This week we've got another Classic Plot, albeit one that's not often seen, Monsters Emerging From the Cinema Film.

It has appeared more often in comic books than in filmed media, probably because of budget considerations.  The last time I saw it was Leave it to Chance, but Marvel and DC have turned in their versions in the past.  My husband and I ( Read more... )

Now that was a Proper Superhero Wedding. How come Torchwood feels so much more like a well-done superhero comic book than Heroes?

(Probably because Torchwood doesn't take itself too seriously and keeps the angst to a manageable level.)

Bride in Peril - check.  Major Bad Guys Crash the Wedding - check.  Good Guys Counter-Crash the Wedding - check.  ( Read more... )

That was a lovely meditation on death from a humanist perspective.  Owen's dead.  What happens next? Owen wonders that too.

We begin with Owen and an unknown woman sitting on a rooftop, contemplating jumping.  As they think about it, Owen tells her his recent past. He's been murdered and zombified.  Worse, in his opinion, the very person who ( Read more... )

Why do so many wonderful character moments have to be trapped inside such a wretched plot?

About halfway through my husband said, "I hope they're going somewhere with to this.  It's nice and creepy."  When it was all over I asked him what he thought about it.  "It was different."

"Yeah, but was it creepy-with-a-point or creepy-but-pointless?"

He ( Read more... )

Where we welcome Martha with a pretty good plot.

J. C. Wlsher wrote a good old-fashioned Detective plot through and through, well paced but it seemed everyone was a bit slow in their detective roles.  I'm sitting here thinking,"check the paper records, interview the families and friends" and nobody is doing it.  Our guys aren't the greatest gumshoes ( Read more... )

This story was lovely but strangely unsatisfying.

The plot is another classic, the Evil Mindbender story.  An Evil Mindbender has turned the Team into twisted versions of their true characters.  You don't see it that often, as you have to have an adventure series where Evil Mindbending can take place and a Team with well-defined characters at the ( Read more... )

Or Torchwood's Debt to Irving Berlin

I'm beginning to see some patterns here.  In the grand old Doctor Who tradition, this is the fourth episode out of four where we've had a classic plot from the Giant Book of Classic TV and Film Plots.  The first was "conning the con man", the second was "undercover sleeper agent", the third was "fix the time ( Read more... )

This episode has a very simple, almost minimalist plot, for a 50-minute time travel episode. 
A time rift is due to open in a Cardiff military hospital between 1918 and sometime in the future.  Torchwood's solution is simple -- pluck a young soldier from ground zero, cryogenically freeze him until the future is now, and send him back through the ( Read more... )

James Moran's freshman TV script is an outstanding piece of work.

Sleeper starts with an opening out of a better X-Files episode that sent shivers down my spine.   A couple wake to find their apartment being robbed, the robbers turn on them, there's nothing they can do, no time for help to arrive, and -- something happens.  I had the exact same ( Read more... )

 Chris Chibnall has been reading my mind.

( Read more... )