Alien: Covenant review

OK, so this will be a slightly quicker review than usual as this is a review on a brand new film I've just seen in the cinema, Alien: Convenant.  So there will be no masses of quoted dialogue and notable scenes to avoid spoilers (and also for quickness!).

So, is the latest film in the Alien franchise any good???  Well, let's take a look....

And I will just keep the plot to a couple of paragraphs so any SPOILERS will be kept to a minimum (promise!).

STORY

So, the film is set in the year 2104 and it follows the crew of colonization ship named "Covenant" that is embarking on a mission to reach a remote planet named Origae-6 as the ship contains thousands of human embryos in frozen storage.  The ship's crew during the journey are in hypersleep and the ship is manned by the android, Walter (Michael Fassbender) who is modelled on the same earlier android we saw in Prometheus, David.  Suddenly however the ship is damaged by a neutrino burst that forces the crew to awaken from hypersleep and the captain of the crew (James Franco) is killed as his hypersleep chamber catches fire.

Once the remainder of the crew have recovered hypersleep, they pick up a radio transmission from a nearby unknown planet and the new captain, Orum (Billy Crudup) decides they should investigate it.  And from here an expedition team that includes Walter, Orum and Daniels (Katherine Waterston) journey to the surface of the planet and trace the transmission to a crashed Engineer ship (the one from Prometheus).  However two of the crew during their investigation become infected with alien spores and well....its not long before things turn very ugly indeed for them and soon the rest of the crew.  However the surviving expedition members before they are attacked further by a xenomoprh, the creature is suddenly scared away by a sonic boom and the crew soon come face to face with David, who gives them sanctuary from the hostile environment.  But when the crew are subject to David's hospitality, it soon becomes apparent that things aren't quite what they seem....

THOUGHTS

Well, it has to be said that as a follow up to Prometheus, Alien Convenant does fall a bit short of the mark on improving on it as a film.  The film again takes the themes of the previous one and runs with them a little bit but at the same time it fails to take the story up from when Prometheus left off with (SPOILER FOR END OF PROMETHEUS COMING UP!!!!!!) Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and David travelling away from the alien planet to find out where the Engineers came from.  And this in itself leaves you a bit disappointed as Noomi herself doesn't really feature in the film, which is another let down.  Regardless of this though, Alien: Covenant is far from a terrible film and visually it remains a feast for the eyes as Ridley Scott contines his penchant for presenting stunning visuals.   

PERFORMANCES 

Performance wise the film is overall quite good with Michael Fassbender being the star of the show in his dual role as the obedient and loyal android, Walter and also the very morally shaky David (in fact make that a full blown shake!).  And Michael seems to be relishing playing the role of David more so given that Walter is rather pedestrian goody goody character.

Katherine Waterston is pretty good in her role as Daniels and she is basically the Ellen Ripley of the movie, given that she is the tough yet also vulnerable.  Although her character is somewhat underwritten she still stands out better than some of the performers in the film.

Danny McBride is also good as the chief pilot of the Covenant, Tennessee Faris, although he is usually seen in comedy films such as Tropic Thunder, Hot Rod and Pineapple express, but here he actually manages to handle more dramatic scenes pretty well.

Billy Crudup also puts in a good performance as Orum, who makes a rather rash decision in deciding to investigate the alien planet, which of course doesn't really end up that well for anyone but Crudup does well with what he is given here.

As for the rest of the crew I won't really mention them so much but I will mention that Guy Pearce makes a brief return in his roler from Prometheus as Peter Weyland, the CEO of Weyland Corporation.  Last of all of course is Noomi Rapace, who to be honest hardly features at all in the film in fact I think it was a blink and you'll miss it role for her, which is a great shame.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the direction, well it is of course Ridley Scott, who does a rather perfunctory job in some ways here but a great one in others, and by that I mean his direction of the story is somewhat underwhelming but his visuals remain stunning.  This might come down to the material that Scott has to work with here in Covenant.  But to give Scott credit, he mainly keeps the film's pacing fairly tight despite one or two lulls and if you like shock gore then there are some scenes here that will keep horror fans pleased.

Music wise, the score was written by Jed Kurzel, or so it would appear because film's music seems to largely comprised of the score from the original Alien film, which was by the late great, Jerry Goldsmith.  In fact Goldsmith's score made so much of an impact on the film's music here, I can't really remember Kurzel's own original score pieces, so I'd imagine the score is not very memorable but would fit the tone well enough.

FLAWS (Warning: the odd spoiler might be here!)

As for flaws....yes Alien: Covenant isn't perfect by any stretch.

So, without getting into spoilers (and I will try and avoid mentioning spoilers as much as I can!) I think one of the main problems is that the characters in the film, apart from David, are pretty forgettable.  And even though Daniels comes close to the being the most interesting character of the crew of the Covenant, even though her character is rather underwritten.

I also felt that the crew were pretty dumb in their decision to go to the alien planet in the first place, especially Orum, who makes the decision without any real consideration of their own safety.  Also when the expedition team go down to the planet they don't wear any space helmets either and let themselves be exposed to the planet's atmosphere!  So, yep these guys ditch common sense and take the risks, especially when two of the crew members are infected by the alien spores early on in the film.

The film tends to also bog itself down in religious symbolism with the aliens as David seems to spout alot of crap about religion in relation to the aliens and how he sees them.  And the mystery of the aliens was what made them more compelling in the earlier films of the series but here Ridley is trying to dispel those myths and doing in a rather disappointing way.

I also felt for me that the gore of the film made me feel rather uncomfortable and the alien "birth" scenes left me looking away from the screen (yeah I'm a wuss when it comes to gory horror!).  And from this point of view I felt Prometheus was a better film as its gore was more restrained and it wasn't all about chestbursting, head splatting etc.  Prometheus had a bit more refinement about its depiction of violence, however that's probably because there were no actual xenomorphs in the film.

And further to this point I felt the CGI of the aliens themselves was a bit disappointing also as the aliens for the most part look pretty naff although the big xenomorph does look OK (that is seen later in the film and that's all I'm going to say on that!).  So the rather poor CGI also left me a bit flat and it actually made you appreciate just how good the special effects in the first two Alien films were in comparison (well that daft little alien puppet that splats out John Hurt in the original film aside!).

Anyway that's it for the flaws (there are more but it would need to reveal more SPOILERS!!).

SUM UP

So to sum up, Alien: Covenant is a decent follow up to Prometheus but it remains far from perfect and for me its unrestrained alien gore left me personally a bit uncomfortable aswell as its lack of mystery regarding the aliens themselves.  The film is also a bit heavy on its religious symbolism and apart from David, its other characters are pretty forgettable.

Despite this though, Alien: Convenant is still not a bad film, its just a shame that it couldn't have been better than it was, as so often can be the case with Ridley Scott's work in recent years.  Still if you like the Alien franchise, its worth a look and its still a better film than Alien: Ressurection but for me personally I still prefer Prometheus over this one as it a better sense of mystery to it.

Anyway so that's it for now and I'll return next month with more reviews.

So, till then its bye for now!

Doctor Who - Earthshock "You never change! Always the perfect guests!"

Right yeah OK, hands up, I admit this is yet ANOTHER post revisitation but it is in a way rather special one because this re-write will be on the first ever proper post I had written for this blog back in July of 2012.  So I've decided not to bill this as another revisitation as such as it is a pretty extensive re-write I'm doing here.  

And the post in question will be on the Doctor Who story of the Peter Davison era: Earthshock, which is considered a classic of the era and is also known for its controversial departure of one of the show's companions aswell as the return of one of the Doctor's oldest foes.  But is it still a classic after 35 years???  Well let's take a look....

And yes the usual warning is coming....

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!

STORY 

The story begins with the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions, Tegan (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) who land the TARDIS on Earth far into the future, inside some caves.  Meanwhile an expedition of military men, lead by Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) explore the caves with Professor Kyle (Clare Clifford) an archeologist who's team went missing during a survey to find fossils.  However as the team search, they are killed off one by one, by some strange androids, who appear to be protecting something.

The Doctor is soon captured by Scott, but then they soon find the remains of Kyle's team and a metal hatch in the wall, which Scott forces the Doctor to open.  However before the Doctor can do so, they are attacked by the androids who are clearly guarding the hatch for their masters, which we soon find out are the Cybermen!  The hatch in fact contains a bomb which the Cybermen activate a coundown to kill the others, but the Doctor with Adric's help successfully manages to deactivate the bomb.  The Doctor then is able to trace the signal of the bomb back to its origin which is a big space freighter.

The Doctor tells Scott and his crew to stay in the TARDIS while he investigates the freighter with Adric, but they are soon captured after the find two dead bodies onboard the ship.  The Doctor and Adric are then taken to Captain Briggs (Beryl Reid) who demands what they are doing there as the Doctor explains about the bomb.

However before they know it they find out the Cybermen are actually stowed away onboard the freighter, and they emerge from containers on the freighter to take control of the ship, lead by their Cyber leader (David Banks).  So the Doctor must try and find a way to defeat the Cybermen who intend to wipe out Earth while several dignitaries visit Earth to discuss forming a pact to destroy the Cybermen......

THOUGHTS 

Earthshock was widely regarded as one of Peter Davison's best stories, and its hard to argue with that as the story has plenty going for it and it was refreshing to see the return of the Cybermen after a seven year absence.  The Cybermen themselves also had an impressive makeover from the rather flared looking outfits they had in Tom Baker's 1975 adventure, the Revenge of the Cybermen.

WARNING: THIS FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH REFERS TO A BIG SPOILER!!

The story is also well known for its demise of the character, Adric, the teenager mathematics genius from the planet Alzarus, who to this day remains one of the most hated companions from the entire show's run.  However here, the makers of the story succeded admirably in giving Adric a rather emotional farewell as his last scene certainly packs a punch and remains one of the most powerful in the series.  This would then see the rather overcrowded TARDIS crew reduce its load to just two companions and would lead the way to eventually just going back to one companion again.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain spoilers!)

Performance wise, Earthshock really is a mixed bag with some performances better than others it has to be said.  

However to start off with the regulars things are mainly solid here starting with Peter Davison who is excellent as the 5th Doctor, who continues to play the Doctor with a sense of authority and vulnerability, and his youthful exterior always betrays the doctor's real age (although I'm not sure how old would be at this stage!).

Peter naturally has his share of good moments in this story that include the scene where the Doctor argues with Adric near the start of the story about the dangers of taking Adric back home into E-Space (the space dimension Adric came from).  And the scene kicks off with the Doctor shouting as he rushes into the TARDIS console room "No, Adric, I will not do it!!" and as Adric tries to convince the Doctor he can plot a course using his skills, the Doctor shouts "You do not have the Monitor's skill, Adric, and even if you did, I am not going back into E-space!".  So, Adric angrily says "Then I will find someone, who will take me!" and the Doctor tells him "E-space is another universe. There isn't a taxi service goes back and forth!".  And Adric lastly asks him "Can I use your computer?" and the Doctor groans and says "Oh, help yourself. I'm not waiting around while you plot the course to your own destruction!".

Another good scene comes when the Doctor makes up with Adric after they have helped the expedition team deactivate the Cybermen's bomb and destroy the androids.  So, once they are back onboard the TARDIS, the Doctor talks to Adric alone and says "Look, I'm very grateful for your help with deactivating the bomb" and Adric smiles and says "That's alright".  And the Doctor continues "It was very brave of you also, the way you tackled the android" and Adric says "All part of the daily routine!".  The Doctor then says to Adric "Look, I've been thinking about your wish to return home.  Well, I thought that if we could work out a satisfactory course, I might give it a try" so Adric then shows the Doctor that he already has worked out calculations to do so.

However as the Doctor is about to go, he turns and asks Adric "Do you really want to go home?" and Adric smiles and says "No, of course not, there's nothing there for me anymore" and the Doctor walks up to him and says "So you've done all these calculations for nothing!" and he softly taps Adric on the hit with Adric's notepad.  Adric smiles and tells the Doctor "Well, it made a point, didn't it? Besides, who knows? I might change my mind again".  The Doctor then grins and hands back Adric's notepad and leaves the room.

Then there is the scene where the Doctor along with Adric, now onboard the freighter, are trying to help Captain Briggs and her crew to fight off the Cybermen and stop them get onboard the bridge.  However, despite their best attempts, the Cybermen manage to blast through the doors and enter the bridge.  And the Cyber Leader says to the Doctor "So, we meet again...Doctor!" and he signals one of the Cybermen to kill someone, who shoots one of the crew, Ringway and the Cyber Leader says to the Doctor "He decieved us!" and the Doctor says "You never change. Always the perfect guests!".

And lastly there is the scene where the Doctor is held hostage onboard the TARDIS with Tegan and Nyssa while Adric is still onboard the freighter.  And the Doctor says of the freighter "It may be of some small consequence to know we've travelled backwards in time some sixty five million years" and Tegan says "Big deal" but the Doctor tells her "Think about it".  So, they deduce that the freighter is travelling back in time to coincide with the time of the death of the dinosaurs and the freighter will be the cause of it.  So, the Doctor tells them "The antimatter vessel will split open on impact. There will be a tremendous explosion!" and Tegan says "The freighter was the meteorite?" and the Doctor excited tells her "It seems inevitable, as is your history as we know it!".  However the Cyber Leader is furious and shouts "You lie!" and the Doctor with much satisfaction goes up to him and says "Not at all!!  You've lost!  The Earth is safe!".

Matthew Waterhouse in his last appearance as Adric, actually does fairly well here even though Adric is still a rather annoying, whiny little brat at times, he is still given a rather heroic and even emotional send-off.

Matthew despite not being the strongest in the cast here, still has his moments such as the scene where Adric argues with the Doctor at the start and he tells him he wants to go back home.  So, Adric in the scene tells the Doctor "I'm tired of being considered a joke" and the Doctor says "Oh, no one thinks that!" and Adric asks "Then why am I being constantly teased?!" and the Doctor says "Well everyone is teased from time to time" and Adric says "Yeah, but not as often as me!".  And as they continue to argue, Adric tells the Doctor "I'm tired of being an outsider, Doctor. I want to go back to my own people".

Then there is the scene where the Doctor compliments Adric on his bravery in fighting against the Cybermen's androids.  So, the Doctor tells him ""It was very brave of you also, the way you tackled the android" and Adric says "All part of the daily routine".  And as the Doctor says to Adric "Look, I've been thinking about your wish to return home.  Well, I thought that if we could work out a satisfactory course, I might give it a try".  So, Adric tells the Doctor "Well, I've already done so, Doctor" and the Doctor surprised asks "Really?" and Adric shows the Doctor his notes "As you can see here, I've even managed to calculate the way into the CVE, the gateway through E-space" and the Doctor, impressed says "You've done extremely well".

However as the Doctor is about to go, he turns and asks Adric "Do you really want to go home?" and Adric smiles and says "No, of course not, there's nothing there for me anymore" and the Doctor walks up to him and says "So you've done all these calculations for nothing!" and he softly taps Adric on the hit with Adric's notepad.  And Adric tells the Doctor "Well, it made a point, didn't it? Besides, who knows? I might change my mind again" and the Doctor smiles and gives back Adric his notepad.

Another decent scene from Matthew is when Adric pleads with the Doctor and Tegan to leave the freighter without him after the Cyber Leader orders Adric to stay onboard.  So, Adric tells the Doctor "Take Tegan with you. I'll find my own way. Please?" and Captain Briggs offers up "The boy's right, there's a chance. Leave now".  However the Cyber Leader is less optimistic, who says "There is no chance!" and Adric insistently tells the Doctor "Just leave!".  So, the Doctor with a heavy heart goes up to Adric and extends his hand and says "Good luck, Adric" and they shake hands for the last time and Adric says "Goodbye, Doctor" and he says rather sadly goodbye to Tegan.

And last of all there is Adric's final scene (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) where he meets his maker as the freighter is locked on a collision course with Earth and as Adric frantically tries to crack the code to stop the freighter from crashing, a dying Cyberman struggles onto the bridge and shoots the controls.  And Adric jumps back and then looks at the Cyberman, who dies from its wounds and Adric looks dispairfully at the bridge's screen as he sees the Earth near closer and he says to himself "Now, I'll never know if I was right!".

Janet Fielding is pretty good again as the feisty Tegan, one of the Doctor's other companions and she proves her courage against the Cybermen throughout the story and would later mourn Adric.

Janet has a few good scenes but I will for only mention a couple with the first being the scene where Tegan accompanies Captain Scott, who is the leader of the military expedition in the story, as they wander the freighter to find the Doctor and Adric.  And Tegan after alot of wandering about wearily says to Scott "It's vast.  We'll never find him!"  and he says "You wanted to come" and Tegan says "I know.  I'm just a mouth on legs!".

Then later there is the scene where the Cyber Leader holds the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa hostage aboard the TARDIS.  And in the scene the Cyber Leader taunts them by saying how the freighter draws near to colliding with Earth and he says to them "The time draws near" and Tegan desparately asks the Doctor "Can't you do something?" and the Doctor says "Not at the moment".  So, Tegan says "I don't have to watch this!" and she tries to walk out the console room but she is stopped by the Cyber Leader.  Nyssa says "She doesn't have to be here!" and the Doctor says "Gently, Tegan" but Tegan is outraged and angrily says "Gently?! This is my planet they are about to destroy!" and she desparately hits a few buttons on the console that causes the whole TARDIS tilt sideways.  So, the Doctor grabs and shouts "No!! You do things like that, we'll all end up dead!".

Sarah Sutton next up is also pretty good (and pretty!) as the Doctor's 3rd companion, Nyssa, who for the most part of the story is isolated to the TARDIS console room.

Sarah has a few good scenes too that include the one where after the TARDIS has landed in the caves on Earth and the Doctor has rowed with Adric he goes outside to get some air and Tegan and Nyssa go with him and try and persuade him to listen to Adric's plea to go home.  And Tegan says to the Doctor "Breathe deeply and relax.  Now, go and make it up with Adric, please?" and the Doctor sighs "All right, but I'm not taking him back into E-space, and that's my final word on the matter!".  So, Nyssa says to the Doc "Look at his calculations before you decide.  It may be possible" and the Doctor gives in and says "All right, I'll look, but I'm not promising anything!" and he heads off and Nyssa smiles and says to Tegan "Of course not, Doctor".

And lastly there is the scene near the end where the Doctor having just killed off the Cyber Leader frantically tries to get the console working so he can try and materialise on the freighter to save Adric.  So, Nyssa pleads with the Doctor "Please hurry, Doctor.  We must get Adric off the freighter!" and the Doctor while flicking buttons says "The console's damaged!" and Nyssa says "We must save Adric!  There's so little time!".  Then in the next moment, a Cyberman enters the console room and Nyssa shouts "Look out!" and grabs the Leader's gun and she shoots the Cyberman with it.  However the Doctor is powerless to do anything to save Adric and they look on at the scanner as the freighter is about to impact with Earth and Nyssa shouts desparately "ADRIC!!" just before it crashes.

David Banks is great here as the Cyber Leader although he does play the Leader as being somewhat emotional in his responses, which would negate the Cybermen's logical nature a bit.  However, Banks himself also fairly raised the point while the Cybermen in the story weren't seen to be robotic or emotionless enough, it would undercut the drama of it all.

Banks also has some good moments that include the scene where Tegan is brought on board the bridge of the freighter by a Cyberman and the Leader asks the Doctor "Who is this woman?!" and the Doctor plays it down "An earthling, no one of consequence!" and Tegan, offended says "Thanks alot!" and the Doctor turns to her and says "Be quiet!".  So, the Leader asks "She is one of your crew?" and the Doctor says "In a manner of speaking" and the Leader says "I see that Time Lords have emotional feelings" and the Doctor says "Of sorts".  The Leader then says "Surely a weakness in one so powerful?" but the Doctor says "Emotions have their uses" and the Leader dismissively says "They restrict and curtail the intellect and logic of the mind".  How the Doctor angrily says "They also enhance life! When did you last have the pleasure of smelling a flower, watching a sunset, eating a well-prepared meal?!" and the Leader says "These things are irrelevant!" but the Doctor tells him "For some people, small beautiful events are what life is all about!".

So, the Leader asks the Doctor "You have affection for this woman?" and the Doctor says "She's a friend" and the Leader asks "And you do not consider friendship a weakness?" and the Doctor says "I do not".  So, the Leader turns to one of the Cybermen and says "Kill her" and the Cyberman moves toward Tegan, testing the Doctor's resolve, who suddenly runs toward and he shouts "NO!!" and the Leader calls off the Cyberman.  So, the Leader asks "Such a reaction is not a weakness?" and the Doctor angrily says "No" and the Leader tells him "You are mistaken. I now have control over you, Doctor. All I need do is threaten the woman's death for you to obey me!".

Then there is the scene where the Cyber Leader asks the Doctor "Our records indicate that you have a fondness for Earth?" and the Doctor smiles and says "Fondness? I'm surprised your emotionless brain understands the word!".  So, the Cyber Leader says "It is a word like any other. And so is destruction, which is what we are going to do to that planet" and the Doctor says "You've tried before" and the Cyber Leader says "This time we shall succeed, and you will live just long enough to witness it!".  So one of the Cybermen tells the Leader that the reactivation of their force is complete and the Leader says "Excellent!  Now you will see our strength!".  So, then we see Cybermen burst free from the silos in the cargo hold of the freighter and they march through the hold in their thousands and the Leader turns to the Doctor and shouts "My army awakens, Doctor!!".

And lastly there is the Leader's final scene where his plan to destroy Earth is foiled as the freighter makes a time jump backward 65 millions year ago and it will safely collide with Earth during the dinosaur era, which would result in their extinction.  So, the Leader angrily crushes Scott's communicator as Scott tries to get through and the Doctor says "You've failed, Leader" and the Leader says "But you will not enjoy the victory.  I shall now kill you, Doctor!" which leads into their final struggle.

As for the other cast members, James Warwick does OK in his role as Lieutenant Scott, the leader of the miliatry expedition, who investigates the disappearance of an archaelogical team on Earth but it does have to be said Wawrick's performance is pretty hammy and silly at times.

Regardless of this though, Wawrick still has a few scenes worth a mention such as the one where Scott's men first encounter the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa.  And the Doctor asks Scott "Anything we can do?" and Scott angrily grabs the Doctor, who nervously says "Obviously not!" and Scott throws the Doctor to the ground and holds his weapon to the Doc's throat and he shouts "Too many people have died for you to play the fool!".

Then there is the scene where Scott onboard the TARDIS, which is landed in the freighter, says to the others that he intends to find the Doctor "Right, we're moving out" and Tegan says "I want to come with you" and Scott says a cheesy line "No. It could be rough!".  Scott then gives Nyssa a military comm unit and tells her "If the Doctor returns, call me.  I don't want to be out there any longer than I have to".

And lastly there is the scene where Adric frantically tries to decrypt the codes on the Cyber machine that is locked the freighter into a collision course with Earth but Scott, Briggs and the other crew members are about to escape from the freighter and insist come with them.  So, Scott tells Adric "You've done all you can, Adric" but Adric insists "I can crack this code!" and Captain Briggs says to Adric "Come on, lad!".  So, Scott walks up to Adric and firmly takes his arm and says "And that is an order, Adric!" and he leads him toward the escape pod but Adric steps out just at the last moment.

Beryl Reid however is woefully miscast here as Captain Briggs, the uppity commander of the freighter, who is for the most part more concerned with getting paid than worry about the possibility of the Cyber threat (well until it happens that is!).  Not to sound sexist but you feel this role would be better suited to being played by a man rather than a woman, or at least if it was a woman then they should have really cast someone better than Beryl! 

Nonetheless Beryl has the odd good moment such as the scene where she first appears and she puts down one of her officers, Ringway (Alec Sabin).  And when Briggs comes on board, Ringway greets "Welcome aboard, ma'am" but Briggs disapproves and says "Don't call me ma'am on the bridge!".  So Ringway asks of missing crewmembers of the freighter "There was no mention of the missing crewmembers?" and Briggs's second in command, Berger says "Mister Ringway was concerned that might be the reason for you being delayed".  So, Briggs says "Oh, panicking again, was he? No, no mention, Mister Ringway".  So, Ringway rather annoyed says to her " I just happen to think that the disappearance of three crewmembers' rather important, that's all!".  And Briggs says "So do I, Mister, but it's something that can be settled when we get back to Earth and our cargo's delivered safely. Understood? Make ready to get underway. If it makes you any happier, double the patrols. I don't want any mention of this. You're beginning to bore me!". 

Clare Clifford on the other hand is easily the weakest link in the chain here as her performance as Professor Kyle, the leader of an expedition of which her team went missing.  And Clare's performance is actually pretty pathetic as the woman can barely act convincingly at all throughout the story.

So, I will only mention a couple of her scenes, the first one where she delivers her most awful and laughable line when onboard the TARDIS with Nyssa, she catches sight of a Cyberman.  And Kyle asks "What was that?" and Nyssa says "I don't know.  A robot" and Kyle says "They're huge!!".  Ugghh!

Then there is (SPOILER!!!!) Kyle's death scene where Scott and his team try to get back onboard the TARDIS but a couple of Cybermen follow them and try and get in, too.  So, Kyle takes it on herself to use one of the dead Cybermen's guns but she is soon shot by the other Cyberman, who Scott struggles with and Kyle falls back dead, and the woman can't even fall properly either!  So, Scott shortly after checks her pulse and states to Nyssa the rather obvious "Its no use.  She's dead!".  

As for the other cast members, I will mention June Brown who does well enough in her role as Berger, the officer onboard the freighter.  And I will quickly mention just the one scene where, Ringway complains to Berger about the mood onboard the freighter being rather grim.  So, Ringway says "Morale is very low" and Berger tells him "And with every negative thought you have, Ringway, it sinks even lower. You're supposed to be an officer. Smile when you talk to the crew. Reassure them!".

And last of all, Alec Sabin does OK in his role as the freighter officer, Ringway, who turns out to be not all he seems to be.  And he has a few good scenes but I will only mention two, first off the one where shortly after two crew members onboard the freighter are found dead by the Doctor and Adric, Ringway finds them and stands behind them holding a gun.  So, Ringway says to them "On this ship we execute murderers!".

Then there is the scene where Ringway reveals (SPOILER!!!) he is a traitor, who is working for the Cybermen and he holds the Doctor, Adric and Briggs at gunpoint.  And Ringway says "Stay where you are" and Briggs says "The enemy's outside, Mister!  You're pointing your gun in the wrong direction!".  And Ringway tells her "I'm relieving you of command" and Briggs says "Oh, come off it!" and Ringway snaps back "Shut up! I'm tired of your snide remarks and bullying ways!" and the Doctor says "Oh, you haven't seen anything. Wait until the Cybermen start!" and Ringway looks surprised and asks "You know them?" and the Doctor says "Oh, yes.  We go back a long way!".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Direction wise, Peter Grimwade does an excellent job here with the story and he expertly hides the Cybermen from the viewers till the very end of the first episode and he makes good use of dark and dank caves very well in the first two episodes.  He also deserves much credit for the scene where Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa onboard the TARDIS watch in horror as the space freighter that Adric is on crashes into Earth and it remains one of the most powerful moments in the whole Davison era.   That and also the scene where the Cybermen are first revealed to the Doctor and Adric asks him "Who are they?!" and the Doctor says "Cybermen!". 

And the decision to roll the credits silently at the end to commemorate Adric's death was without a doubt the right one, although perhaps the inclusion of his broken badge as a still shot maybe would have been better substituted with a black screen, but well that's what they chose to go with, and it works well enough. So overall Grimwade directed a rather controversial story very well here. 

As for the music score, it was composed by Malcolm Clarke, which is excellent and it is very atmospheric and provides an effective mix of suspense and dread.  The music used in the cave scenes is great, as is the theme where the Cybermen smash out of the ship containers to storm the freighter, and the passage of music at the end just as Adric meets his maker is really suspenseful, followed by a poignant lull. 

FLAWS 

So, does Earthshock have any flaws????  Well, yeah it does have some.

And for starters I think one of the things that bugged me about the story was Adric's whinge about wanting to go home at the start of the episode with the Doctor, who refuses to take him back into E-space (where Adric came from) due to dangers involved.  However as Adric waits huffily in the TARDIS doing his calculations for the E-spade journey, he is soon forced to help up with the Cybermen's bomb and the android attacks.  And after all that, the Doctor asks Adric if he really wants to go home and all of a sudden Adric suddenly "No, of course not, there's nothing there for me now". 

So, basically, Adric whined and moan for nothing!  Just to prove a point that he could work out the calculations to get back home, which if anything was just to massage his own over-inflated ego!  But you can't but help think Adric has just wasted everyone's time with his complaining when he should have just shut up and got on with things!

Another niggle for me comes when at the end of the first episode where the we see one of the android's infrared vision as it scans the area it homes in on the Doctor and then we cut to the Cybermen and the Leader shouts "Destroy them at once!".  Right, OK, but at this point why did the android home in on the Doctor's face???  At this stage the Cybermen don't even know the Doctor is involved, so why single him out??!  Its almost like the Cyber Leader does know its the Doctor and he's keeping it to himself!  Weird.  

Another issue I had was why were the dormant Cybermen wrapped in cellophane in the silos???  I guess that had to have some sort of protection over them but the cellophane just looks a bit cheap to say the least, and you would think that the production crew could have come up with something a bit better than that!

Then there is the issue of why didn't Nyssa just use the TARDIS to do a quick materialisation onto the deck of the bridge to rescue the Doctor and Adric rather than have Scott and Tegan try and rescue them both???  Maybe I missed some plot detail that prevented the TARDIS from doing so and also just maybe Nyssa's inexperience of using the TARDIS left her at a disadvantage at using it even for short distances.

Another thing that bugged me was to do with the freighter being able to do a time jump 65 million years into the past in the first place.  I mean does the freighter have time travel capability???  This again is never made clear and I would have to imagine that it probably would not and if not then how the hell could it suddenly make a jump 65 million years backwards in time?!  Its again something that doesn't make sense in the story.

And lastly I found the Cybermen to be a bit too heightened in their emotions at times in this story as Cyber Leader's constant arrogant, angry rants were hardly things of logical behaviour even though in David Banks defence, playing a Cybermen without emotion would have been pretty dull.  Its also noticeable in one of the other Cybermen during the sequence where the Doctor tries to deactivate the Cybermen's bomb, as that Cyberdude get's very panicky and shouts "Supplementary power on!" and the Leader says "Hurry!" and the Cyberman panics "Power building!".  OK, Cybermen, you need to chillax and be more logical is what I would say at this point! ;-)

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Earthshock is indeed an excellent adventure from the Peter Davison era of the show and one of his very best.  The story is very well directed by Peter Grimwade as he effectively hides the Cybermen from the story up until the last moment of the first episode.  It also has an intense tone throughout and it just drips of mood and atmosphere from the first minute to the last and it has a great electronic score by Malcolm Clarke that fits the story perfectly.  The regular cast are mostly all on good form and even Matthew Waterhouse get's a somewhat emotional and noble send-off here, even if Adric wasn't the most liked of characters by the fans.   

The story may have a mixed level of performances from the cast with James Wawrick, Clare Clifford and at time Beryl Reid leaving something to be desired in their efforts and yes the story has some plot holes but then again there are very few that don't! But if you put those niggles aside, Earthshock is still a very entertaining, intense and brooding story that deserves much credit for daring to kill off one of its main characters and make the Doctor realise that not even he can save everyone he travels with.

Right, so that's it for now and I will return with another review quite soon and I might try and squeeze in one more before the end of the month if I can.

So, till then its bye for now! 

Roger Moore 1927-2017

Well I thought for a change I would do a post in dedication to the English actor, Roger Moore, who passed away sadly yesterday at the age of 89 after losing his battle to cancer.

Roger was of course best known for his role as James Bond, which he played during the years of 1973 to 1985, which was the longest running time that any actor so far has played the part.  However, Roger was also of course well known for appearing in such shows as The Saint, where he played Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-esque character, who stole money from criminals and kept it for himself.  The Saint itself ran for seven years from 1962 to 1969 and the role was a big success for Roger that allowed his breakthrough.

CAREER 

Roger's career also spanned back as early the 1940's where he started out as a male model and would appear in many TV adverts for different products.  Roger then went on to make his first TV appearance in The Governess in 1949, which was a live broadcast show.  He would then go on to sign a seven year contract with MGM where he made a series of films that were largely unsuccessful but he would appear along such as performers as Glenn Ford, David Niven, Ann Blyth and Lana Turner.

After this, Roger began his career in TV properly as he appeared in several series such as Ivanhoe, where he played the title role.  After this he starred in the Western series, The Alaskans and later he gained more success in another Western TV show named Maverick where again Moore played the lead part.

Roger then gained further attention when he appeared in The Saint as Simon Templar, which as I previously mentioned ran for seven years but he ultimately grew tired of the role and wanted to move on to do other things. And this was then followed by another TV series, The Persuaders, which Moore starred along side the American actor, Tony Curtis (probably best known for his role in Some Like It Hot) as two billionaire playboys.  The two actors apparently didn't get along that well with each other however it ran for only two seasons before it was cancelled.

It was then after this that Roger heard the news that Sean Connery would step down from playing the role of James Bond for good, so Roger would then go on to be offered the part in 1972 and he accepted.  And from here Roger would then film his debut as Bond, "Live and let die" in which Bond would take on a drug kingpin, Kananga (played by Yaphet Kotto) and the film clearly paid a homage to the Blaxploitation films of that period.

From Roger would go on to star in six more Bond films, "The Man with the Golden Gun", "The Spy who Loved Me", "Moonraker", "For your eyes only", "Octopussy" and lastly "A view to a kill".  Moore started out playing the part with shades of Sean Connery's hard hitting portrayal and this was especially noticeable in "The man with the golden gun" however Roger insisted that he didn't want to down that avenue with the role.  So, later Roger would soften his portrayal a little and would continue use witty one-liners, sauve charm and quick wits when it came to defeating his enemies.

It is of course said that out of the seven films, Roger starred that "The spy who loved me" was considered the best by fans of the series and it was also Roger's favourite film of the franchise.  It would also be the film, which would introduce one of the series most memorable villains, Jaws, the seven foot steel toothed henchman (played by Richard Kiel).   

As Roger's time in the role as Bond however went on, he felt that by the time he filmed "For your eyes only" that it was time to step down and let another actor take on the part.  However when Sean Connery made a surprise return to the part himself with the "Thunderball" remake "Never say never again", the producers approached Roger to play the part once more in order to compete with Connery's film.  This would then see Roger be persuaded (no pun intended!) to do another film with "Octopussy" which was as outrageous as the series had got up to this point.

Roger's time in the role however would come to an end with his finale "A view to a kill" where by this time Roger was 58 years old and clearly showing his age in the part and he even joked himself that by then "I was 400 years too old to play the part!".  Unfortunately however the film was not well received by the critics or audiences alike at the time and today is not regarded as one of the better Bond films.

Roger of course also made plenty of other films outside of playing Bond, even during his era of the part, such as the thriller, "Gold" in 1974, and the two war adventure films "Shout at the devil" in 1976 and "The Wild Geese" in 1978 where he co-starred with Tele Savalas (who had also played Blofeld in the Bond franchise).

After his time as Bond had finished, Roger would not make his comeback to acting until 1990 where he appeared in less successful films such as Bullseye along side Michael Caine.  Moore would later go on to appear in other films such as Claude Van Damme's actioner, The Quest in 1996 and even the feature film of the pop group, The Spice Girls called Spice World in 1997 and then later Boat Trip in 2002.

HUMANITARIAN WORK

Roger was also well known for his humanitarian work as he became an ambassador for UNICEF after his good friend and actress, Audrey Hepburn got him involved in the organisation.  Roger was also a keen animal rights activist and was involved in a production video for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) which spoke against the production and wholesale of foie gras (the liver of a duck or goose).

HEALTH

In the later years of his life however, Roger had a series of health issues such as skin cancer, prostate cancer for which at the time he was successfully treated for.  Roger would also toward the end of his life be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2013, which left unable to drink alcohol as a result.  And sadly last of all, Roger, on 23 May, lost his life to cancer, with his family by his side in Switzerland.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Roger Moore for me was an underrated and talented actor, who had great charisma, charm and warmth and his portrayal of James Bond was one of the best in series for which I'm sure he will always be remembered for.  And for me personally he was one of my favourite actors to have played the part of Bond as he brought a jovial light heartedness to the role with his witty quips and charm and ability to handle the action just aswell as any of the other actors to have played 007. 

So, Roger rest in peace, sir and without a doubt you will be sorely missed by your many fans throughout the world.

Right, so that's it for now and I'll be back again soon with a review of sorts but until the next one its bye for now.

Doctor Who - Castrovalva "Well, that's democracy for you!"

OK, time for a new post and this one marks the 450th post of this blog so far, which is pretty good going as it has been nearly on the go for 5 years now!

And as I previously mentioned at the end of my last post, this one is going be on the debut Peter Davison story from Doctor Who: Castrovalva.  So how does Peter's debut story hold up???  Well let's take a look.....

And yes the usual warning is coming....

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

STORY 

So, the story begins with the newly regenerated 5th Doctor (Peter D) escaping from the site of the Pharos project (from the end of Tom Baker's last story, Logopolis) with the help of his companions, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton).  Back inside the TARDIS however, the Doctor is feeling weak from his regeneration and he tells Tegan and Nyssa that he must go to the zero room, which is a room to aid Time Lords with the use of healing technology.

Tegan and Nyssa meanwhile try and pilot the TARDIS with the help of a terminal at the console but they soon find that the TARDIS is locked in on a collision course for "Event one" i.e. the Big Bang, which is soon revealed to be a trap set by the Master (Anthony Ainley).  With Adric missing (as he ha been captured by the Master) Tegan and Nyssa manage to get the Doctor's help who remains lucid long enough for him to give instructions on how to save the TARDIS by jettisoning some of its rooms, which will propel them back into conventional time.

However as the Doctor becomes delirious again and Nyssa takes him to where the zero room was, they find that it was one of the rooms that was jettisoned, so Nyssa makes up a zero room cabinet for the Doctor lie in, so he can continue to heal.  Tegan meanwhile reads up information from the TARDIS terminal on a place called Castrovalva, which would be an ideal location for the Doctor to recover, which is part of a civilisation that does not depend on modern technology.

On arriving at Castrovalva, Tegan and Nyssa carry the Doctor in his cabinet but they soon have to put down the cabinet and as they look around, the come back and soon find the cabinet is empty and the Doctor missing.  The Doctor himself is captured by warriors that protect the dwellings of simplicity where he is taken to and care for by Shardovan (Derek Waring) and he also meets the elderly Portreeve.

Tegan and Nyssa soon rejoin with the Doctor, who after a night's sleep appears to have fully recovered from his regeneration but as they try and leave the dwellings they find themselves back at the same spot in a plaza square of the city.  The Doctor soon realises that the dwellings are in fact fake and part of a space-time trap set by the Master, who is disguised as the Portreeve and is using Adric's mathematical skills to create the dwellings with the help of the block transfer computations from Logopolis.

So its from there here the Doctor must try and find a way to stop the Master, escape the dwellings and rescue Adric......

THOUGHTS

As a debut story, Castrovalva is an enjoyable opener for the Peter Davison era and it sees another complex but interesting storyline from Christopher H. Bidmead, who had previously written Logopolis, Tom Baker's finale.  The Doctor's regeneration also plays its part in that in remains one of the Doctor's most traumatic regenerations that leaves him in a weakened state for most of the story where we see him blabbering incoherently and even doing impressions of his earlier selves, most notably the first, second and third doctors.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES

As the performances well things are mostly pretty good here.

Starting with Peter Davison, who turns in a very solid performance in his debut as the fifth doctor and he plays with a mix of babbling vulnerability but also a boyish charm and sense of humour.

Peter has some good moments in the story that include the scene where on the TARDIS, the Doctor, who is still feeling the effect of his regenation, has started to unravel the fourth doctor's big scarf as he wanders around the corridors.  And as the Doctor as joined with Adric, the Doctor says as he rips up his old waiscoat "I left a waistcoat like that on. Ever been to Alzarius?" and Adric says "I was born there, Doctor" and the Doctor says "Really?  Its a small universe, isn't it?".  The Doctor then turns to Adric and mimics the first doctor and asks him "I wonder, boy, what would you do if you were me, hmmm?!" but then he appears confused and says in his normal voice  "Or perhaps I should ask, what would I do if I were me".

Then in his next scene, Peter as the Doctor, begins to really struggle physically with the effects of his regeneration and he begins to sound like the second doctor.  So as he get's lost wandering around the corridors of the TARDIS he says "Oh dear. We've wandered into the wrong corridor. We must be close to the main Tardis drive now. Jamie. Jamie, you go back!".  However, Adric says "No, Doctor.  I must stay with you!" and the Doctor tells him "No, nonsense, be sensible, go back! When I say run, run! Don't you understand? The regeneration is failing!".

Another good scene is when the Doctor lies inside his zero cabinet to help him recover and he says to Tegan and Nyssa as they have arrived on Castrovalva "You won't feel my weight. I'll make it easy for you. I'll be levitating".  However as Tegan and Nyssa go outside into the woodlands of Castrovalva, they start to carry the cabinet but it becomes to heavy and they are forced to drop it and the Doctor opens the door of the cabinet and says "So sorry. Lost concentration for a moment. Very tired!".

Then there is the funny scene where the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa try to escape the dwellings of simplicity only to find themselves at the same spot in the town square.  So, the Doctor stops and asks some locals, who are washing and folding "Which is the quickest way out of here?" and they all point in different directions and the Doctor says "Yes, well that's democracy for you!".  But then the Doctor soon realises that Castrovalva isn't all it appears to be and he says to the others "Recursive occlusion. Someone's manipulating Castrovalva. We're caught in a space-time trap!" as we see various views of the city merge with each other.

And last of all is the scene where the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric at the end of the story make it back to where the TARDIS is located.  And Nyssa asks the Doctor "Are you sure you're up to flying the TARDIS?" and the Doctor says "Oh, I think so.  In fact, I feel quite like my old self.  Well..." and Tegan asks "Yes?" and the Doctor continues with a smile "Well, whoever I feel like, its absolutely splendid!".

Matthew Waterhouse next up does OK as Adric, even though Adric is widely regarded as one of the least popular companions of the Doctor, Matthew still does what he can with the role.  However I do have to admit myself that Adric is a bit of whiny little teenage brat but here he does at least have something to whine about as Adric has been captured by the Master to do his evil bidding.

I will only mention one scene for Matthew and that's the one where Adric suddenly appears in the mirror in the Doctor's room on Castrovalva and Nyssa sees him.  And Nyssa reacts in surprise "Adric!" and Adric tells her in hushed urgent tone "No, don't turn around. Just listen, and listen quickly. The Master mustn't find me here".  And Nyssa asks "He's in Castrovalva?" and Adric says "He can find me anywhere because I'm still in his power, but you mustn't let the Doctor know". However Nyssa says "We have to tell him" and Adric insists "No, rescuing me can wait. Just listen. The Doctor must remain in Castrovalva until his regeneration is complete!".  So, Nyssa says "Wait, I'll get Tegan" but Adric says "No, you mustn't tell anybody you saw me. Nobody, you understand!" and he vanishes.

Janet Fielding does very well in her role as Tegan, the Doctor's feisty companion, who is now part of the TARDIS crew after meeting the Doctor, Adric and Nyssa in Logopolis.

Janet has some good scenes that include the one where Tegan attempts to pilot the TARDIS to Castrovalva but it ends up landing on its side in the woods.  And Tegan shouts "Touchdown!  We've made it!  We've made it!" and Tegan takes a look outside the TARDIS doors and sees that the ship has landed in a lop-sided position.  So Tegan says to herself "Not up to CAA standard, but a landing's a landing! Castrovalva can't be far".

Then there is the scene where Tegan and Nyssa start to push the Doctor's zero cabinet through the woods of Castrovalva by sitting it up on the Doctor's wheelchair, which he used earlier.  And as they push the wheelchair, Nyssa says to Tegan "I think he's got heavier" and Tegan says "I hope you're wrong" and she says to the cabinet "Come on, Doctor.  Help us to you help you!".  

And lastly there is the scene at the end of the story where the Doctor and his companions return to where the TARDIS is located and the Doctor looks surprised to see it in its lop-sided position.  So, the Doctor asks "Who landed this?" and Tegan proudly says "I did, Doctor" and the Doctor asks "You flew the TARDIS?" and Tegan satisifed says "I followed the instructions in the computer".  However, the Doctor bursts her bubble by telling her "There aren't any.  It was a projection" and this leaves Tegan disappointed "So, I didn't fly it?" and the Doctor tells her "Adric pre-programmed it. Whatever you did, we'd have ended up in Castrovalva" and Tegan says "Oh, how disappointing!".

Sarah Sutton next is also good in her role as Nyssa and it has to be said that Nyssa remains one of the cutest companions in the original series (for me anyway!).

Sarah also has some good moments that include the scene where Tegan and Nyssa learn that the Master has set a trap for the TARDIS to fly on course into the big bang.  And Nyssa looks horrified as she says to Tegan "The creation of the galaxy out of a huge in-rush of hydrogen. We're heading straight into the biggest explosion in history!".  And then we cut to the Master, who is in his TARDIS and he waves to Tegan and Nyssa as he appears on the TARDIS's scanner screen he says "Farewell, my friends.  Farewell forever!".  And Nyssa says with disgust "That face.  I hate it!" and Tegan says "We must do something" and Nyssa says "There's only one thing we can do!" and Nyssa switches of the TARDIS scanner and Tegan asks "And?" and Nyssa says "And that's all!".

Then there is the scene where Tegan and Nyssa are in the dwellings of simplicity on Castrovalva and they wait outside the Doctor's room.  And Nyssa says to Tegan "We have to tell the Doctor about Adric" and Tegan says "Are you sure?  He's still not very strong" and Nyssa says one of her best lines "We must. We have to think of Adric too. I know so little about telebiogenesis. If only there were some books here".

Anthony Ainley returns again here as the Master and he does another good job in hamming it up even though his depiction of the role would never be as good as the original as played by the late Roger Delgado.

Ainley does have some good moments also that include the scene where the Master thinks he has destroyed the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and the TARDIS and he gloats to Adric, who trapped in the Master's web.

So in the scene the Masters says to Adric "The universe is purged of the Doctor and his impossible dreams of goodness. You and I belong to the future" and Adric says "The Doctor was doomed.  I see that now".  And the Master says "He might've escaped from the in-rush. Yes, even that was a possibility. But I had installed a trap behind that trap that would have been a joy to spring" and Adric asks "Yet another trap?" and the Master replies "A journey back in time.  Long awaited".  However the Master notices something as interference appears on his scanner, he glares at Adric and says "Residual voltage? You're receiving an image! What are you concealing from me? Some distant event beyond the range of my own scanner? I'll burn through your barrier, boy. Bring it to me!".  Adric then shouts defiantly "No!! No!!" and then the Master looks in surprise as he sees the TARDIS reappear on the scanner and he says "It can't be!".

And lastly there is the scene where the Master (SPOILER!!) reveals himself on Castrovalva in the dwellings of simplicity as he was disguised as the elderly Portreeve and he tries to break into the Doctor's zero cabinet, which he still believes him to be in.  So the Master angrily says "I have waited patiently with this trap of mine. My Castrovalva!" and Nyssa says "But there is a real Castrovalva.  Its mentioned in the TARDIS databank!".  The Master however tells Nyssa "The boy Adric entered it there at my command" and Tegan demands "Where is Adric?  What have you done with him?" and the Master angrily says " The boy is nothing. I want the Doctor. One long last look before I destroy him utterly!".  So, the Master tries to pry open the zero cabinet with an iron but to no avail.

However as the Master fails to open the cabinet, he turns to Nyssa and demands "Open this for me!" and Nyssa tells him "Don't you understand anything about zero structures? The internal interfaces are bonded by strong-force interaction. The surfaces can only be separated from inside the Cabinet!".  However the Master refuses to accept this and he says "Don't try to make a fool of me!" and he continues to try and prise the cabinet open with an iron from the fireplace.

As for the supporting cast members, well I will only mention two of them as it is a rather small cast for a change (phew! saves on loads of typing!).  So the first actor I will mention is Derek Waring as Shardovan, a librarian in the dwellings of simplicity and his performance is pretty good overall although to save time I won't mention any of his dialogue or scenes.  And second and last of all is Michael Sheard, who provides a solid performance as Mergrave, one of the inhabitants of Castrovalva and the dwellings.  Sheard also appeared in several other Doctor Who stories throughout the original show's run that started with the William Hartnell in "The Ark" and ended with the Sylvester McCoy story "Rememberance of the Daleks".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the director, Fiona Cumming, takes the helm and she does a pretty good job here with the story as it moves along at a rather pleasant pace, similar as to how Logopolis ran.  Cumming must also have been one of the earliest female directors to have worked on the show as I don't recall that many female directors working on the show prior to her.  Cumming also would direct a couple of episodes of the sci-fi show, Blake's 7 also and sadly she would later pass away in 2015 at the age of 77.

As for the music score, Paddy Kingsland, once again provides the score for this story as he did with Logopolis and its another pleasant jantuy soundtrack, which fits the tone of the story, yet also features of course a few dangerous sounding passages to break up the overall light heartedness of it all.  The score remains somewhat unmemorable but it does suit its purposes for the story overall and its inoffensive and listenable enough.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for flaws....yes Castrovalva certainly isn't quite perfect.

And for starters one of the problems I had with it is to do with again Christopher H. Bidmead's overly complex script as it tends to try and baffle its audience at times.  One example of which is to do with the whole idea of Castrovalva being a space-time trap devised by the Master. It all gets a bit bogged down with details to do with the block computation stuff from Logopolis and its like Bidmead wants to baffle the audience!

Another issue is to do morely with John Nathan Turner's decisions to do with the show itself and one of the biggest annoyances comes in the form of the Doctor's new outfit, which like Tom Baker's before, had question marks on the lapels of his jacket!  Now, why the hell did JNT feel the need to put question marks on the Doctor's clothes???  I mean it just makes things look pretty unsubtle and garish, which is something that can be said of the whole JNT era in general!

Also, why does the Doctor suddenly decide to wear a stick of celery on the lapel of his jacket?? And of course in this story we see him eat a stick of celery while he is in the dwellings of simplicity, so yeah OK fine with that.  However when they bother to even take a stick of celery and put it on your jacket in the first place???!  The Doctor would later explain in Davison's final story "The Caves of Androzani" that it alerts him to changes in the atmosphere but it takes up until his last story before we get any clarification on that anyway!

I also felt that the supporting characters in the story are also pretty weak with both Shardovan and Mergrave being a bit dull and faceless and this tends to let the side down a bit here.  And this could be said to be a weakness of Bidmead's writing as he tends not to write the best supporting characters in his stories.

And lastly I think its safe to say that the levitation of the Doctor while he is in the zero room is pretty cheesy and daft looking to say the least!  I mean the naff visual effect of CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) was often overused in the show and here it is used again and it makes the Doctor's levitation look far from convincing! 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So in summing up, Castrovalva is an enjoyable start to the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who and its story is involving enough to keep most fans and viewers interested in it.  It also features an engaging performance by Davison in his debut of the role as well as some good performances by the regular cast and Anthony Ainley hams it nicely once more as the Master.

It does have some problems though with its complex plot and there are also some plot niggles and yes JNT once again does it the question marks on the Doctor's outfit.  But if you can live with that there is still a fair bit to enjoy here with Castrovala and it get's the Peter Davison era off to a good start.

Right, so that's it for now and I'll return soon with yet another review of sorts.

So, till the next one, its bye for now.

Aliens Revisited (again!) - "Get away from her, you bitch!"

Ok, so abject laziness (of sorts!) in terms of trying to come up with new posts right now has resorted to me doing yet another revisit of a post I have already revisited on this blog! 

So, since the new Alien film is out just now: Alien Covenant, I thought I would re-revisit my post on the film "Aliens". So after 31 years, how does it fair????  Well let's grab those pulse rifles and body armour suits and find out....

And yep, the usual warning is coming up....... 

STORY 

Right OK, so to start off the film begins 57 years after the events of the first film, with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) who is in stasis sleep, being rescued by a deep space salvage team.  Ripley now, the only survivor of the Nostromo, has to explain her actions to the Weyland Utani company commitee who suspend her flight licence as a consequence of her destroying the Nostromo in order to try and kill the alien.  Ripley herself, still suffering from post traumatic stress, has nightmares from her harrowing ordeal on the Nostromo.  However, the head of the board, Van Luewen (Paul Maxwell) also informs Ripley that on the alien planet, now named LV-426, now has colonies of families living there, which has been made habitable through the implementation of air processing stations.  This leaves Ripley horrified at the prospect of what may happen to the families as a result of being on the alient planet. 

Pretty soon after, one of the company execs, Burke (Paul Reiser) visits Ripley and tells her that they have lost contact with the colony, and that they want her to go with a team of marines, as an advisor to help them know what they are up against.  Ripley eventually agrees reluctantly to go with the marines, accompanied by Burke to the planet.  Some of the crew include, the hardened veteran Sgt Apone (Al Matthews), the down to earth Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the cocky Hudson (Bill Paxton), the seemingly helpful android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and the gutsy and muscly female Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein).

On arrival at the planet, they find one of the colonies to be deserted, with alot of interior damage and acid burns found on the floor decks, however they do find a young girl, Newt (Carrie Henn) who has been left traumatised, as her family were killed by the aliens.  Hudson eventually manages to track the location of the colonists, at an atmosphere processing station. 

On arriving, the marines to their horror find some of the colonists have been cocooned by the aliens, and pretty soon the aliens themselves emerge and attack and kill most of the marines including Apone and Vasquez's good marine buddy, Drake (Mark Rolston).  Ripley soon drives the reinforced military vehicle to rescue the remaining marines, and from there they decide on their plan of action what to do.  On trying to hail the APC, their dropship, an alien infiltrates the ship and kills the flight crew, thereby destroying the ship. 

Now stranded on LV-426, Ripley and the remaining crew set about to try and find a way to escape the planet.  However there are several complications in that for one, the emergencing venting from the cooling station ruptures (most likely due to the gunfire in the earlier alien attack) which means the processing station will blow up in a matter of hours.  Ripley and the others then decided they must find a way to remotely patch into the other drop ship onboard the APC to which Bishop agrees to go, which involves crawling through a tunnel to reach the uplink assembly area.

Meanwhile, Ripley discovers from Bishop that Burke requested to keep the surviving alien face huggers that are kept in tanks alive, despite Ripley's request to destroy them.  Ripley confronts Burke over this, who says the surviving aliens are invaluable to the company's weapons division and this could make them rich.  Ripley however tells Burke that she learned it was him that authorised for the colonists to live on LV426, which he did without even properly checking it out, which Ripley angrily tells Burke she will tell the company about his negligence. 

Later on, Ripley and Newt are attacked by a facehugger alien, which somehow made it into one of the rooms where Newt was sleeping, however Ripley manages to alert Hicks and the others, who kill the facehugger.  Ripley tells Hicks that Burke was behind the attack but at this point the power goes off in the complex and Hicks sends Hudson and Vasquez to scan the perimeter and they find multiple life signals, which means the aliens are closing in on their location.

And its not long before the aliens ambush Ripley and the others, which leads into the film's intense action heavy climax.....  

THOUGHTS

Even though it isn't quite the classic masterpiece the original was, Aliens is still a very tense and gripping sequel which follows up Alien very well even if it doesn't quite scale the same heights.  And this films scores actually pretty well in that it has really well drawn out characters and Ripley in this film turns out to be strongest and bravest character in the whole film as she goes back to the alien planet to face her fears. 

The marine characters also add an element of fun to the film aswell and in a way it allows for a bit of light comic relief just before the shit really hits the fan later on.  The film also despite having a modest budget of approximately 18 million dollars is also visually very impressive as the special effects for the aliens are excellent as are the effects for the spaceships and environmental effects on LV-426.  

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers!!)

As for the performances well they are really good pretty much all round as it features a pretty strong cast.

And to look at the cast I will start off with its main star, Sigourney Weaver who is terrific in her role as Ripley and here she slips effortlessly back into the character as she plays Ripley with a mixture of vulnerability and toughness.  Weaver also rightly so earned her first academy award nomination with her performance here and its easy to see why as its easily one of the highlights in her career.

Sigourney also has plenty of great moments in the film such as the scene near the start where Ripley has to justify her actions to a board meeting.  And as the head of the board tries to halt Ripley's explanation of the alien planet by saying "Thank you that will be all!" Ripley angrily stands and shouts "GODDAMNIT THAT'S NOT ALL!!  Cause if one of those things gets down here then that WILL be all! And all this....(picks up papers and throws them away) this bullshit you think is so important...you can just kiss all that goodbye!!". 

Then there is the moment where Ripley after having another nightmare calls Burke to accept his offer to go down to LV-426 and she says to him "Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out".  And as Burke reassures her "That's the plan, you have my word on it" Ripley says to him "Alright I'm in" and terminates their video chat and she turns to her cat (who appears in her nightmares making hissing noises) and says "And you, you little shithead....you're staying here!".

Then comes the scene where after the first alien attack, the surviving marines and Ripley take stock of the situation and Ripley simply suggests "I think we should take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.  Its only the way to be sure".  Another good scene comes when on Ripley and the marines are on LV-426 she discovers that Burke had sent the colonists to the alien planet knowing the aliens were there and he didn't warn them. 

And as Burke tries to justify himself, Ripley angrily grabs him and shouts "These people are DEAD, Burke!!  Don't you have any idea what you've done here?!!!  Well, I'm gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one! Right to the wall!".  And later after Burke engineers an attempt on Ripley's life by letting a facehugger into a room where she is with Newt and marines save her, they confront him.  And Ripley says to him "You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!".

Then there is the scene where Ripley goes back down to the lower levels to the heart of the alien lair to rescue Newt and she says to Bishop who is about to protest "I don't want to hear it, Bishop!  She's alive! There's still time!".  And the moment where Ripley takes the elevator down to the lower levels and loads up the grenade launcher and get's herself ready for a fight and the elevator doors open and Ripley tensely moves out to find Newt is one of the best and most suspenseful scenes in the whole film.

Another great moment from Sigourney is when Ripley escapes the clutches of the alien queen, carrying Newt, they get into the elevator that takes them back up to the top only to find that the drop ship has gone.  So, Ripley looks on shocked and she shouts to the sky "Bishop!  GOD DAMN YOU!!!!" and she holds Newt tightly as the infrastructure of the cooling station collapses around them, just before the alien queen arrives in the elevator for them.  And Ripley looks at the queen and to Newt and says "Close your eyes, baby..." but then Bishop turns up to save the day. 

And lastly of course is the great moment where Ripley confronts the alien queen onboard the Sulaco as she straps herself into a powerloader and moves toward the alien and warns her saying "Get away from her, you BITCH!!!!" as the two of them go head to head.  

Michael Biehn also does very well in his role as Corporal Hicks, the cool headed marine, who is second in command of the operation to go to LV-426.  Biehn plays the part largely understated but that's what makes his character work pretty well.

And Biehn has some good moments himself in the film that include the scene where Ripley suggests they "nuke the entire site from orbit" and points out that Hicks is now in charge since Apone has been killed.  And as Burke says Hicks doesn't have the authority to make the decision and calls him "just a grunt!" then corrects himself by saying "No offence" and Hicks says "None taken" and repeats Ripley's words "Let's take off and nuke the site from orbit.  Its the only way to be sure".

Another good scene and amusing moment is when Hicks gives Ripley a wrist strap containing a locator so Hicks can keep an eye on her location in the complex on LV-426.  And Hicks says to her "Its just a precaution.  Doesn't mean we're engaged or anything!".  Then comes the scene where Hicks shows Ripley how to use a pulse rifle "I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. This is an M41A pulse rifle. Ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher".  And Hicks holds out the gun to Ripley and says to her "Feel the weight" and she takes the rifle and smiles saying "OK, what do I do?".  And later as Ripley asks about the grenade launcher, Hicks says "I don't think you wanna mess that" and Ripley says "You started this!  C'mon show me everything.  I can take care of myself" and Hicks smiles and says "Yeah, I noticed!".

Then comes the scene where the alien queen takes Newt before Ripley and Hicks can save her and Ripley screams out "SHE'S ALIVE!! SHE'S ALIVE!!".  And Hicks grabs her and yells "OK!  I BELIEVE YOU!!  SHE'S ALIVE!  BUT WE'VE GOTTA GO!!!  NOW!!" and they make their way to an elevator, which opens slowly and they get inside and as the door is slow to close an alien suddenly appears and Hicks shoots it but its acid bleeds onto his chest armour and Ripley takes it off but it leaves Hicks wounded.  And last of all there is the moment where Hicks and Ripley share each other's first names as Hicks tells her his name is "Dwayne" and she says "Ellen" and he says to her "Don't be gone long, Ellen!".

Paul Reiser who was a stand-up comedian and appeared in comedy films before this such as Beverly Hills Cops, is excellent as Burke, the sleazy company exec who is sent with Ripley and the marines to investigate the alien planet.

Reiser also has some really good moments in the film such as his opening scene where he meets with Ripley (in her nightmare) where he tells her "I'm Burke, Carter Burke.  I work with the company, but don't let that fool you I'm really an OK guy!".  And when Ripley asks how long she had been floating out in space Burke says "57 years.  You were out there for 57 years.  You had drifted through the core systems and it was just blind luck that a deep salvage team found you when they did".  Then there is the scene when the marines arrive at the cooling tower plant on LV-426 and Ripley expresses her concerns that if the marines fire their weapons then they will rupture the cooling system.  And Burke says "Whoa, whoa she's absolutely right!" and as the commanding officer, Lt Gorman says irately "So what?!".  And Burke explains "Look, this whole station is basically a big fusion reactor... So you're talkin' about a thermonuclear explosion and "Adiós, muchachos".

Then after the first alien attack as the marines and Ripley take stock and suggest nuking the planet from orbit, Burke protests.  And Burke says of Hicks "Yeah... look, Ripley, this is a multi-million dollar installation. He can't make that kind of decision. He's just a grunt!" and looks to Hicks saying "No offense". 

And one of Reiser's best moments comes when Ripley confronts Burke over his decision to place the colonists on the planet without telling them about the aliens.  And Burke awkwardly explains "Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley, it was a bad call".  And Ripley grabs him and shouts at him telling him she will nail him "right to the wall" and before she leaves, Burke nervously says "Ripley...! You know, I... I expected more from you. I thought you'd be smarter than this" and Ripley tells him "I'm happy to disappoint you" and walks out. 

Then we have the late great Bill Paxton who is excellent as the cocky wisecracking marine, Hudson, who is all tough and macho at first but then becomes terrified after the first alien attack.  Paxton being a good friend of Cameron's (and appeared as the punk leader in The Terminator) must have been an obvious choice for the role and you can see Paxton is having a ball here with his part and he get's most of the best dialogue in the film.

And as a few examples I'll start with his first scene onboard the Sulaco after the marines and Ripley awaken from hypersleep.  And as Vasquez asks who Ripley is one of the marine crew, Ferro (Colette Hiller) says "She is supposed to be some sort of a consultant.  Apparently she say an alien once" and Hudson says "Whoopee fuckin doo!".  And later during the marines debrief over their mission, Vasquez says of the aliens "Look man all I need to know is one thing, where they are!" and Hudson jokes "Right, right. Somebody said "alien" she thought they said "illegal alien" and signed up!".  And Vasquez gives Hudson the finger "Fuck you, man!" and Hudson quips "Anytime, anywhere!".

Another good scene from Paxton is when the marines discuss their options after the first alien attack and when Burke protests over their option to wipe out the aliens, Hudson angrily says "Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!".  Then of course we have the classic bit of dialogue where after the drop ship is destroyed when an alien boards the ship and kills Ferro and the brilliantly named co-pilot, Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash).  And after the crash Hudson says "That's great, this is really fuckin' great, man. Now, what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some pretty shit now, man!" followed by "That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we supposed to now, huh, what are we gonna do?!!".

After this there is the scene when Ripley, Hicks and the others go back to the command centre and Ripley asks how long is it before they are declared overdue for a rescue and Hicks says "17 days".  And Hudson nervously says "17 days?!  Hey man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last 17 hours!!  Those things are gonna come in here just like they did before. And they're gonna come in here......and they're gonna come in here AND THEY'RE GONNA GET US!!".

Then after Burke engineers an attempt on Ripley's life by releasing a facehugger into a room where Ripley and Newt and the marines rescue them both, Burke is taken back to the others and Hudson points his pulse rifle close at him saying "I say we grease this rat-fuck son-of-a-bitch right now!".  And as Ripley explains Burke possible plan to potentially sabotage the marines hypersleep chambers and jettison their bodies afterward, leaving Hudson disgusted "Fuck!  He's dead!  You're dog-meat, pal!". 

And last of all is Paxton's last scene in the film (SPOILER!!!) during the second alien attack Hudson rediscovers his courage and shoots as many aliens as he can and he yells during fire "Come and get it, baby! Come on! I don't got all day! Come on! Come on! Come on you bastard! Come on, you too! Oh, you want some of this?!!  FUCK YOU!" before being grabbed by an alien and pulled under the floorboards to his doom.

Carrie Henn who had never appeared in a film before also does pretty well in her role as the orphaned Newt who Ripley takes care of after they find her alone at the colony complex.  Henn herself decided not take take up a career in acting after the film and instead became a teacher.  Henn has some good moments aswell that include the scene where Ripley asks Newt where her family are and Newt says angrily "They're dead!  Can I go now?!".  And Ripley says to Newt "These people are soldiers, they're here to protect you" and Newt says "It won't make any difference".

And lastly there is of course Henn's most famous scene in the film just after the drop ship is destroyed and Newt says to Ripley "I guess we won't be leaving now".  And Ripley says "I'm sorry, Newt" and Newt says "Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault" and then she says her most famous line of all (which I still can't quite fathom why!) "We'd better get back cos it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night. Mostly". 

Lance Henriksen is also excellent as the android, Bishop, who Ripley is wary of at first due to her encounter with Ash (played by Ian Holm) from Alien, but he eventually gains her trust.  Henriksen has some good moments also that include the scene where he does that "thing with the knife" as Hudson puts it.  And this is followed by the revelation that he is an android as he cut his finger during the knife scene, which anxiously causes Ripley ask why no one told her an android was onboard.  And as Burke explains Ripley's situation to Bishop, Bishop says "Well, that explains it then. The A2s always were a bit twitchy. That could never happen now with our behavioral inhibitors. It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being".  And when Burke calls Bishop a "synthetic" Bishop says "I prefer the term "artificial person" myself".

Then later there is the scene where Bishop dissects one of the dead facehuggers looking through a microscope at its internal organs and one of the marine crew asks if he needs anything else and Bishop spookily looks up at him and says "No".  And as the crewman says "That's a nice pet you've got there, Bishop" Bishop says "Its magnificent, isn't it?".  Another good moment for Henriksen is during the scene Ripley and the others discuss their options and how to get the other drop ship on the Sulaco and remote pilot it to the planet.  And as no one is ready to volunteer to do it, Bishop says "I'll go.  I'll go. I mean, I'm the only one qualified to remote-pilot the ship anyway." and Hudson says relieved "Good idea!" and Bishop says "Believe me, I'd prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid. Believe me, I'd prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid!".   

After this another good scene is when Ripley stocks on guns and ammo to rescue Newt and Bishop warns her that the cooling system will soon explode and he says "In nineteen minutes, this area's gonna be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska".  And later on after (SPOILER!!!) Ripley rescues Newt and Bishop get's them safely off the planet they fly back to the Sulaco where they have Ripley has the confrontation with the alien queen.  And after its all over, Bishop, who was ripped in half by the alien queen says to Ripley "Not bad for a human".

And lastly for the supporting roles in the film I'll start with Jeanette Goldstein who is really good as the muscly tough female marine, Vasquez.  And Goldstein has a few highlights too that include her first scene where Vasquez works out onboard the Sulaco and Hudson says to her "Have you ever been mistaken for a man?" and Vasquez says "No, have you?".  Then there is the moment during Ripley's brief to the crew when Ripley becomes agitated trying to explain Kane's death, Vasquez cuts her short saying "Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are!".  And later of course there is that moment just as the aliens first attack, Vasquez let's rip with her smart gun shouting the memorable line "LET'S ROCK!!!!".

Later on another good scene from Goldstein is when Vasquez says to the others after the first alien attack "Okay. We have several canisters of CM-20. I say we go back in there and nerve gas the whole fuckin' nest!".  And after Burke says "This is clearly an important species we're dealing with and I don't think that you or I, or anybody, has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them!" and Ripley says "Wrong!" and Vasquez says coldly "Yeah, watch us!".

And lastly during the second alien attack as Vasquez and the others trying to escape from the aliens from the ventaliation tunnels she soon runs out of ammo in her rifle and shoots an alien at point blank range with her hand gun, but acid spills onto her leg, injuring her and she yells "OH NO!!!!".  At this point Gorman goes back for her but they are soon surrounded by aliens and Vasquez takes out a grenade and says her last line "You always were an asshole, Gorman!" just before it goes off.

Third last is Mark Rolston as Drake, the macho marine who is Vasquez's good buddy and he does a fine job.  Rolston's good moments include when he first wakes up for hypersleep and he says wearily "They ain't paying enough for us, man!" and he looks Hicks who has just got up "Hey Hicks, you look just like how I feel!".  Later on there is also the moment where Bishop does the thing with the "knife" and Drake holds Hudson and places his hand ontop of Bishop's and after Bishop finishes, Drake hands back Hudson's meal to him and says "Enjoy your meal!".  And lastly there is Drake's last moment where he fights off the aliens and he yells back at Vasquez "Go, Vasquez!  Run for it!!" before he meets his end to an alien's acid which burns his face.

Second last is William Hope who is pretty good as Lt Gorman, the inexperienced commanding officer of the marine op.  And Hope's good moments include when at the end of the debrief when he says to the marines "Now listen up.  I want this thing to go smooth and by the numbers. I want D.C.S. and tactical database assimulation by 0830. Ordinance loading, weapons strip, and drop ship prep details will have seven hours.  NOW MOVE IT PEOPLE!".  Then is the moment when just after the drop ship leaves the Sulaco, Ripley asks how drops Gorman has had and he says "38.  Simulated" and Vasquez asks "How many combat drops?" and Gorman awkwardly says "Two.  Including this one!".

Then there is the scene where Ripley voices her concerns about the marines firing their weapons at the cooling station leading Burke to explain that it could cause a thermnuclear explosion and Gorman says "Oh, great, wondeful!  Shit!!".  And as the alien assault begins, Gorman panics not knowing what to do and Ripley takes control of the situation and drives the RV to get the marines, prompting Gorman to yell "Ripley, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???!!!!".  And lastly there is the moment after Gorman awakens from having sustained a concussion, Ripley asks him how he is and he says "Alright, I guess.  One hell of a hangover".      
       
And last of ALL is Al Matthews who is great as the tough veteran marine, Sgt Apone.  Matthews himself was a Vietnam veteran and he used his experience to help train the actors in the film.  Matthews has some good moments aswell such as his first scene where he addresses the marines after they have woken from hypersleep "All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!".

And in the next scene as the marines sit down for their dinner, Hudson asks "Hey top, what's the op?" and Apone says "Its a rescue mission, you'll love it!  There are some juicy colonist daughters we have to rescue from their virginity!".  And later on after the marines debrief is over, Apone says to his crew "Alright sweethearts, you heard the man and you know the drill. Assholes and elbows!" and to an impertinent Hudson "Hudson, come here! Come HERE!!".  Then there is the moment where Ripley helps out the marines with their prep for the drop to the planet and she asks if there is anything she can do and Apone says "I don't know, is there anything you can do?".  And Ripley says she can operate a loader and Apone says "Be my guest" and as Ripley straps herself and expertly operates the loader and picks up a crate she says "Where do you want it?" and Apone simply laughs and says "Bay twelve, please!".  

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

Finally moving onto the director, James Cameron does a superb job here especially given the daunting task he had in following up the classic original.  Cameron not only handles the film's tense action scenes very well he also brilliantly builds up the tension toward the first alien attack and after that you are left with an unnvering sense of dread before the next one.  Cameron's screenplay for the film is also very well written and is filled with witty dialogue (as extensively already mentioned above!).

Cameron also being American and somewhat inexperienced as a film maker had a hard time working with the British production crew during filming (as it was filmed at Pinewood studios and the cooling station scenes were filmed at the disused Acton power station in London) and production was also slowed down at times due to the British working hours.  Cameron also had an altercation with the film's original choice of cinemaphotographer, Dick Bush, whom he fired and replaced with Adrian Biddle (who's photography is excellent here).  However I think its safe to say that Cameron managed to rise above all that here with the outcome of his work.

As for the music, the film features an excellent score by James Horner and it is easily one of his very best scores as it very suspenseful and atmospheric and the title theme is also quite memorable and it sets the tone for the film perfectly during the tense opening credits.  Horner however during post production of the film felt that there wasn't enough time for him to create the score he wanted for the film and he too had a tense time with Cameron and afterward said he would never work with him again, although they would eventually work again together on Titanic.  Horner however did receive an Academy Award nomination for the score and rightly so as it really is very memorable and over the years has been used for alot of other film trailers, which shows its popularity and durability over time.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

OK so while Aliens is an excellent film it has to be asked: does it have any flaws???  Well yeah it still has one or two.

And for starters I would have to say that while the theatrical cut is just about the perfect length, the director's cut is just a bit too long and I felt it includes some scenes that felt a bit unecessary.

And as an example of this are scenes such as Hudson and Vasquez checking the empty rooms of the colonists quarters detecting a life sign, which turns out to be just a rat.  Then there are the scenes where Hicks sets up the armed sentry droids to shoot any aliens that might approach, which does have a suspenseful moment near the end but it still does feel a bit superflous.  Not to mention the scene where Newt's family discover the alien ship which features some pretty cheesy acting from the actors playing Newt's parents, particularly the father.  And in the scene when they find the ship the father says "Folks we have scored big this time!".  Its more like a line that deserves to be in M Night Shyamalan movie!  The scene itself however still has a good payoff as we see the father has a facehugger on his face as the mother makes it back with him and Newt screams as she sees him. 

You could also argue that while it is a well written film it still does have some cheesy bits of dialogue that feature either in the director's cut or theatrical one.  And as an example there is the moment where Ripley tries to reassure Newt who is afraid to sleep, that her doll, Casey doesn't have bad dreams and Newt says "Ripley, she doesn't have bad dreams because she's just a piece of plastic".  Yeahhh OK!  Then there is of course the one where Hudson in the director's cut tries to reassure Ripley during the drop ship flight that "Me and my squad of badasses will protect you!".  Agghhh shut up, Hudson!   
   
As for what I see as the biggest issue in the plot the one thing I have to say that stands out the most is why on Earth (or LV-426 more like!) would anyone want to live on a barren shithole such as LV-426 in the first place???!  I mean its hardly the prettiest of planets is it???!!  Brutal winds, lovely atmosphere, scenic barren wastelands, yep, families want to live there for alright!!  You could argue that its all about pioneering and branching out by living on other worlds, but they could at least find somewhere better to live than that!!  Perhaps there were already colonists living on other worlds and this lot got the short end of the stick!  Either way it just seems daft that anyone would want to live there anyway whether they were aware of the aliens or not!

Another issue in the plot for me is also of course to do with the film's climax (SPOILER COMING UP!!!) where Ripley has her confrontation with the alien queen and as their fight leads into the alien queen grabbing the powerloader Ripley is in and bringing it crashing down into the airlock.  And in the scene Ripley opens the airlock to the brutal gusting winds of the vaccum of space where the alien soon loses her grip on Ripley's foot and flies into space, yet during this Ripley is able to hold onto the rung of the airlock ladder locking her arm around it and to top that off climb her way back up into the ship!!  Now that has to be utter bullshit as surely there is now way she would be able to withstand the forces of the hard vaccum of space (again the Youtube comedy channel, How it should have ended parodied this scene where Ripley's arm breaks off and she falls into space along with Newt and Bishop).

Although this one is debatable given that the real effects of the vaccum of space are hard to predict given that there are solar winds in space that would presumably cause powerful winds, other than that would space have no wind at all??  If so then opening the airlock wouldn't cause anything at all if it were calm in space but its not something I know much about so I couldn't give an answer either way really.  But let's not get too carried away with that one as it is just a film after all. 

I also felt the film really was overdoing the product placement a little bit too much for Reebok as we see more than one Ripley's trainers are clearly a pair of Reebok's.  We see this in two scenes, first where she operates the powerloader and later when she goes back to find Newt in the Alien queen's lair.  You would think that perhaps they should have found a way to disguise the label or just perhaps Cameron thought that Reebok would be the surviving footwear maufacturer for the ages!

Another thing that strikes me as being a bit daft in the film is how the aliens know how to single Ripley as their main threat, its almost like the Daleks singling out the Doctor!  And this is clearly the case when one of the aliens captures Newt and takes her to the alien queen lair, leaving Ripley to deduce that she is still alive, so she goes off to rescue her and end up confronting the queen.  Perhaps the aliens have some kind of psychic link to people and know who's a serious threat or not and they look at Ripley and bingo!  Yep she's our mortal enemy!  

And last of all is why didn't the company assign some crew to man the APC after the drop ship makes its way down to LV-426??!!  I mean that could have saved them a fair bit of trouble as they could have got in touch with them in case something bad happened on the planet surface, which of course it sure did!  But perhaps they backs up the whole idea that the company simply didn't give a crap about Ripley or the marines, so they didn't want to waste any further man (or woman) power.   
  
So that's it for the flaws

SUM UP

So to sum up, Aliens is still an excellent, tense and gripping sequel to the original film which is well worth seeing and checking out after 31 years.  The performances are excellent, the visual effects are also very impressive given its modest budget and Cameron expertly directs the film and does a great job at cranking up the suspense as it goes on.

So that's it for now and I shall return soon with a new post, which might possibly be a review of the first story from the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who, Castrovalva. 

So till the next one its bye for now.