Pete Messum Reviews...

Flashback to 2018. Doctor Who had undergone its biggest creative shift since 2010, with a new showrunner, new Doctor and a new stylistic approach. The first few episodes of Series 11 had been a really mixed bag, but now we were at the mid-point - the episode that needed to cement this new direction for the show. Unfortunately, ' The Tsuranga Conundrum ' wasn't quite "it", instead feeling a bit cobbled-together and uncertain, and by the end of its fifty-minute-running-time, the overall fan reaction was pretty negative. Revisiting ' The Tsuranga Conundrum ' almost two years later, it's easy to see why this episode failed to engage the Doctor Who fan base. It's an incredibly wordy episode, with frequent exposition dumps raced through at such a pace that it's difficult not to get dialogue whiplash. The episode clearly wants to start-off at a good pace, but sadly - whether it be a symptom of editing or  Jennifer Perrott 's direction - it n

After nine weeks, ten episodes and eight stories, Doctor Who : Series 12 comes to a close in ' The Timeless Children '. With the promise of the unveiling of the Timeless Child mystery; an attack from an army of Cyber Warriors; and a big confrontation between the Doctor and the Master, can writer/showrunner Chris Chibnall provide the series with a satisfying conclusion? Um, no. But he did come close. So after all of the build-up with "the lone Cyberman" and Ashad's foreboding comments about a sinister plan for the universe, it turns out that he's got a macguffin in his chest that can destroy all organic life and allow the Cybermen to become robots. Also, he mentions that the Cyber Warriors are robots, which instantly makes them 85% less cool. I get that the Cybermen have always been about upgrading themselves, but upgrading themselves to just become robots? That's the same Cybermen = robots issue that ' Nightmare in Silver ' fell into. What m

So here we are with the first part of the Doctor Who Series 12 finale, ' Ascension of the Cybermen ', which for no reason at all doesn't feature a "...Part One" in the title, which seems a bit odd after the opener ' Spyfall ', but oh well. Despite what the title may suggest, this isn't a standalone episode, and like a good few episodes of Series 12, feels like set-up with no pay-off whatsoever, meaning that I am once again trapped on the edge of my seat wondering if Chris Chibnall really can stick the landing with so many dangling plot-threads. ' Ascension of the Cybermen ' starts off with the Doctor ( Jodie Whittaker ), Graham ( Bradley Walsh ), Yaz ( Mandip Gill ) and Ryan ( Tosin Cole ) attempting to defend the last seven humans that side of the universe from a Cyberman attack. I say attempting because they are quickly defeated by flying Cyberman heads that looked so utterly ridiculous that all sense of tension vanished immediately. Se

' The Haunting of Villa Diodati ' is one of the few Doctor Who historical stories I've actually been able to look forward to recently. Having studied ' Frankenstein ' at A Level, I did a lot of research into the development of Mary Shelley's iconic novel, and her time at Villa Diodati on one rainy summer with Lord Byron ( Jacob Collins-Levy ), John Polidori ( Maxim Baldry ), her stepsister Claire Claremont ( Nadia Parkes ) and and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley ( Lewis Rainer ) is quite an interesting one. ' Frankenstein ' was inspired by new experiments with electricity, and as the group were challenged by Lord Byron to come up a spine-chilling ghost story, Mary ( Lili Miller ) ended up writing ' Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus ' in answer. Polidori, meanwhile, wrote ' The Vampyre ', a novella that pre-dated ' Dracula ' with a Byron-inspired vampire antagonist. ' The Haunting of Villa Diodati ' opts to streamline

What are you afraid of? And afraid to talk about? What everyday things seep into your nightmares? Charlene James ' ' Can You Hear Me? ' sets out to discuss these questions in an eerie, emotional eighth episode to Doctor Who 's twelfth series, co-written by showrunner Chris Chibnall . It's an episode with a tough balancing act, and I do think that ' Can You Hear Me? ' suffers from the three-companion issue the series currently has, but it does manage to recover from this much better than previous episodes. Ryan (Tosin Cole), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Graham (Bradley Walsh) all feel like fully-rounded characters here, each with their own stories to tell, each with their own friends, (real) lives and concerns. Ryan's afraid of not being there for his friends when they need him, especially his best friend Tibo ( Buom Tihngang , reprising the character from ' Spyfall ' Part One). Yaz is worried about leaving her sister Sonya ( Bhavnisha Parmar ) behi

' Praxeus ' is a rather unfortunately placed episode in Doctor Who : Series 12. After the surprising twists and turns in last week's ' Fugitive of the Judoon ', with a cliffhanger ending leading into this episode and a co-writer credit to series showrunner Chris Chibnall , I (and I suspect many other fans) went into ' Praxeus ' expecting a direct continuation that would further the series arc in a new and interesting way, whereas what we actually got was a run-of-the-mill, monster-of-the-week episode in a slot that really needed something more interesting and "important" to the series. This all contributes to my general indifference towards ' Praxeus ' as an episode; it simply did nothing to really maintain my investment, and instead I found myself waiting patiently for some indication of where the series would actually be going next in terms of the big arc plot. It also doesn't help that ' Praxeus '' themes of plastic w

I've been waiting to see what big, mad idea Chris Chibnall has for his Doctor Who for a while now - essentially since a "five year plan" was teased back in 2017 - and whilst ' Spyfall ' earlier this season teased a new status quo for the Doctor, ' Fugitive of the Judoon ' comes along as a big mid-season shake-up that the show desperately needed, and something that the Who fan-base definitely needed. But despite being possibly the best thing to happen to the show for a long time, ' Fugitive ' is also quite possibly the worst thing to happen to Doctor Who for all of the same reasons. The episode was teased as a fun monster-of-the-week episode featuring the return of the Judoon (voiced by Nicholas Briggs , first seen in Series 3's ' Smith and Jones '), who were hunting a mysterious fugitive character ( Neil Stuke ), except then it turns out that he's not the real fugitive, and that his wife Ruth ( Jo Martin ) is. The Doctor and

After last week's disastrous ' Orphan 55 ', Doctor Who returns to form this week with ' Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror ', and with a name like that, you can expect some historically inaccurate pulpy sci-fi fun, which the episode provides in spades. In fact, the word "fun" is the best adjective for this episode, as it manages to tackle a rather by-the-numbers alien story with a lovely history lesson on Nikola Tesla ( Goran Visnijic ), courtesy of the Doctor ( Jodie Whittaker ) fan-girling out throughout the episode. ' Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror ' put me in mind of stories like ' The Unquiet Dead ' or ' The Unicorn and the Wasp ', in which the Doctor meets a prominent historical figure, gushes about them for ages and then teams up with them to fight a surprisingly appropriate alien menace. I didn't realise how much I'd missed these kinds of episodes, and whilst I appreciated the more mature ' Rosa ' and

Series 11's penultimate episode ' It Takes You Away ' was a bit of a controversial one with Doctor Who fans. Some loved it, some hated it, but personally I found the episode to be a bit of a missed opportunity, trying to develop an hour-or-so's worth of story in only fifty minutes. ' It Takes You Away ' could have easily been a two-parter and been all the better for it, but Ed Hime 's script was filled with great concepts, strong emotions and a talking frog, so I thought it was "good, but could have been great". I mention this because ' Orphan 55 ', Ed Hime's second Doctor Who episode, and the third of Series 12, is an absolute mess of an episode. Believe me when I say that ' Orphan 55 ' is a strong story, but is completely wasted in this fifty-minute format. The plot is so unbelievably rushed, the characters are so underdeveloped, the big sci-fi ideas feel half-baked, the editing is absolutely atrocious in terms of pace

A lot's been said about how Titans ' first season finale was re-worked into a second season opener. There's been brief behind the scenes clips, a few screenshots and lots of fan speculation about what was supposed to happen, but unless Warner Bros or DC Universe go insane and release the original episode, ' Trigon ' is what we've ended up with. Putting the context of its production aside, ' Trigon ' is a bit of a rubbish episode of Titans, attempting to be a season finale and a season opener but without dedicating enough time to the former to allow the latter to actually mean anything. So the episode opens moments after the events of Season 1's finale ' Dick Grayson ', with Dick ( Brenton Thwaites ) having succumbed to his inner darkness under the influence of Trigon ( Seamus Dever ) to the horror of Rachel/Raven ( Teagan Croft ) and Gar/Beast Boy ( Ryan Potter ). It was a great cliffhanger ending, and the episode starts out fairly well w

It's April 1917, and Lance Corporal Tom Blake ( Dean-Charles Chapman ) Lance Corporal Will Schofield ( George MacKay ) are sent on a mission by their commanding officer General Erinmore ( Colin Firth ) to prevent an attack on the German forces by the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, as what at first seemed to be the enemy on the run seems to be the enemy laying a trap. The two Lance Corporals have only a matter of hours to get across the trenches, over enemy lines and all the way to where the 2nd Battalion are posted before a massacre ensues. In fact, it'd take about two hours, as 1917 plays out (almost) in real-time. Right from the off, director Sam Mendes and his cinematographer Roger Deakins endeavour to tell the whole story of 1917 in what appears to be one, continuous shot. There are of course a number of hidden edits throughout the film, and there's a very obvious cut at a crucial moment, but nevertheless the film sticks to this format, and works all the

Wow . After what I found to be a bit of a slow-burn opening episode, Doctor Who : Series 12 kicks into gear in week two, with the second part of ' Spyfall '   - an episode that not only concludes the story in a satisfactory way but also ends on such a somber, ominous note that I can't help but feel very excited to see what showrunner Chris Chibnall and the rest of the team have in store for us over the coming weeks. But first: the negatives. There's a number of elements in ' Spyfall: Part Two ' that, be it for reasons that will become clear later or not, didn't make much sense. In Part One , Daniel Barton ( Lenny Henry ) was set up as being 93% human, and this episode explains that the other 7% of him is Kasaavin energy. But what was the energy doing to him, or for him, exactly? Why was he working with the Kasaavin  in the first place? What motivates him to want to annihilate all of humanity? Yeah, Lenny Henry is really menacing in the part, but his c

Yesterday, 3rd January 2020, marked 50 years since the broadcast of Doctor Who: Spearhead From Space - Episode One, which marked not only the start of Who's seventh season, but also the debut of the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee . It's a fondly-remembered classic serial from the series, and is one I first saw many years ago as an omnibus on VHS. I've since owned a free DVD courtesy of The Sun, the novelisation from Terrance Dicks ( Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion ), the special edition DVD and more recently the remastered Blu-ray release. I've seen Spearhead more times than I can count, but I particularly enjoyed revisiting it for its 50th anniversary, watching Episode One late last night, and the other three this morning. I know the plot beat-for-beat, and some shots are ingrained into my memory - although the Doctor being attacked by the Nestene Consciousness didn't look quite as scary as I remember it looking when I first saw it around fifteen years ago. Spea

After yet another 365-day hiatus, Doctor Who is back on our screens for the new year, with a brand-new series of adventures. Kicking things off with ' Spyfall: Part One ' (our first two-part story since 2017's series finale), the series aims to kick the stakes up a notch, and get audiences excited for the next several adventures in time and space. And, in many respects, ' Spyfall: Part One ' succeeds. It nicely reintroduces the ensemble cast, it sets up an intriguing and original premise, it's a big-scale globe-trotting adventure, and it features a great twist and cliffhanger ending. However, despite the episode theoretically succeeding on all fronts, it mostly fell a bit flat for me. I was excited to see an extended episode to open the new series, by considering how little plot is developed over the course of ' Spyfall: Part One ', I'm not sure if the extra 10-15 minutes really added anything to the episode. Writer Chris Chibnall sets up so ma

US Poster for Jojo Rabbit. © Fox Searchlight There is certainly an interesting, complex and thoughtful discussion to be had regarding the portrayal of Nazis, the Second World War, and other real-life horrors in a humorous context. There is, however, also the superb comic talents of particular filmmakers bringing to the screen brilliant mockeries of the Nazis, whether it be the spoof 'Springtime for Hitler' stage show in Mel Brooks' The Producers , or in this case, Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit - in which Waititi plays Adolf Hitler. Because of course he does. Based upon the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, Jojo Rabbit follows Jojo ( Roman Griffin Davis ), a 10-year-old in 1945 Germany. Like many children his age, Jojo is part of the Hitler Youth, run by Captain Klenzendorf ( Sam Rockwell ), and is caught up in the Nazi propaganda, ideologies and naivete. He can't understand why his mother ( Scarlett Johansson ) doesn't love Hitler as much as he doe