst people who hate and fear them. However, the sheer magnitude of Gravik’s plot is enough to shake her faith in his deals, especially as he becomes more unstable; to that end, she’s forced to expose herself to Gravik’s “Super-Skrull” machine to grant herself additional superpowers to both survive his reprisals and confront him in the final.
Gravik feels slighted by Fury and, alongside his followers, is determined to destroy humanity.
Though also young and headstrong, Gravik is equally passionate and violent in his beliefs; recruited into Fury and Talos’s cause from a young age, Gravik initially carried out his orders without hesitation, killing in the name of Fury and his people in the firm belief that Fury would find them a home. However, as the years passed, the guilt and the blood on his hands mounted up, and Fury became increasingly absent, meaning bitterness and resentment took root in Gravik and turned him against all humans, but especially Fury, whom he sees as the embodiment of humankind and against whom much of his aggression is targeted. Gravik goes to great lengths to mess with Fury, having his followers impersonate people close to Fury and even assuming his form to frame him for Hill’s murder, all to show the world that this legendary figure is a fallible, untrustworthy, broken-down old man. As much as he desires power, granted to him by both the Skrull Council and Doctor Rosa Dalton’s (Katie Finneran) work in constructing his Super-Skrull machine, Gravik wishes to break Fury’s spirit, have him witness both his greatest failure and the death of his people, and then kill him for going back on his word. To facilitate this, Gravik has placed his followers in key roles within the world’s superpowers and is stoking the flames of conflict between the United States and Russia from a glorified refugee camp dubbed “New Skrullos” and sitting in a deeply irradiated area of Russia, where his people are safe from reprisals and live simple lives as farmers or take more active roles as soldiers. However, Gravik’s desire for revenge sees him place the settlement right in the line of fire and willing to sacrifice (or out-right execute) his own people to achieve victory, something many of his followers are unable to speak out against thanks to his ruthlessness and being imbued with various superpowers from his experiments. Undeniably, Gravik’s chief agent in encouraging President Ritson to strike back against Russia is Rhodey, who’s revealed to be a Skrull in disguise; an arrogant, pompous sellout, Rhodey continually dismisses Fury’s claims of a Skrull invasion and takes great pleasure in both firing him and labelling him a criminal and constantly gets in Ritson’s ear about the Russian/Skrull threat against the United States, bringing the world on the brink of annihilation simply through choice words and evidence supplied by Gravik himself. Naturally, this doesn’t end well for Rhodes; like many of the rebellious Skrulls loyal to Gravik’s cause, he’s ultimately killed to prevent this catastrophe, but Gravik’s followers are more than willing to give up their lives if it means dying as their true selves rather than pretending to be something they’re not.
The Summary: Oddly, Secret Invasion’s episodes get shorter as the series progresses, starting at around an hour and going as short as just over half an hour, indicating to me that there wasn’t as much story as other Marvel shows. Episode two was the longest at nearly an hour, while most episodes (including the finale) were less than forty minutes. Indeed, I wonder if this could’ve been a two-hour streaming film or cut down to four episodes if some of the padding, like Priscilla, was omitted. Priscilla definitely adds new layers to Fury’s character; there was never a hint that he was married or had much of a personal life before, but here we get to see his secluded home, his loving and equal relationship with Priscilla, and see him as more of a man, all masks cast aside. Naturally, their relationship isn’t perfect; Priscilla also notes a change in Fury and has even been somewhat swayed to Gravik’s cause in her husband’s absence, ultimately causing their relationship to fall apart until they reconcile in the finale. Again, this allows for a looser, less uptight characterisation for Fury but it somewhat bogs down the series; I wonder if expanding on his relationship with Hill might’ve been a better option, or perhaps spending more time developing his past with MI6 agent Sonia Falsworth (Coleman), an unnervingly polite and yet surprisingly devious ally of his who is happy to blatantly torture and murder Skrulls to get information on Gravik’s plot. Even saying that makes me wonder what the point of Falsworth really was when the show could’ve easily slotted Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) into this role to explore her vaguely defined relationship with Fury and offer to help G’iah in the finale for her own unscrupulous ends.
Themes of trust, race, and political intrigue are rife in this gritty, if small-scale, thriller.
Still, I did enjoy Fury’s characterisation here; his interactions with Talos, in particular, Priscilla, G’iah, and even Gravik show a man who’s been worn down by secrets, conflict, and bigotry and is striving to find a way for humanity to co-exist with extraterrestrial beings in a mutually beneficial way, even if it means compromises on both sides. He openly plays the race card when talking with Rhodey in an attempt to convince him to believe him, reinstate him, and take the Skrull threat seriously only to be met with hostility, and likens the Skrull’s displacement to the same persecution his people went through in the past (and even today). This adds an extra layer onto his motivations for helping the Skrulls as he feels a kinship to them, but he couldn’t help but use their unique shape-shifting powers to his benefit to ensure global security. As Talos mentions, this makes Fury quite the hypocrite since he had no problem exploiting the Skrulls for a “good” reason, making him thematically similar to Gravik, who exploits them for a “bad” reason. Rather than have the Skrull campaign against the Earth be religiously motivated and their people impersonate key superhero figures, Gravik and his followers are entrenched within the world’s governments and want to destroy humanity to claim the Earth for themselves. With a million displaced Skrulls hiding on Earth, many have every right to fear for their lives and to resent having to hide themselves, which sees those loyal to Gravik branding Talos as weak and a traitor, sentiments largely echoed by G’iah until she reluctantly comes to see how extreme Gravik’s plot has become. While Secret Invasion is built around the fundamental question of trust, there are very few Skrull reveals that surprised me or made me care; I think everyone assumed Rhodey would be a Skrull, though I wasn’t expecting Ross to be one until he showed up in the first episode, and everyone else who’s shown to be a Skrull is a new character for the show to avoid messing up the status quo, which is predictably restored in the finale when the real Rhodey and Ross are rescued by G’iah since the Skrulls conveniently need to keep their hosts alive to better maintain their façade and leech off their memories, experiences, and personalities.
Ultimately, Gravik’s plan is foiled but the Skrull presence is perceived as a nationwide threat.
On the one hand, I do like that Secret Invasion opted for a more grounded, gritty thriller story; it would be unrealistic to expect some of the MCU’s biggest names to appear and be revealed as Skrulls and the intimate nature of the narrative helps to make things more personal and raw. Car chases, explosions, and fire fights feel more visceral and real as, mostly, the series has two feet firmly on the ground if you ignore the sparing use of shape-shifting aliens. When the Skrulls do utilise their powers, or more fantastical elements like Extremis or that holographic-mask technology are employed, it’s treated as a big deal since, for the most part, we’re just following two old blokes trying to coerce or beat information out of people. However, a lot of this is done away with in the last episode; by then, G’iah has already gained additional powers from Gravik’s machine and Gravik himself uses the “Harvest” to gain the powers of all the Avengers and multiple of superpowered and alien entities to become a Super-Skrull. This means the ending comes down to a big ol’ fist fight between G’iah and Gravik and Fury and Falsworth exposing Rhodey’s true nature to the baffled and horrified President Ritson. One is an overly elaborate CGI punch-up that ends in anti-climactic fashion and the other is tense showdown that ends with the Rhodey-Skull dead because of his own hubris and President Ritson so rattled by the Skrull invasion that he openly declares war against all Skrulls, leading to a brief montage of trigger-happy bigots gunning down suspected Skrulls whether they’re innocent or not. This leads Fury and Priscilla (who reassumes her Skrull name and form) to return to S.A.B.E.R. to negotiate a peace treaty with the Kree and Falsworth offering G’iah the resources to fight back against Ritson’s campaign, essentially ending the series where it started with Fury off-world, Skrulls in hiding, and tensions high within the world’s governments. Sadly though, as much as I liked the peek into Fury’s private life and seeing him take centre stage, Secret Invasion felt like a mixed bag to me. Although Gravik’s plot is to kickstart World War Three, the stakes never felt very high and it was difficult to care when characters died as they were either expendable, had outlived their usefulness (Hill), were revealed to still be alive (Ross and Rhodey), or their deaths were strangely rushed to the point where I’m sure they’ll be revealed to be fake later (Talos). The relationship and banter between Fury and Talos was great, I enjoyed Gravik’s impassioned speeches and maniacal bent, and it’ll be interesting to see where Super-Skrull G’iah factors into the MCU going forward but this felt like a series you could easily skip over without missing anything and I’ll be surprised if it actually has any lasting impact on the MCU since it goes to such lengths to restore the status quo by the end.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
What did you think to Secret Invasion? How do you think it compares to the source material and Marvel’s other Disney+ shows? What did you think to the deeper dive into Nick Fury’s characterisation and personal life? Did you enjoy his relationship with Talos and kinship with the Skrulls? What did you think to Talos and G’iah’s resentment towards him? Were you impressed with Gravik and his plan or did you find it a bit too derivative? What did you think to what few Skrull reveals we got, and would you have preferred to see this narrative stretched out throughout the MCU rather than rushed in a miniseries? Whatever you think about Secret Invasion, feel free to drop a comment below or share your thoughts on my social media pages and don’t forget to check out my other MCU reviews across the site!
Air Date: 29 September 2017 to 10 November 2017 UK Network: Sky One OriginalNetwork: ABC Stars: Anson Mount, Serinda Swan, Iwan Rheon, Isabelle Cornish, Ken Leung, Eme Ikwuakor, and Ellen Woglom
The Background: In 1965, the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby expanded upon their earlier work with the X-Men with an entire race of superpowered beings, the Inhumans, initially antagonists to Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four. Brought about as a result of of Kree experimentation with “Terrigen Mist”, the incredible and often monstrous Inhumans have been at the forefront of some of Marvel’s most contentious storylines but gained a new level of infamy when the publishers unsuccessfully and bizarrely tried to have them replace the far more popular and mainstream X-Men. Development of a live-action Inhumans adaptation can be traced back to 2011 and Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) mastermind Kevin Feige initially planned for the team to feature in a big-screen movie that would expand the scope of the MCU in new directions. The first seeds of this were planted in the spin-off television show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013 to 2020) but, while the planned movie was soon removed from Marvel’s line-up, Feige remained hopeful that the property would come to life in some form or another. This eventually came to pass in shape of an eight-episode series headed by showrunner Scott Buck, who immediately set about stripping the Inhumans of many of their more recognisable traits and making unpopular decisions regarding the tone and direction of the show. With the first two episodes airing in cinemas courtesy of IMAX, Inhumans sought to tell a more grounded family drama but was notable for both being the first television show to include an entirely CGI character and altering the character’s costumes into something far more sterile and ruining the presentation and characterisation of Inhuman Queen, Medusa (Swan). The $3.5 million IMAX gross of the debut episodes was considered a failure, but this was nothing compared to the critical mauling the series received from reviews; critics slammed the show’s execution, its lack of exciting action, and its overall presentation, though Anson Mount’s performance as Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt was generally praised. The failure of the show led to plans for a second season being scrapped and the Inhumans quietly disappeared from the MCU until fairly recently, and rumours of a reboot for the concept continue to circulate online.
The Plot: Having fled persecution on Earth, a group of Inhumans founded the secret settlement of Attilan on the Moon under the rule of the Inhuman Royal Family. Jealous and slighted at having never developed the same fantastic powers as his peers, Maximus (Rheon) leads an uprising that sees the Inhuman leader, Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt (Mount), and his Royal Family trapped on Earth and desperately fighting to return to Attilan to put a stop to Maximus’s power-hungry schemes.
The Review: Inhumans came out at a weird time in Marvel history; at this time, Marvel Comics made a conscious effort to downplay the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, splitting up and neutering both groups to try and scupper 20th Century Fox’s film franchises to force a deal where those characters could appear in the MCU. The Inhumans thus became very prominent in Marvel Comics, a decision that was met with considerable backlash not because the characters are bad, per se, but more because they were trying to replace two of Marvel’s most popular and iconic teams and they weren’t as compelling as either. I was confused by this decision, but then I’ve never been a die-hard fan of the Inhumans; for me, they’ve cropped up in numerous Fantastic Four comics and that’s about it. I’ve not read much, if any, of their adventures but I was intrigued at the announcement that they’d be getting a movie, and the attempt to incorporate the Inhumans into the MCU in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., something subtly alluded to in Inhumans as many, even random humans, are aware of the Inhumans thanks to their recent appearances after the water supply was contaminated by Terrigen Mist. Accordingly, Inhumans are actively hunted by some when they appear, mainly out of fear but also to cut them open and understand their strange powers. This perceived fear and distrust of Inhumans is made explicit right from the first scene of the show, in which a recently transformed girl (Nicola Peltz) is chased by armed soldiers and unceremoniously killed as she flees. Inhuman fishman Triton (Mike Moh) arrives to offer her safety and sanctuary in Attilan, only to fail to save her and be presumed dead, and his death is a major inciting incident in the narrative of the show.
A stoic ruler who must contain his destructive powers, Black Bolt learns to view his relationships differently.
Triton was sent to Earth on the orders of his king, the stoic and perpetually silent Black Bolt, specifically to help Earth-born Inhumans as they are remnants of those left behind after their society fled to the Moon. In a show full of questionable performances and decisions, Anson Mount is one of the highlights; while he only wears a vaguely comic-accurate costume on a couple of occasions (including a crappy little leather-like crown), he conveys a great deal of emotion and character despite being rendered silent due to the destructive nature of his voice. Black Bolt is widely believed, and continuously stated, to be the most powerful and dangerous of all the Inhumans; even the feared living weapon Mordis (Bridger Zadina) pales in comparison as the slightest whisper from Black Bolt could destroy all of Attilan. Consequently, Black Bolt is a man of intense focus; as a child, young Black Bolt (Lofton Shaw) had no interest in being king, much to the chagrin of his morally dubious parents, King Agon (Michael Buie) and Queen Rynda Boltagon (Tanya Clarke). Black Bolt was overcome with grief and feared by his people after accidentally vaporising his parents and it was only the affection of young Medusalith Amaquelin-Boltagon/Medusa (Victoria Isabella Piemonte) that gave him the motivation to master his powers within a specifically constructed chamber. Bonded in their mutual grief, as Medusa had also lost her parents, the two eventually married and became much revered rulers of Attilan, with Black Bolt gaining a reputation for safeguarding his people through a strict policy of secrecy to shield them from Earthly eyes. Due to the nature of his powers, Black Bolt communicates through stern looks, body language, a version of sign language, and relies on the adult Medusa (Swan) as an interpreter. The series is strangely reliant on this, and other characters translating Black Bolt’s “words”; I would’ve liked to see subtitles being used to avoid this as it can be a bit awkward when characters repeat what he’s signed back to him just for our benefit. Black Bolt’s sign language is also entirely unique; few others can understand his “words”, so he’s shit out of luck when his eventual arrival in downtown Honolulu causes a stir and leads to his imprisonment. Despite the fact that he could easily escape prison at any time with his voice, Black Bolt largely co-operates with his incarceration, a fact made even stranger given how quick he was to lash out when the cops tried to subdue him. Black Bolt is an Inhuman of many layers; he secretly colluded to fake Triton’s death in order to force Maximus’s hand and is openly criticised by Locus (Sumire Matsubara) for perpetuating Attilan’s caste system, which sees those with useful, beautiful powers living in luxury and everyone else being forced to toil in the Terrigen mines.
Though rude and utterly unlikeable, Medusa eventually campaigns for positive change for the Inhumans.
Indeed, despite her loyalty to Black Bolt and her love of Attilan, Medusa eventually comes to speak out against the system. When we first meet her, Medusa is the alluring right-hand woman of the king who is traumatised when Maximus kicks off his coup d’état by shaving her hair and forcing her and the rest of the royal family to flee to Oahu. Though a strong and forthright woman who’s more than capable of defending herself, Medusa’s authority is openly criticised by Maximus, with whom she has a tumultuous relationship. We’re told on many occasions that the two used to be close friends, to the point where Medusa unsuccessfully attempts to talk him into halting Attilan’s destruction in the finale, though we’re never given much insight into their past so it almost feels like it was shoe-horned in since Black Bolt can’t speak. Similarly, surprisingly little time is spent dwelling on Medusa’s relationship with her younger sister, Princess Crystal Amaquelin (Cornish); there’s a brief flashback showing Medusa comforting young Crystal (Leila Bootsma) and that Medusa’s always had responsibilities and someone to care about, and she’s later unexpectedly cool with Crystal’s friendship with young farmer Dave (Chad Buchanan). However, Medusa’s screen time is largely spent debating and contrasting with enthusiastic Louise Fisher (Woglom), a scientist from the Callisto Aerospace Control Center who teams up with Medusa after tracking the Inhumans’ arrival. While all of the Inhumans are strangely baffled by Earth, Medusa initially cares only about reuniting with Black Bolt and making Maximus pay; this leads to her having little regard for Earth customs and sees her demanding money from an ATM machine simply because of her royal status in much the same way as Black Bolt simply strolled out of a clothing shop without paying. Though used for comedic effect, this makes her seem stupid and rude; it doesn’t make sense for any of them to be this confused since we saw the Inhumans monitoring Earth, yet she just openly steals from people and is overly rude and aggressive towards Louise. Medusa forces Louise to co-operate by holding a gun on her, is constantly ungrateful and impatient and even ditches Louise once she manages to pinpoint Black Bolt’s location. They have many heated discussions about Attilan’s caste system, a system Medusa’s own parents spoke out against and were killed for trying to change; she thus initially finds idealism to be overrated but comes to be changed through her time with Louise and Locus’s eventual death, which sees her going from wanting Maximus dead to literally begging Black Bolt to set a better example. Upon learning of Black Bolt’s deception and his secret war bunker, Medusa chastises him for keeping her in the dark; her time on Earth makes her realise that she wants to have a greater say in Attilan society as his equal, not just his interpreter, though it’ll take more than a brief bit of despair over her shaved locks and her awkward attempts to learn humility to make me sympathise with such an unlikeable character.
With Karnak’s powers on the fritz, Gorgon’s more blundering nature comes in handy.
While Black Bolt blunders his way around and Medusa begrudgingly finds herself relying on Louise for help, their cousins, Karnak Mander-Azur (Leung) and Gorgon Pentragon (Ikwuakor), end up mixed up in their own side adventures. While we rarely see Black Bolt’s power and Medusa’s is forcibly stripped from her, Karnak’s unique ability to “see the flaw” in anything and predict outcomes so accurately that it’s almost as if he can see the future is a central point of his narrative as this character who always sees what’s coming takes an unforeseen tumble and hits his head, throwing his powers out of whack and making him doubt himself and his usefulness. Conversely, Gorgon is the meat-headed captain of the royal guard; his childish nature and preference to go charging head-first into any situation are a constant aggravation to Karnak and see him almost drown upon arriving on Earth and forced not only to rely on a group of surfers – including Holo (Ty Quiamboa), Makani (Kala Alexander), and Pablo (Albert Ueligitone) – for aid but also learn the value of foresight and planning, two things he normally relies on Karnak for. While this alliance is short-lived as Gorgon doesn’t want to be responsible for the deaths of his newfound friends, Karnak is irrevocably changed by his unreliable powers and the influence of Jen (Jamie Gray Hyder), a kindly Earth woman who treats his wounds and teaches him to relax. The kindest of the three cannabis farmers who initially take Karnak hostage, Jen finds Karnak alluring; she’s captivated by his tattoos and stories of Gorgon and the Moon and their relationship quickly develops into a romance. Her influence has a profound effect on him, changing him from being dismissive of sexual encounters to being appreciative of them and infusing his cold, analytical nature with a sense of compassion. While this astounds his fellow Inhumans, it also leads Karnak to making uncharacteristically rash decisions; when Gorgon is killed defending the group, Karnak openly defies Black Bolt and Medus (and strict Attilan law) to put his friend through a second Terrigenesis, a purely selfish act reunite him with his aggravating cousin and which results in Gorgon being restored to life but sporadically overcome with a mindless rage.
Crystal, like the other Inhumans, is changed by her time on Earth and encounters with humans both good and bad.
Although Crystal is the youngest of the Inhumans and rarely uses her elemental powers, she serves an important use as she’s able to have her gigantic pet dog Lockjaw instantly teleport people around. There’s a brief subplot where she’s held hostage by Maximus, who subtly threatens Lockjaw and her family unless she agrees to spread his influence across Attilan, but she easily fools him and flees to Oahu with Lockjaw to reunite with Medusa, only to end up falling in with Dave after he accidentally injures Lockjaw with his quad bike. Interestingly, when with Dave, Crystal takes on characteristics of a sheltered and spoiled princess, one who’s used to getting her way and has never been touched by a human; their relationship fulfils a dual role of teaching her not to be so uptight and showcasing that not all humans are as dangerous as she has been taught. Naturally, because they’re both young and attractive, they also end up smooching and Crystal ends the series wishing to live a normal life with this bland, if kind-hearted, young man, a decision Medusa is happy to support since she too comes to regard humans more favourably. In fact, the Inhumans find a surprising number of allies on Oahu; Gorgon just happens to fall in with a bunch of former soldiers who are not only aware of Inhumans but willingly put their lives on the line to aid him, but the standout is obviously Louise. Having lived her whole life dreaming of visiting the Moon so she can scatter her father’s ashes there, she’s captivated by Medusa and the Inhuman race but quickly comes to question their caste system and treatment of their enemies. Of course, not every human is so willing to aid them; Reno (Michael Trotter) is immediately suspicious of Karnak and tries to kill him out of jealousy, a crusade picked up by Tua (Mark Medeiros) after he murders Reno for his disloyalty. Then there’s Doctor Evan Declan (Henry Ian Cusick), a scientist conducting extensive Inhuman research on Maximus’s payroll, though he’s unaware of the truth behind his benefactor. Dr. Declan is a curious character; he aids Black Bolt, facilitating his escape from prison alongside fellow Inhuman Sammy (Olo Alailima) and agrees to help him in exchange for some blood tests. While he’s clearly been experimenting on Inhumans, he doesn’t make any aggressive moves towards them and is instead fascinated by the different physiology; his research is vital to Maximus, who plots to use it to undergo Terrigenesis for a second time and gift himself powers, and Dr. Declan seems happy to help both sides simply out of sheer scientific curiosity, which results in him being killed during Gorgon’s rampage.
Maximus has a forked tongue but leaves the dirty work to his loyal flunkies.
Though he’s firmly pigeon-holed as the antagonist of the series, Maximus is actually something of a revolutionary; carrying a lifetime of resentment towards his brother and father, Maximus is unique among the Inhumans in that Terrigenesis rendered him a mere human and he was only spared a lifetime in the mines because of his royal blood. Maximus openly and routinely criticises Black Bolt’s decisions; he fully believes that the humans will inevitably one day discover them and destroy them once they do and challenges the caste system, earning himself a small but vocal following of Inhumans wishing to rise above their allotted stations. Sporting a silver tongue and prone to elaborate monologues, Maximus seeks to twist every situation in his favour, against the ruling class, or into a veiled threat; he subtly suggests that the royal family have caused death and chaos and fled, assumes the throne in their absence, and sets about abolishing the caste system and conscripting the miners into becoming soldiers to hunt down and kill his family. While he’s no fighter, having failed to learn even basic self-defence from Gorgon, Maximus is an accomplished manipulator and politician; however, his doubters are everywhere, not just because he’s a lowly human but also because he threatens to change Inhuman society in ways that would be disruptive to the genetic council. Because of the threats, disloyalty, and political minefield of his coup, Maximus frequently manipulates Bronaja (Ari Dalbert) into sharing his prophetic visions of the future; while these can be vague, they’re enough for him to intercept a rebellion, kill insurgents and betrayers, and stay one step ahead on most occasions. When he needs more direct action, Maximus employs the services of Auran (Sonya Balmores), a cold-hearted assassin capable of regenerating, to first kill and then capture his family so that he can make better use of Dr. Declan’s research. Although fiercely loyal to Maximus, Auran comes to realise her mortality and turn away from his cause as the series progresses and is at constant odds with Mordis, an Inhuman who emits destructive energy blasts from his face. Mordis’s snarky attitude and rivalry with Auran actually lends the series some much-needed appeal and he’s a surprisingly interesting character; like Black Bolt, he has vast destructive potential, but he was simply locked up and forgotten about because he wasn’t of royal blood and would rather dramatically kill himself than be locked up again. Although Maximus states is plot is based around changing Attilan’s archaic society and allowing them to begin a new life on Earth, by force if necessary, it’s really just a cover for his selfish desire for the throne and to become Inhuman; this obsession not only saw him manipulate young Black Bolt into killing their parents but also endangers the entire city. Ultimately, though he proved to be an unstable and unfit ruler, Maximus does see his dream achieved; the Inhumans migrate to Earth to start over as equals, but Maximus doesn’t get to be a part of this as he’s sealed away in a bunker by his brother and left to rule over the remnants of Attilan alone on the Moon.
The Summary: I will say that one thing Inhumans has going for it is its Earth setting; setting the series in and around Hawaii offers a unique visual setting unlike anything seen in the MCU at the time but, in many ways, I think it might’ve been better to just set the show on Earth, with the Inhumans scattered around the globe, and do flashbacks showing their time in Attilan and have the finale take place there because, for a hidden, technologically advanced city on the Moon, Attilan is a massive disappointment. Attilan lacks the grandiose architecture and fantastical visuals of Asgard or Wakanda; everything is made of cold, grey stone, resulting in a lacklustre and cheap presentation akin to old sci-fi television serials. While this may have been a conscious choice, or dictated by the budget, it comes across as lifeless and uninspiring compared to Jack Kirby’s original artwork. I may not always be the biggest fan of his complex and colourful machinery and environments, but a least they popped on the page and impressed; nothing about Attilan impresses and it screams low budget, minimalist, and low quality, three things the MCU was and still is definitely not known for. This extends to the Terrigen Mist ceremony (which, like Attilan, is disappointingly barebones and small-scale), Callisto’s dull warehouse interiors, and the stark emptiness of Attilan’s unimpressive throne room, dining room, courtyard, and bunker. While Maximus notes that the city is small and crammed with too many people, even the streets resemble a backlot or claustrophobic set rather than a thriving cityscape and there’s little appealing or alien about Attilan. Similarly, the costume design and effects are more miss than hit; while Medusa’s hair and wig aren’t great (especially when animated) and her purple dress does her no favours, Black Bolt’s attire looks pretty good, if a bit of a half-hearted attempt to reproduce his comic book outfit. Though Karnak has simple facial tattoos, Triton has some decent enough prosthetics going on, but Gorgon’s hooves mysteriously appear and disappear with no explanation and Crystal barely showcases any of her powers. Lockjaw looks pretty good, considering he’s a massive slobbering bulldog; yes, he obviously looks quite cartoonish, and the teleport effect isn’t great, but I think that’s to be expected of such a ludicrous character and CGI effect.
Sadly, the visuals, effects, and costumes all fail to impress and just come across as cheap.
The show’s action sequences also fail to impress; thanks to the Inhumans spending most of the show scattered across Hawaii and unable to use their powers for one reason or another, we’re denied any grandiose or mind blowing spectacles and are left to rely on car chases, simple fistfights, and shootouts more often than not. Black Bolt, Medusa, and Karnark showcase a blunt efficiency in their movements, easily overpowering and besting multiple armed foes either with their hands or their hair, but these pale in comparison to action sequences seen in the likes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is really saying something. Much of the heavy lifting is performed, fittingly, by Gorgon and Auran; Gorgon favours a ground-trembling foot stomp and tossing foes around with his brute strength, which is in stark contrast to Auran’s swifter, more precise fighting style and I enjoyed seeing them clash but these fights were always in boring environments and over far too quickly. Karnak’s action scenes are the most visually interesting and have so much potential; we see him engaging with foes in hypothetical scenarios and learning the most efficient way of dispatching his enemies, but his powers are on the fritz for the entire show, so we rarely get to see this or are simply treated to him being knocked out from behind. The show makes a big deal about the destructive nature of Black Bolt’s voice but we never really get to see this in action; there’s a ludicrous scene of him accidentally atomising his parents, he sends a police car flying which is strangely treating like a huge deal in a world where literal Gods walk amongst us, and he ultimately buries Maximus with a simple whisper but his powers are never showcased to the fullest extent, meaning all that build up was for nothing. Mordis offers some consolation for this, frequently blasting away with his energy beams, but we’re even denied the spectacle of a huge explosion during his and Gorgon’s death scene and, similarly, whatever potential there was in Medusa’s hair or Crystal’s elemental powers is undone simply because the plot and budget demand it, meaning these superhuman characters are more likely to hold people at gunpoint, something hardly befitting their colourful nature.
The focus on human/Inhuman relations and the budget sadly overshadows the family drama.
There’s a general theme of the Inhumans being out of their element and learning new things about themselves and humanity, but it really doesn’t make much sense; we literally see the Inhumans observing Earth and yet, when they arrive, they have no concept of money, our society, no respect for our laws, and little understanding of humans beyond them being dangerous. This results in Black Bolt looking like a complete moron when he wanders about the city and is spirited from place to place; he’s silent and alien in nature but he’s not an idiot and it’s really jarring to see him, Medusa, and Crystal suddenly act like entitled assholes when that wasn’t the case on Attilan. We never even got much of a sense that they were anything but beloved and respected monarchs; we see them freely walking among the people and going out of their way to safeguard the city, and it’s only later that we’re told about the caste system and how awful Attilan can be for those with less desirable or attractive gifts. Since he’s been genetically transformed into a lowly human and his only gift is his forked tongue and unquenchable pursuit of power and adoration, Maximus seeks to change this system, to give the lower caste a chance to shine and take what they want by force. However, perhaps again due to the budget, we see very little of this and most of Maximus’s time is spent trying to win over the genetic council before he just kills them all, being overly reliant on Bronaja’s sketchy visions, and flip-flopping on whether he wants his family dead or alive. Despite being a silent role, Mount does a good job here, but I feel like he’s not in it as much as he could be; instead, Medusa seems to have a larger role and she’s a pretty awful character, and Crystal’s performance is probably the weakest of all involved. Karnak had some interesting development but it’s robbed of a lot of its potential as we never get to see his powers (or any of their powers) showcased in a visually interesting way; we’re just told stuff about them and then they’re forced to adapt to their new situation. Maximus was clearly the standout in terms of intrigue and acting; however, while there’s a central conflict between Black Bolt and Maximus, this really should have been given more focus. While Iwan Rheon is certainly giving it his all and is almost Shakespearian in his performance, Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki Laufeyson (Tom Hiddleston) they are not. They should be akin to these two, but the production and budget just doesn’t allow it, and they share very little screen time together so we’re mainly informed of their animosity and relationship through other characters, flashbacks, and their individual moments.
Whatever potential the show had was undone by a lacklustre presentation and low budget.
This is a problem faced by the entire show. The Inhumans is a concept that has the potential to be as visually interesting and grandiose as the X-Men, Thor, and the Eternals; Attilan should have been as memorable and impactful as Asgard or Wakanda but, instead, it’s just a series of dull sets. Nothing in Attilan is interesting to look at; they have fancy communicator devices but they don’t incorporate visuals or holograms so they’re useless whenever anyone calls Black Bolt, which is weird as we clearly see the do have this technology. They’re protected by an invisible shield and yet idiots like Gorgon go out and steal flags and smash rovers; they can teleport anywhere they like but only if Lockjaw is at full strength or living wall Eldrac (Moses Goods) feels like cooperating. They’re supposed to be this advanced civilisation, yet the Terrigensis chambers look like shit and they’re more likely to use guns than their powers, and their society is more primitive and backwards than ours since it’s based completely around having impressive and wonderful powers; anything else and you’re in the mines, meaning Maximus is completely right in his pursuit and our “heroes” look pretty awful. Thankfully, Maximus is an unlikeable asshole in all the right ways, so I never found myself rooting for him; but then I wasn’t rooting for the royal family, either. Instead, I was just bored. Inhumans should have been a movie, there’s no question about that; afforded a bigger budget and a two-hour runtime, we could have had something at least more pleasing to look at, if not actually enjoyable. As is, though, it comes across as being cheaper and more half-hearted than an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; arguably, the Inhumans were realised far better there and maybe Inhumans would’ve worked better if some its plots and characters had been woven into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and then spun-off into a ninety-minute feature or something. Instead, what we’re left with is what basically amounts to a contractual obligation; there’s some good performances here, and I’m glad Anson Mount revisited his role later (even if he was still treated like a joke), but it’s hard to care about Inhumans when even Marvel Studios clearly didn’t give a crap about it. There’s a reason this is buried away on Disney+ and was never released on home media and you’re better off just skipping this one and watching Eternals(Zhao, 2021) instead, which really is saying a lot.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
What did you think to Inhumans? Do you agree that it’s one of the most disappointing ventures in the MCU or did you actually enjoy it? What did you think to Anson Mount and Iwan Rheon’s performances? Were you disappointed by the poor visuals, costumes, and action sequences? What did you think to the themes of the Inhumans finding humility and the depiction of their society? Are you a fan of the characters and, if so, what did you think to the show as an adaptation? How did you react to Marvel’s attempts to increase the exposure of the Inhumans at the time? Would you like to see the Inhumans return to the MCU or do you think it’s better to just ignore them? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below or let me know on my social media.
Since his explosive debut in May 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s gamma-irradiated Jade Giant has been one of their most recognisable and successful characters thanks, in large part, to the Incredible Hulk television show (1977 to 1982) catapulting the Hulk into a mainstream, pop culture icon. The Hulk has been no slouch in the comics either, being a founding member of the Avengers and undergoing numerous changes that have made him one of their most versatile and enduring characters, so what better way to celebrate all things Big Green than by dedicating every Sunday in May to the Green Goliath?
Air Date: 17 August 2022 to 12 October 2022 Network: Disney+ Stars: Tatiana Maslany, Todd Phelps, Jameela Jamil, Josh Segarra, Ginger Gonzaga, Tim Roth, and Mark Ruffalo
The Background: Following the incredible success of the Incredible Hulk television show, Marvel had Stan Lee create a female counterpart to the Green Goliath to beat Incredible Hulk producer Kenneth Johnson to the punch. A powerful feminist icon for Marvel who has been a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk shared the spotlight with her cousin in the Incredible Hulk cartoon from the nineties and very nearly got her own live-action movie back then, too; Brigitte Nielsen was even cast to bring the character to life at the time. Decades later, Marvel Studios announced that She-Hulk would be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with a nine-episode series streaming exclusively on Disney+, with Kat Coiro placed as the guiding hand behind the series and Tatiana Maslany cast in the dual role. She-Hulk’s visual effects were the work of multiple effects studios and initially caused some premature backlash, and the show promised not only to feature Mark Ruffalo as Doctor Bruce Banner/The Hulk in a mentor role but also the long-awaited return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination. After being delayed due to COVID-19, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law released to largely positive reviews; critics praised the performances and interpersonal slant towards a legal drama, and the comedic aspects were particularly lauded. Others, however, were not so impressed; some criticised the pacing, the CGI effects were a massive point of contention, and the show was slandered by online trolls throughout its run. Regardless, She-Hulk was also praised as an empowering series for female viewers that tackled the subject toxic masculinity and was highly regarded if only for returning a beloved, seemingly forgotten MCU character to the franchise. Finally, unlike other Disney+ MCU shows,Kevin Feige stated that She-Hulk had the potential to not only gain additional seasons but to also cross over into the MCU’s big-budget feature films.
The Plot: After a car crash sees her blood contaminated with the Gamma-irradiated blood of her cousin, Bruce Banner, lawyer Jennifer Walters (Maslany) finds herself able to transform into a superpowered hulk. As she tries to adapt to her new situation, she tackles a series of unique superhero court cases and finds herself targeted by a slanderous online smear campaign.
The Review: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law begins in medias res; Jen is already capable of becoming She-Hulk, her best friend and paralegal Nikki Ramos (Gonzaga) is aware of her abilities, and she immediately showcases her additional ability to address the audience to catch us up with her origin story. Jen was on a road trip with Bruce and the two of them were involved in a car crash caused by the sudden appearance of a Sakaaran spacecraft. While rescuing Bruce from the wreckage, some of his blood drips into her wound, instantly transforming her into a savage hulk in the first of many call-backs to the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk. Disoriented and dishevelled, she’s unquestionably supported and fixed up by a gaggle of helpful women at a bar but is triggered by a group of pushy guys before being tackled by the Hulk and brought to his secluded island laboratory for testing and training. Jen is distraught at the idea of being handicapped by such a life-destroying condition and immediately annoyed and critical of the Hulk’s attempts to mentor her; this ends up going both ways, however, as the Hulk’s lifelong syllabus on controlling his rage is rendered mute by Jen’s natural ability to retain her personality and intelligence in her Hulk form since she’s so used to managing her emotions, both in public and at work, to avoid lashing out at every creep or being branded as inferior because of her gender, which allows her to willingly transform at will because, essentially, she’s always angry.
Jen’s transformation into a Hulk causes some major changes to her personal and professional life.
This presents the unique dichotomy of She-Hulk; while the Hulk strived for years to master his abilities and to reconcile his two warring halves, Jen immediately has full control of not only her strength but also her transformations; though she’s physically smaller and less savage than the Hulk, she showcases all of his abilities with the added benefit of greater physical control. However, despite the Hulk’s best efforts, Jen has no desire to abandon her life and her career to be a superhero; after a brawl, he reluctantly agrees to let her live her own life, but things quickly become complicated for the superpowered lawyer when, during a session in court, she’s forced to reveal her dual identity in front of the world when “superpowered influencer” Mary Macpherran/Titania (Jamil) literally crashes in and threatens lives. It takes Jen some time to embrace her superhero identity; she regularly distances herself from the She-Hulk name and constantly downplays the appeal and benefits of being a superhero, and her condition comes to negatively affect her when she’s fired and unable to find work at a conventional law firm. Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) throws her a lifeline by offering her the chance to join a superhero law division at Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H); though initially annoyed that she’s been hired to represent clients as She-Hulk and as more of a publicity stunt than for her legal skills, she’s won over by her new office and just being back at work. Unfortunately for Jen, her troubles only escalate; the press constantly hound her, reporting rumours as facts and often belittling her because of her gender, and she’s even forced to set aside her personal bias in order to represent Emil Blonsky/The Abomination (Roth) at his parole hearing. This all comes to a head when Titania releases a rage of beauty products using the She-Hulk name and sues her for misuse of the copyright, which ties into a central theme of the series, which revolves around Jen learning to embrace both sides of her personality, the meek and somewhat awkward Jen and the sexually confident and alluring She-Hulk; throughout the show, she takes great strides in reconciling both in the court room by embracing her moniker and even later donning a form-fitting superhero outfit to directly assist others.
Jen’s struggles at romance are compounded by an online group that targets and slanders She-Hulk.
This character growth is full of little stumbles, however. Not only is she faced with an overbearing family who clearly care for her but can’t help but interfere and put her down, her love life is a bit of a shambles. Even after she reluctantly changes her online dating profile to a She-Hulk one, Jen is forced to endure a series of disastrous dates with self-obsessed, disrespectful, and down-right creepy men who either disregard her entirely or care only about comparing her to her more famous cousin, such as the uncomfortably obsessed Todd Phelps (Jon Bass), who later forms an entire online movement, Intelligencia, designed to hate on She-Hulk. Because of this, and Jen’s low self-esteem and desire for attention, it doesn’t take much for Arthur (Michel Curiel) to make an impression; he seems genuinely interested in her and actually engages her in conversation, however he has no interest in Jen and thus isn’t interested in pursuing a serious relationship with her. While attending the wedding of her high school friend, Lulu (Patti Harrison), Jen is surprised to make a connection with the charming Josh Miller (Trevor Salter), especially as she’s forced to stay in her human form so as not to steal Lulu’s spotlight. Josh appears to be the opposite of Arthur; he’s only interested in Jen and never really asks about She-Hulk and they actually take the time to date rather than jumping into bed right away. Unfortunately, after they do sleep together, he ghosts her, driving her to distraction; while she finds a measure of closure and self-respect thanks to some unlikely advice from Blonsky and the gaggle of misfit, rehabilitated supervillains at his retreat, she’s driven into an uncontrollable fury when Josh leaks her personal information, including photos and videos of her, to Intelligencia, resulting in her briefly losing the support of the public and being imprisoned.
Of all the guest stars to feature, Daredevil undeniably steals the show with his long-awaited return.
Thankfully, it’s not all bad news for Jen in the romance department. While he initially rubs her the wrong way by proving to be a competent lawyer, blind, flirtatiously charming Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) proves to be a suitable confidante and partner after not only encouraging Jen to help others with her powers when the law fails them but also being unmasked as the superpowered vigilante Daredevil. Together, they’re able to rescue a mutual acquaintance, eccentric superhero fashion guru Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews), from wannabe superhero-turned-supervillain Eugene Patilio/Leap-Frog (Brandon Stanley) and, in the process, She-Hulk learns a little bit about what it means to be a superhero. The chemistry between them boils over following their fight and the series ends with the suggestion that they’re going to be a regular thing going forward since he joins her and her family for a meal. Although he steals the show in every scene, Daredevil isn’t the only guest star to feature in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law; Wong (Benedict Wong) shows up a few times, first to help with Blonsky’s appeal and then to ask for She-Hulk’s aid in barring disgraced sorcerer Donny Blaze (Rhys Coiro) from threatening the fabric of reality with his reckless magic. Similarly, the Hulk also plays an important role in the first episode; initially appearing as Bruce Banner thanks to a convenient inhibitor, he assumes his “Smart Hulk” form and puts Jen’s abilities to the test. He’s frustrated by her not taking his lessons seriously and tries to emphasise the burden and responsibility of being a Hulk, but ultimately trusts her to live her life her own way and disappears into space for his own side story, one that we’re not privy to but see the results of in the finale when he returns from Sakarr with his son, Skaar (Wil Deusner). We even get a couple of celebrity cameos as David Otunga and rapper Megan Thee Stallion feature in the series but the show’s breakout original character is clearly the brazen Madisynn King (Patty Guggenheim), a career party animal who makes a shady deal with a demonic goat and ends up forming an unlikely bond with Wong over their shared love of television.
While spending a lot of time in court, She-Hulk also explores her duality and self-esteem.
At its core, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a superhero comedy with a fair amount of courtroom drama serving as the focal point or backdrop of each episode. Whether it’s Jen trying to find a job in her field, Nikki and their co-workers Augustus “Pug” Pugliese (Segarra) and Mallory Book (Renée Elise Goldsberry) working cases involving shapeshifting elves or immortal cuckolds, rogue sorcerers or bumbling heroes, superhero law is naturally a large focus of the show. Conjecture, hearsay, trademarks, and faulty manufacturing are all elements that need to be addressed in a court of law, just like in normal life, but the superhero slant definitely makes these aspects more entertaining to watch. She-Hulk is often representing or even defending individuals who have wronged her in the past; she puts her neck on the line to vouch for the rehabilitated Blonsky, is called to speak to misogynistic Dennis Bukowski’s (Drew Matthews) stupidity, and is even forced to parade her former dates in order to prove that she identifies as She-Hulk. That’s not to say that the show is without any action scenes; Jen may prefer to use her legal skills more than her fists to resolve conflicts but she gets into a number of scraps throughout the show, often for comedic effect. Her first fight with Titania, for example, is over in a single punch and Jen forgets herself for a moment when she’s jumped by Wrecking Crew – Dirk Garthwaite/The Wrecker (Nick Gomez), Eliot Franklin/Thunderball (Justin Eaton), Henry Camp/Bulldozer (Tennison Barry), and Brian Calusky/Piledriver (Kyle Murillo) – when they try to steal her blood using Asgardian-powered construction tools, before easily dispatching them as She-Hulk. She-Hulk is specifically recruited by Wong to fend off the goblin demons Donny unwittingly summons, and she throws down with Titania again at Lulu’s wedding, much to the delight of the guests, but she chooses to leave the violence to Daredevil when confronting Leap-Frog and instead offers him legal counsel. Indeed, She-Hulk largely subverts a lot of the usual expectations when it comes to action sequences; she openly criticises Daredevil’s reliance on stealth and denies him another fight in a hallway and even finds herself really opening up to Blonsky and the oddball guests at his retreat since they can relate to her identity crisis.
Jen’s so annoyed at the derivative nature of her narrative that she forces the show to change tack for the finale.
She-Hulk’s true enemy here isn’t the monstrous Abomination, who’s now repentant and committed to offering emotional support and spiritual guidance, or even Titania, who’s strength makes her almost as formidable a foe as her spiteful nature. Instead, She-Hulk’s greatest foe throughout the series is toxic masculinity. We get our first taste of this moments into the first episode when Dennis undermines Jen’s abilities and suggests he’s a more capable lawyer than her; he continues to talk down to her even when addressing She-Hulk and, later, refuses to have her or Mallory represent him as he’d rather have a man. A shallow, arrogant little man, he refers to women as “hot chick” and “it” but it’s this delusional nature which ends up winning him the case against catfisher Runa (Peg O’Keef). Although a small-time annoyance, Dennis is just one example of the persecution Jen faces, both as herself and as She-Hulk; when the Wrecking Crew confront her, they accuse her of flaunting herself when she’s simply living her life and the press are constantly using derogatory terms to label her. Very few males treat her as an equal or with the respect she deserves, allowing the likes of Pug, Murdock, and even Blonsky to stand out as they actually engage with her and don’t condescend her or try to undermine her intelligence and abilities. Male chauvinism isn’t limited to just She-Hulk either; Craig Hollis/Mr. Immortal (David Pasquesi) lands himself in hot water after abandoning his many marriages by faking his death, leading to him not only earning Mallory and Nikki’s ire but also being forced to agree to a fair settlement tailored for each of his slighted partners. No male is more troublesome to She-Hulk’s stature than Todd, however; using the online alias “HulkKing”, Todd forms Intelligencia specifically to slander her and create a following of likeminded assholes to steal a sample of her blood so they can take the power they feel she doesn’t deserve. Still, luckily for Todd and his vile followers, Jen herself takes issue with the redundant nature of their plot and literally demands that the show try something a little more original, tailoring the ending into something a little less derivative and seeing that the HulkKing and his cohorts are exposed for the toxic, petty-minded jerks they are.
The Summary: There’s a real nasty environment that’s brewed online in the last few years where any product that even dares to try something new or feature a strong female lead, or include any kind of diversity, is immediately labelled as “woke”. Personally, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean and find it extremely degrading as it’s just some catch-all term mindless, anonymous idiots use to slander anything they don’t like. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law deals very heavily in this topic; although she largely ignores her online haters (primarily because she knows they wouldn’t dare say anything to her face), Jen is constantly besmirched and belittled both subtly and explicitly throughout the show. It’s small wonder, then, that she goes on a rampage, one eerily reminiscent of Carrie (De Palma, 1976), when Intelligencia publicly slut shame her at an award ceremony. This ceremony is perhaps the best example of the struggles Jen faces in her career; multiple women are named Female Lawyer of the Year and they’re paraded on stage like it’s a Miss Universe pageant, and Jen even foreshadows this when she quite rightly rants to her cousin about how difficult it is for a women to succeed as she’s slandered the moment she shows any weakness.
She-Hulk’s CGI is admittedly dodgy but other characters fare much better in this regard.
But I know what you want to hear me really talk about: the special effects. First of all, the Hulk looks fantastic; his CGI model is on point, which is to be expected as they pretty much perfected the look in Avengers: Endgame(Russo and Russo, 2019), but still surprising for a television show, especially as a Hulk-centric show seems to me to be one of the more costly MCU projects. Similarly, the Abomination looks really good; I’m really digging his more comic-accurate redesign and even enjoyed seeing him as this rational pacifist rather than some mindless monster, though I will admit that his face was a little off and his transformation was a little too “clean”. She-Hulk suffers from this a bit as well; she simply grows larger or smaller, her custom-made clothes expanding to accommodate her, so we’re largely beyond the days of dramatic transformation sequences for these characters. As for She-Hulk…she mostly looks perfectly fine, but it does vary wildly. Given that she’s not as monstrous as the Hulk, I do wonder if it might’ve been better to use her on-set stand-ins, Maliah Arrayah and Devon Lewis, to actually portray the character and enhance her with CGI, imposing Maslany’s face onto the larger doubles as a modern take on the 1970’s show (something the show does actually do when it lovingly recreates The Incredible Hulk’s iconic opening sequence). I think the things that bother me the most is her hair, which looks like a bad wig most of the time, and her eyes and face, which are a little lifeless and blank at times. It definitely works but it does stick out quite a bit and I can see why people would be distracted by it; low lighting definitely aids the presentation, but I admire how often Jen is seen in broad daylight as She-Hulk. Thankfully, Daredevil is here to again make up for some of these effects; now garbed in a yellow and red number, this is a fantastic return to form for the character, who seems much more jovial and far less bleak than in his Netflix show, allowing him to kick ass and be intimidating but also be a fun and attractive prospect for Jen. Hell, I even enjoyed the Leap-Frog suit and the inclusion of small-time, ridiculous villains like William Taurens/Man-Bull (Nathan Hurd), Alejandro Montoya/El Águila (Joseph Castillo-Midyett), Saracen (Terrence Clowe), and Alexander Gentry/Porcupine (Jordan Aaron Ford). I always enjoy it when live-action adaptations turn to the more obscure and ludicrous characters, and they really worked in the context of this show and played a surprisingly poignant part in shaping Jen’s acceptance of herself and her duality.
She-Hulk’s ability to break the fourth wall results in a unique metatextual humour.
Of course, one major aspect that separates She-Hulk from most comic book characters is her ability to break the fourth wall, which is present right from the start and, while characters occasionally react to this, it’s mostly just played for laughs and ignored. Jen habitually addresses the camera, generally asking us not to judge her, addressing the abundance of cameos throughout the show, and questioning the plot at certain points. This metatextual approach extends to the title sequence, which changes a number of times to reflect what’s happening (such as Jen being out of work, Titania’s lawsuit, and Jen being barred from transforming into She-Hulk). The aforementioned recreation of the 1970’s intro was my favourite instance of this but all this metatextual commentary comes to a head in the finale; after being forced to wear an inhibitor after her rampage, Jen is at her lowest point when Todd transforms into a Hulk-like creature and even Titania and the Hulk show up at the last minute in a chaotic attempt to have all her separate storylines converge. She’s so unsatisfied with the conclusion that she literally escapes to the Marvel Studios: Assembled (Baruh, 2021) documentary to confront She-Hulk’s staff, who are amusingly non-plussed at a fictional character gate-crashing their meeting and direct her to “Kevin”, who turns out not to be MCU executive producer Kevin Feige but an artificial intelligence which makes all of the decisions about the MCU. Somewhat reminiscent of the divisive finale to The Matrix Reloaded (Wachowskis, 2003), Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus/K.E.V.I.N. (Brian T. Delaney) continues the metatextual narrative by asking that she transform back into Jen as she’s “very expensive” and the visual effects team has “moved on to another project” and explaining that it uses advanced algorithms to create “near perfect” products, the quality of which is left up to the internet. Using her legal skills, Jen’s able to argue for more originality in her show, criticising Todd’s plot and the entire finale and demanding that she get the ending she deserves rather than what’s expected. She then goes on to address many of the issues people have with the MCU and even asks about the X-Men before being denied such a boon in the future and left to enjoy her happy ending.
A fun show with some great humour, action, and an empowering message that nicely expands the MCU.
I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy She-Hulk: Attorney at Law as much as I did; like a lot of people, I was mainly watching it to witness the glorious official integration of Daredevil into the MCU but the whole show was really good from start to finish. At nine episodes, it’s longer than usual for a Marvel Disney+ show and there’s an argument that a couple of the episodes could’ve been trimmed down or had their plot points combined into other episodes, but I have no complaints about the length or the content. It was a great introduction to this fresh new Hulk character, one who’s fully capable of defending herself and having a successful career and yet as conflicted and full of doubts as anyone else. Jen’s ability to break the fourth wall helps her to stand out even more and enabled the show to have a fun, carefree vibe while still holding up a mirror to the online trolls and toxic masculinity that is so prevalent in this day and age. While they were only minor roles, I also enjoyed Jen’s supporting cast; her doting, if annoying, family, Nikki’s endless enthusiasm, and Pug’s awkwardness at being forced to integrate with Intelligencia all made for some compelling and entertaining side characters. The courtroom drama was also very enjoyable; I liked seeing She-Hulk coming up with legal loopholes, even if it meant embarrassing herself, to win cases and I’d like to see the second season spend a little more time in the courtroom with some of Marvel’s more colourful and obscure characters. Alterations to the Abomination and the continuation of the Hulk’s mini arc also landed well with me; it was great to see Blonsky back, and cast in a sympathetic light and elevated into something more than just a brutish solider/supervillain and I was left really intrigued to see what’s next for the Hulk family. Yes, She-Hulk’s special effects can be wonky but I fully expect to see this addressed in another season; they work and can be impressive but you will have to get over it to fully enjoy the show. Also, if you’re one of these “woke” crusaders it’s probably better you watch something else as She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is very much geared towards sending a positive message about rising above hate and valuing people based on their ability and merits rather than belittling them because a small-minded minority think of themselves as somehow “superior”.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
What did you think about She-Hulk: Attorney at Law? Did the CGI used to bring She-Hulk to life put you off? What did you think to her ability to break the fourth wall? Were you a fan of the legal drama and comedy aspects? What did you think to the Abomination’s character growth and the reintroduction of Daredevil? Did you enjoy the attack on toxic masculinity or was it too “woke” for you? Where would you like to see the character go in the future and are there any She-Hulk storylines or characters you’d like to see included in future seasons? Whatever you think about the show, or She-Hulk in general, leave a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Hulk content!
January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. Accordingly, I’ve been dedicated every Sunday of January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Season One, Episode 13: “Quality of Mercy”
Air Date: 16 June 1995 Director: Brad Turner US Network: Showtime UK Network: BBC 2 Stars: Robert Patrick, Nicole de Boer, and Mark McCracken
The Background: The Twilight Zone (1959 to 1964; 1985 to 1989) wasn’t on when I was a kid; growing up, I only had the then-four channels of terrestrial television available to me so my sci-fi/horror anthology series of choice was The Outer Limits (1995 to 2002). A revival of the original 1960s show, The Outer Limits was an award-winning anthology series originally broadcast here in the United Kingdom on BBC 2; every week, a new tale would unfold, usually revolving around aliens, artificial intelligence, or other sci-fi, horror, or fantastical stories, though there were also a number of recurring themes, characters, and even semi-sequential stories to be found in the show’s long history. Considering my nostalgia and affection for the series, it’s great to see others also have a fondness for the show, and I’m always happy to revisit it when I get the opportunity.
The Plot: Mankind is fighting a losing battle against an aggressive alien race; at the height of the conflict, Major John Skokes (Patrick) is captured and imprisoned alongside a young cadet, Bree Tristan (de Boer). While Stokes is determined to escape and return to the fight, his defiance is rattled when he discovers that the alien jailers have begun experimenting with grafting samples of their own skin onto Bree in an effort to make her one of them!
The Review: “Quality of Mercy” begins with Major John Skokes being forcibly dragged and manhandled into a prison cell on an alien world but a physically superior, war-like race of aliens who have been locked in a one-sided battle against Earth’s United Nations Defense Forces (UNDF) for some time. An abrasive, proud, and stubborn military man, John’s first instinct in all things is to fight back, even when he’s clearly outmatched by his alien captors. This instinct extends not just to his defiance at being thrown into a cell, right when he’s at the peak of the war no less, but also to his determination to find a way out of the cell and to his initial militant attitude towards his cell-mate, the timid and terrified Bree Tristan. While John is a combat veteran who has fought on the front lines of the war for so long that he hasn’t actually been back to Earth in years, Brie is a cadet (second class) from Europa base who has only ever flown and fought in training missions. Captured during the “second Europa raid”, Brie estimates that she has been imprisoned and tortured for about three months and has been by herself for some time after her commander, Hartley, a much older and physically impaired man, died some time ago. She’s been kept there, in the dark and alone, ever since; forced to scavenge for food by chasing after the odd little rubbery parasites her captors toss to her and having lost all track of time and hope, Brie’s state of mind is only further fractured by the horrific experiments the aliens have been conducting on her as they have been routinely grafting their skin and DNA onto her body into an effort to physically transform her into one of them!
While John is determined to escape back to the fight, Brie is overcome by the futility of it all.
While Brie is off getting tortured, John busies himself exploring every inch of their cell, which is home to a pool of acid-like liquid and a curious red vegetation that seems more than a little inspired by the works of H. G. Wells. Although the diamond-hard walls cannot be breached, John is able to climb them to a barred ventilation shaft in the ceiling, through which he can hear the screams and desperate cries of Brie (and other humans) being tortured. After fashioning a cutting tool from a shard of the rock, John sets to work using all of his strength and free time trying to cut through the bars in the ceiling; although Brie is wracked by pain and despair at her condition, John offers her hope not only in his discovery but in giving her physical comfort. Having been caught up in the conflict, Brie has lived without love and passion or the touch of another, and derives much solace and comfort from even John’s hesitant attempts to console her. While Brie desperately tries to cling on the love and believes it’s what separates humanity from their enemy, John has been consumed by hatred; he is so resolute in his determination to escape that he’s even willing to go down fighting, if need be, but considers this a worst-case scenario. Feeling sympathy for her plight and virginity, having been so caught up in conflict that he has lost touch with the simple pleasures of life, John takes his sexual urges towards Brie and uses them as more motivation to cut through the bars, and pays the price for his stubbornness when his leg is shredded by a ravenous little creature in the vent and his hand is cut off at the wrist when he foolishly tries to keep Brie from being harmed further.
Brie is distraught as she loses more and more of her humanity and identity to the aliens’ experiments.
John’s determination stems from a deep-rooted need to get back into the fight because the future of humanity depends upon it; he was excited to deal a decisive blow against the enemy for the first time and to prove that they could be bested, and is angered at being captured right when he’s needed the most. John’s mindset contrasts heavily with Brie’s and both characters provide not only different perspectives on the conflict but to the world-building of this episode; John apparently embodies the single-minded, militaristic focus of those in the thick of the fight, while Brie seems very much against the war. Since John has been fighting pretty much non-stop for the last four years, he hasn’t seen what’s become of the Earth; Brie has however, and horror stories of a world turned into a police state, churning out munitions and training soldiers in a constant cycle to feed the war effort. John, however, remains adamant that humanity will come out of the war stronger than ever; he believes that the conflict will unite humankind, ending their petty squabbles and political and racial differences, to come together as one unified race. Forced into service by a standardised test and lacking John’s passion for the fight, Brie is ashamed to admit that she caved under torture and spilled everything she knew to spare herself further pain (though, as a mere cadet and a trainer, neither she nor Hartley had no information of real value) and she doesn’t share John’s fighting attitude or confidence that their enemy can be defeated. Of course, her will is only further sapped by the continual experiments and violations she suffers at the hands of their captors; the alien skin grafts cause her incredible physical pain and cannot be forcibly removed, despite John’s best efforts. Brie is taken away again and again, changing a little more each time, and her sense of identity and humanity degrade a little more each time she returns. At first, the graft is simply a leathery, reptilian wound on her arm but, soon, her entire back is converted into a sickening alien flesh and part of her face is lost to the aliens’ appalling visage.
John’s determination sees him gravely injured, but his resolve is shattered by Brie’s devastating revelation.
With Brie’s transformations becoming more and more severe, and John’s injuries effectively crippling any minor chance they had at escape, the two begin to realise that their options have become severely limited. With a heavy heart, John admits that he can’t fulfil his promise; earlier, Brie talked about how she and Hartley had planned to commit suicide but he was too weak to go through with it and she was too scared, and sadly John is unable to bring himself to put her out of his misery due to how attached to her he has become. Still, Brie is grateful that John was able to give her a brief, shining moment of hope for herself and for humanity and, with the end in sight, John tries one last time to comfort her with the knowledge that, although it may be the end for them, humanity will live on. John reveals that the UNDF has been feigning defeat and have held back a massive armada of their strongest fighters on the far side of the Sun, which were due to launch a devastating attack on the alien home world thirty days before John was captured. He fully believes that this desperate military strike will be a turning point in the war, and enough to strike a crippling blow against the enemy even though the two of them won’t live to see it, but he is left screaming in despair when Brie drops a bombshell of her own. When the alien jailer (McCracken) returns once more, Brie willingly goes to it and reveals that she was being changed back into one of them, thus exposing herself as a sleeper agent who has manipulated John into revealing humanity’s greatest military secret and assumedly dooming the human race to destruction.
The Summary: “Quality of Mercy” is one of a handful (something like six to eight) episodes of The Outer Limits that really stuck with me, both as a kid when I first watched it and now, later in life. I remember enjoying this episode so much, being so influenced by it, that I plagiarised it for a short story assignment at secondary school! Although the episode is pretty much confined to one rather uninspiring location (an alien prison cell that looks to have taken a leaf out of Star Trek’s (1966 to 1969) playbook) and only really feature three character’s, its themes of human determination, and naivety, beautifully summed up as always by the narrator (or “Control Voice”; Kevin Conway): “Men of war have long known that warriors must often abandon those verities they defend. Peace, human kindness, love…for they hold no meaning to the enemy. And so, to win, do we become what we despise…and despise what we become? In the darkest of hours…in the greatest of battles…we must never forget who, or what, we are.“
The aliens are mysterious, physically imposing, and sadistic war-like race who have humanity endangered.
Although they’re not given a name, we are told quite a few things about the alien force that has imprisoned our main characters. They are a war-like race with little compassion and, though they can apparently understand human language and speak it through a machine, they have no understanding of concepts like “mercy”; they treat their prisoners like rats to be observed, forcibly experimented on, and dissected to learn more about their ways and their enemy. They seem oddly curious about human beings; they left Commander Hartley’s body in the cell with Brie for some time as if expecting her to do something with it (and John suspects that they eat their dead) and were fascinated by the differences between male and female bodies and sexual organs. Brie recounts with disgust and dismay how they forced her to strip down and violated her with probes and instruments, and of course she is horrified at the continued alterations being made to her body by their experiments. The aliens are depicted as huge, armoured creatures that tower over and physically dominate their captors, despite John’s best efforts to fight them back and, though we don’t see their forces in this episode, we do here many a horror story from John about how the alien’s ships have decimated humanity’s forces and proved to be a high-unconquerable enemy. And yet, despite Brie trying to encourage John to partake of the limited sustenance the aliens provide and talk him out of the futility of trying to escape or discover some weakness in their captors, John’s resolve remains absolute and steadfast His immediate focus is on learning the layout of their cell, figuring out how observed they are, and gathering as much information as he possibly can about where they are and what options are available to him, and he continually shouts defiance to his captors, taunting them with the revelation that he personally destroyed on of their capital ships and remaining adamant that they aren’t as indestructible as they immediately seem.
John’s desperation to give Brie hope may very well have doomed humanity to total destruction.
In the end, “Quality of Mercy” is a harrowing tale of desperation, deceit, and determination; John and Brie couldn’t be two more different, contrasting characters and they react to their hopeless situation in wildly different ways that both define and alter their characters and add to the intriguing lore of this world. Set in a future where humanity has been locked in an interstellar war for so long that Earth’s entire society has changed to become entirely focused on producing weapons, soldiers, and ships for the conflict and hatred for their aggressive, uncompromising alien enemy has become the norm, over-riding compassion, love, and the simple pleasures of life. John embodies this perfectly, being a good soldier who is frothing at the mouth to get back out there and fight, whether it means his death or not, and is defiant right up until the moment where he realises that the only way out is suicide. Of course, the most memorable moment of this episode is the shocking twist ending; this blew my mind as a kid, and I really think the episode does a great job of building up to this reveal as Brie is so timid and frightened and clinging to her humanity with everything she has and is positioned as an innocent victim of horrendous torture. The slow degradation of her body is juxtaposed with her failing hope for the future of humanity, and every action John takes is geared towards restoring that hope and finding a way out, and a way to fight! Ultimately, however, he is just another pawn manipulated by a superior alien force; the final shot of him screaming in hopeless defiance is extremely powerful and has stuck with me for decades. I’ve always enjoyed the bleak twist endings that closed out many episodes of The Outer Limits, and “Quality of Mercy” is easily one of the best for that thanks to how strong the two lead’s performances are and how well the episode uses every bit of its limited budget and run time.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fantastic
Have you ever seen “Quality of Mercy” or the 1995 revival of The Outer Limits? If so, what did you think to it and what were some of your favourite episodes? Did you see the twist coming or were you as shocked as I was when I first saw this episode? What are some other stories of alien transformation and conflict that you enjoy? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to sign up and leave a comment below or leave a reply on my social media, and be sure to check back in next week for the conclusion of Sci-Fi Sunday.
Air Date: 25 November 2022 Director: James Gunn Network: Disney+ Stars: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, and Kevin Bacon
The Plot: With Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Pratt) still reeling from the death of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) and the presence of her alternative self from a separate timeline, Mantis (Klementieff) and Drax the Destroyer (Bautista) head to Earth to bring Peter the greatest Christmas gift they can think of: his childhood icon, Kevin Bacon!
The Review: The special opens with Kraglin Obfonteri (Gunn) shedding some light on young Peter’s (Luke Klein) childhood amongst the Ravagers to Mantis, Drax, and Nebula (Karen Gillan). As a boy, Peter was still very sentimental towards Earth (largely referred to as “Terra” out in the depths of space) and tried to teach Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) about its ways and traditions. Yondu, however, wasn’t just unimpressed at the idea of Christmas; he was enraged by it and forever ruined the festivities with his volatile temper. While Mantis is heart-broken at the story, Drax, in his usual boisterous fashion, finds Peter’s traumatic upbringing incredibly amusing, something even Nebula admonishes him for. The special does answer a lingering question I had about Taneleer Tivan/The Collector (Benicio del Toro), last seen as an illusion cast by the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin), and presumed dead but he’s apparently still alive since he sold the entirety of Knowhere to the Guardians between movies. Because of this, the team has been too busy fixing the place up and restoring some kind of order and has been unable to indulge in festivities or even search for the elusive, alternative Gamora. Feeling a sense of obligation towards Peter, who’s revealed to be her half-brother since they’re both children of Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), Mantis is spurred to give Peter the Christmas he missed out on as a child. Confiding in Drax, the only one who knows her secret, Mantis is elated when the muscled-bound buffoon suggests bringing Peter’s childhood hero to him as the ultimate Christmas gift and head to Earth to kidnap Kevin Bacon! Although their arrival initially causes a stir due to Drax forgetting to activate the ship’s cloaking device, the two easily blend in amidst the glitz, excess, and cosplayers of Hollywood, unwittingly earning themselves a decent wad of cash in the process as enthusiastic tourists clamour for selfies with their pair.
To cheer Peter up, Mantis and Drax head to Earth to kidnap Kevin Bacon!
After blowing all their dough on shots and revels, Mantis uses her empathic abilities to obtain a map to Kevin Bacon’s house, where the EE spokesman is relaxing in his spacious Hollywood home and awaiting the return of his family. Although he politely sends the two away when they come calling, they’re easily able to barge into his house and a frantic chase throughout Bacon’s abode ensues, with Mantis hopping from wall to wall like her namesake and things escalating when Bacon desperately asks the local cops for help, which thankfully ends without any bloodshed. This sequence also showcases Mantis’s fighting skill as she easily takes down the armed cops and renders them unconscious with her powers, showing that she’s more than just the team’s emotional, compassionate conscious. These same powers are used to quell Bacon’s fears and, at the lightest touch and softest suggestion, he become enthusiastic about accompanying the two and helping them deck their ship out with Christmas decorations. However, once he’s heading out into the big black and sharing stories of his career, Bacon unknowingly lets slip that he’s simply an actor rather than some world-renowned superhero, much to the disgust of Mantis and Drax, so Mantis coerces Bacon into believing he truly is a hero so as not to ruin Peter’s Christmas once more. Bacon then believes himself to be a World War Two soldier, adopting a…well, “Australian” accent would be generous…then briefly pretending to be Bruce Wayne/Batman before Mantis demands that he be himself but not “suck”. Thankfully, Bacon is just happy to be out in space and takes it all in his stride, and Peter is astounded to find that all of Knowhere has been decorated with Christmas lights, songs, decorations, and even a snow blower. Though touched by their efforts, Peter’s joy turns to horror when he discovers that his friends have kidnapped his childhood hero, regardless of how excited Kevin Bacon is to be there to celebrate Christmas with them. After demanding that Bacon be returned to normal, the actor’s enthusiasm turns to terror; however, after learning of how influential his career was to Peter’s life, Bacon has a change of heart and decides to stick around and help out.
The Summary: Naturally, given the title and when it released, Christmas is a central theme of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special; it’s bookended by the God-awful “Fairytale of New York” song by The Pogues, the traditional Marvel Studios logo is overlaid by soft snow fall and Christmas lights, and the special opens with an animated flashback showing young Peter’s failed attempts to explain the sentiment behind Christmas to Yondu. He’s not the only one in the depths of space who struggles with the concept; Bzermikitokolok (Rhett Miller) and his band (The Old 97’s) to interpret the season through song recast Santa Claus as a superpowered master burglar who shoots missiles and has a flamethrower, much to Peter’s dismay. Drax and Mantis are equally dumbfounded by Earth’s traditions but soon enjoy the taste of Earth liquor, the excitement of a bar, and delight in the festive decorations littered across Kevin Bacon’s lawn. Those who delight in the action-packed adventures of the Guardians may be disappointed to learn that the Holiday Special is much more of a character-driven pieces; Groot (Diesel) is little more than a cameo (and looks a lot like a man in a suit, an effect I approve of) and the special primarily follows Drax and Mantis, which is pretty delightful as these two don’t always get much to do and it’s cute to see them bicker and Mantis ultimately gifting him with an inflatable elf he had grown fond of on their journey. Also, the special shows that the team is now aided in their efforts by Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova), a sentient dog that developed psionic powers after being shot into space by the Soviet Union and who has a strained relationship with Rocket Raccoon (Cooper), though she responds much better to doggy treats than criticism.
Ultimately Kevin Bacon brings the spirit of Christmas to Peter and the other Guardians.
Although Kevin Bacon is terrified by Mantis and Drax, and rightfully so, fearing at first an invasion of his home, then an attempt on his life by overly enthusiastic cosplayers, and finally overwhelmed by being surrounded by strange alien lifeforms, his excitement at being out in the galaxy comes through thanks to Mantis’s spell. Despite his fear, however, he is touched by Kraglin’s story of how much his movie roles impacted Peter’s life and he decides to stick around Knowhere for a bit, singing a song and helping to teach them about the true meaning of Christmas. While Bacon’s explains the virtues of family and goodwill so associated with the season, Peter encourages the others to open their gifts: Groot is delighted by his Game Boy and even Nebula gets into the spirit by gifting Rocket James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes’ (Sebastian Stan) prosthetic arm! Thus, Kevin Bacon parts with the team on friendly terms, and even promises to be back for Easter, having brightened Peter’s life considerably with his generosity. Equally moved by the team’s effort, Peter reveals to Mantis that Yondu quickly came around to the spirit of Christmas after being amused by Peter’s gift (the first of many small toys for his control panel( and that he even gifted Peter his trademark blasters in return. Mantis’s revelation, however, trumps even that present and Peter is thrilled to learn that he has a sister, ending the special on a sweet note about family and goodwill and all that heart-warming Christmas spirit.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Did you enjoy The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special? What did you think to the focus on Drax and Mantis and their efforts to cheer Peter up with a most unusual present? Did you enjoy Kevin Bacon’s role as a clueless, well-meaning celebrity? Would you have liked to see a little more action in it or were you happy with the traditional Christmas message it delivered? Where do you see the team going in the future? What’s your favourite Christmas special? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to share them below or on my social media.
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