Table of contents for October 2020 in SFX

LET’S BE HONEST: THE JURASSIC Park universe has never been kind to kids. From Tim and Lex in the very first film to Maisie Lockwood in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, not one of them has had an easy time with the cloned and genetically modified dinosaurs. If you know that, then you can anticipate exactly the kind of wild ride coming in DreamWorks’ new computer-animated series for Netflix, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. It’s the first television series set inside the canon of the film world. And while it’s geared towards kids and tweens, they better be the kind who can handle their scares. Why? Because Steven Spielberg says so. “When I came aboard, I was told that when DreamWorks pitched the idea to Steven, his only comment was basically, ‘Don’t…

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WHAT MAKES A GOOD PARENT? Is it showing your children love, care and attention? Patiently and kindly explaining the world to them and preparing them for the future? Dedication to their well-being? Or is it the ability to atomise potential threats with a single glance from your weaponised eyes? Parenthood is at the heart of Raised By Wolves, the new HBO Max show from executive producers Aaron Guzikowski and Ridley Scott – yes, that Ridley Scott. Set several hundred years in the future, in the aftermath of a devastating holy war that has ravaged Earth, it follows two androids, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), as they try to raise a family of human children on the perilous planet Kepler-22b. HOLY CALAMITY Although the majority of the series’ action…

I spend my life being cripplingly terrified of ghosts, and the dark, and being alone,” confesses Neil Cross, on the line from New Zealand, safe in daylight while SFX burns the bulbs against a British night. “When I was 25, that was winsome and interesting to say. Now I’m 51, it’s just weird! Darkness to me is like turbulence for a nervous flyer. It’s a deeply unpleasant experience that I’ve never accommodated myself to.” It’s a surprising admission, and not just for a 50-something. As a TV screenwriter Cross has mapped his fair share of darkness, most memorably across five seasons of urban crime drama Luther. But while Idris Elba’s tenacious DCI confronted psychological shadows, the sunless mazes of the human mind, new ITV drama The Sister tells us that…

RELEASED 23 SEPTEMBER TBC | TBC Director Dean Parisot Cast Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Samara Weaving It had to fall somewhere between bogus and excellent, and this belated threequel turns out to be Bill & Ted’s Perfectly Decent Adventure. The good news is that Wyld Stallyns’ reunion doesn’t come over as a cynical tour through the band’s greatest hits. Unfortunately though, Face The Music doesn’t feel particularly essential either. The last three decades haven’t been kind to Bill S Preston, Esq and Ted “Theodore” Logan. Superficially they’re happy enough – they don’t know how to be anything else – but their wives are becoming increasingly disillusioned. Meanwhile, the failure to write “the song” destined to bring peace and harmony to the universe is weighing heavy on them. This…

UK/US Netflix, streaming now Showrunner FJ DeSanto Cast Jake Foushee, Jason Marnocha, Joe Zieja, Georgia Reed EPISODES 1.01-1.06 “Cybertron needs freedom,” Optimus Prime says early on in this excellent animated series. “Cybertron needs strength,” Megatron replies. “My strength.” It’s perhaps the purest distillation of the central conflict driving Transformers – making it superior to anything in Michael Bay’s five movies. But let’s not speak of those. Especially when Blade Runner – referenced when Ultra Magnus mentions the Tannhäuser Gate – is a more fitting comparison, with its tireless dedication to worldbuilding and synth theme. Plot-wise, War For Cybertron’s title is as descriptive as you’d expect from a franchise where the villains are called Decepticons. There’s a war, and it’s happening on Cybertron. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are weak…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 12 | Blu-ray/DVD/download Director Chris Palmer Cast Darren Criss, Zachary Quinto, Alexandra Daddario, Ryan Hurst Titled after the Man of Steel’s lesser-used sobriquet, The Man Of Tomorrow actually rewinds to yesterday, recounting a formative adventure for Supes. Thankfully, this latest DC Animated Movie isn’t just another rehashed origin story. The familiar rocketship-to-Kansas creation myth is background narrative, allowing Clark Kent – a Daily Planet intern – to discover his alien roots as the tale unfolds. Cosmic biker-bro Lobo and the shapeshifting Martian Manhunter help him carve out a place on his adopted homeworld while taking down the Parasite, a city-stomping menace of Cloverfield proportions. The plain, anime-influenced animation is efficient rather than remarkable: it moves but it doesn’t dazzle. You feel the constraints of…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | DVD/download Remember the genetically enhanced super-intelligent sharks who escaped at the end of Deep Blue Sea 2? No? Never mind: they’re back. The third in this sharksploitation series is more or less a standalone action movie, with plenty of mad science, sexy mercenaries and the obligatory sudden shark attacks. It’s all very ’90s, right down to the ropey CGI, but the production design is stunning and the underlying message about climate change feels entirely righteous. + Extras Two five-minute Making Ofs.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | PG | VOD Tabletop gaming is enormous again, with hits like Catan and Pandemic becoming household names. This doc tells four indie creators’ stories, from the wildfire success of Exploding Kittens to the struggles of Thug Life. It meanders, visiting conventions and awards, but there are big-name talking heads too, and it doesn’t shy from issues like diversity. Art and finance are centre-stage. There’s less about history or game mechanics. But if you’ve ever fantasised about designing a game, there’s inspiration here.…

EXTRAS RELEASED 14 SEPTEMBER 2019 | 15 | Blu-ray Director Miguel Llansó Cast Daniel Tadesse, Gerda-Annette Allikas, Agustín Mateo, Solomon Tashe Miguel Llansó’s second feature is a gloriously deranged reimagining of low-budget action films and cyberpunk thrillers. Daniel Tadesse is CIA agent Gagano, dispatched into VR to take out a malicious computer virus. When his body is harmed, Gagano finds himself lost in a dizzying maze of virtual worlds. You can watch Jesus… purely for its Garth Marenghi touches – its playful use of stock footage, jarring cuts and dodgy dubbing (Stalin inexplicably has a Northern Irish accent) – but there’s also a sharp satirical edge to the film’s subversion of pop culture icons. Llansó’s handmade absurdism is hilarious and strikingly original. + Extras Disc one presents a very solid…

EXTRAS THE FIFTH ELEMENT 1997 | 12 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD/download Director Luc Besson Cast Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm Bruce Willis can play vest-sporting action heroes in his sleep, but even Die Hard’s John McClane would have his work cut out saving the whole of existence. That’s the mission facing 23rd-century cabbie Korben Dallas, however, as the ex-special forces soldier is dragged on an unlikely quest to defeat a seething, planet-sized ball of evil. You could say that people don’t make movies like The Fifth Element any more, but then nobody was making them beforehand either. This is a one-of-a-kind mish-mash of cartoonish aliens, crazy mythology and impressive visuals that somehow come together to form a semicoherent whole. It barely matters that the plot – about the…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Sophie Mackintosh Publisher Hamish Hamilton Literary fiction takes on genre tropes can be Marmite affairs. For some readers, it’s refreshing to see familiar ideas tackled with different priorities: characterisation, say, over plot. For others, fancy prose is all very well, but no substitute for a story that makes actual sense. Ordinarily, this reviewer falls into the former camp. Not, alas, with Blue Ticket. Mackintosh’s follow-up to her Booker-nominated The Water Cure deals with gender and choice in a dystopian society. On reaching puberty, girls’ futures are determined by a lottery. Those who receive white tickets will become mothers; blue-ticket recipients, by contrast, are permitted to become anything except mothers. The novel follows one such unhappy blue ticket, Calla, as she goes on…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 384 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Sarah Pinsker Publisher Head Of Zeus The winner of this year’s Nebula Award for Best Novel is published in the UK at an eerily apposite time. A Song For A New Day follows Luce Cannon, a singer, whose music is finally gaining major recognition when a wave of terrorist attacks and a viral pandemic cause live music to grind to a halt. Several years later and now involved in the underground gigging scene, Luce meets Rosemary, a naive young woman working for VR gig giant StageHoloLive. Luce opens Rosemary’s eyes to a world she had no idea existed, but will they save or destroy each other? It’s refreshing to see a novel focus on the (very real) problems facing musicians in the…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 336 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Terry Pratchett Publisher Doubleday Childrens This book collects the last previously unavailable fiction by Sir Terry Pratchett. He had been working on novels and an autobiography before he died in 2015, but those unfinished works were posthumously destroyed at his request. Instead, this collection of 17 stories for children returns to the start of his career when, as a 17-year-old, he was published in the Bucks Free Press and the Western Daily Press. Many of the tales here are set in Blackbury, the author’s fictional English everytown, where he would later situate the Johnny Maxwell trilogy. Here the Pied Piper might come and steal the duplicitous councillors away (“The Pied Piper Of Blackbury”), a lonely and obsolete computer might end up playing…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 239 pages | Hardback Author JW Rinzler Publisher Titan Books Aliens was a war movie in more ways in one, with the unstoppable force of a perfectionist James Cameron colliding with the immovable object of a British crew, used to their tea breaks and resentful of this “upstart Yank” who had dared to usurp Ridley Scott. It eventually came to a head with them all threatening to walk. JW Rinzler documents this simmering conflict with the same mind-bogglingly comprehensive detail he brought to previous coffee table epics on Alien, Planet Of The Apes and Star Wars. It’s clear he’s scoured every surviving call sheet and memo. Though Cameron and Weaver aren’t among the 14 interviewees, they’re adequately represented via old quotes. Fans are sure to glean new…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher DC Comics Writer Scott Snyder Artist Greg Capullo ISSUES 1-3 Remember the 2015 comic event Secret Wars, where the Marvel universe was transformed into a fantasy kingdom? DC must be hoping you don’t, because its latest seven-issue event comic is basically a shameless Secret Wars rip-off with a more heavy metal aesthetic, and a narrative approach that cranks everything up to 11. The basic story of Dark Nights: Death Metal is that the DCU has been remixed by the evil Batman Who Laughs into a magical hellscape, and now Wonder Woman has to find a way to defeat him – but three issues in, the plot is so buried in convoluted “Dark Multiverse” lore and so dependent on having read dozens of other comics that it’s…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Titan Comics Writer Lavie Tidhar Artist Paul McCaffrey ISSUES 1-3 Bringing to mind a “League Of Extraordinary Gentlewomen”, Adler’s cast of classic, mostly Victorian characters means it explores a well-worn furrow, but Lavie Tidhar brings enough verve and invention to this five-parter to make it stand out from the likes of Penny Dreadful. And not just by making the main protagonists female, as Charlotte Bronte surely would never have imagined that Jane Eyre would later become a nurse in the Boer War, let alone the Watson to Irene Adler’s Holmes in a partnership which owes more to Sherlock than Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels. Tidhar doesn’t make his literary nods too obvious, so much of the fun is in spotting the various homages that not only include…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 42 minutes | Vinyl/CD/script book Publisher CutAwayComics AUDIO DRAMA Originally a stage play, then a download, this Douglas Adams drama is now available in physical formats – including a 200-run LP signed by writer Mark Griffiths. It centres on a notorious incident in the author’s life, when his editor stuck him in a hotel suite until he’d finished writing the fourth Hitchhiker’s book So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish. As the procrastinating Adams (Adam Gardiner) takes one of his infamous long baths, he verbally fences with a rubber duck (presumably representing an aspect of his psyche). It’s an idea with potential, and there are similar examples: like Heathcote Williams’s Hancock’s Last Half Hour, which sees the depressed Tony Hancock looking back on his life shortly…

GAMERS HAVE A TENDENCY TO know absolutely everything about their gaming obsessions. There are certain universals, like knowing the basic timeline of Spacewar! to Atari to Nintendo to PlayStation and beyond, but what about the stories behind the big titles and consoles? Now two female gamers/filmmakers, Melissa Wood and France Costrel, have unlocked for audiences some real characters in the videogame industry whom you may have never known about. In High Score, their six-part documentary series, they showcase an astounding array of creators and innovators, both known and unknown, who have had a lasting impact on the gaming landscape. “We’ve always looked at games like a universal language for everybody around the world to relate to,” director Costrel tells Red Alert. “And when you play a game, it doesn’t matter…

AFTER THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR’S solo outing last year, Rebellion is once again bringing classic IPC horror weeklies Misty and Scream! together for a third anthology of spine-chilling strips. While Kek-W and Simon Coleby reunite on Thunder’s vampiric World War One flying ace Black Max, and Alec Worley and DaNi continue the fantastical adventures of Black Beth, Cavan Scott and Vincenzo Riccardi take charge of the Prince of Darkness’s excursions in modern-day Britain in The Dracula File. “Cavan pitched a really intriguing story that reintroduces an old character from the original strip,” editor Keith Richardson tells Red Alert. “It’s bloody and brutal, with a fantastic twist, and I wanted Vincenzo’s art to show that off and really get in your face. With Black Max, we wrap up the first story arc…

SIXTEEN YEARS HAVE PASSED since Susanna Clarke’s multi-million-selling debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Now she’s back with a new novel, Piranesi, set in a desolate labyrinth called the House, adjacent to our own world, which contains thousands of rooms (and an ocean!), and is filled with statues. It centres on the eponymous solitary researcher, who wanders its corridors, recording his findings in his journal. Clarke tells us about her inspirations. We gather CS Lewis’s Narnia book The Magician’s Nephew was an influence…? There are two worlds in that book which have strong connections to Piranesi’s reality. One of the worlds the children visit is a very old, dying world called Charn. They spend a long time wandering through the courtyards and halls of a deserted, ruinous palace. Lewis meant…

GUN FRAMES That’s a super-early mock-up of the Federation’s phaser rifle, for me to see how the ergonomics were working out. That’s just the raw frame of the gun, essentially. It doesn’t have the main barrel there, or the scope put on yet. This was the black market Romulan disruptor that Laris and Zhaban have stowed inside of the château. As the Romulan weaponry evolved, I was building it for this military faction that’s on the Borg cube. The idea early on with the writers was that the Romulans are scattered across the galaxy in different factions, and so they’re just claiming whatever old stuff they have. So something that would have been like where it was maybe 15 or 20 years ago. So instead of Zhat Vash weaponry we…

UK/US Netflix, streaming now Creator Andrew Hinderaker Cast Hilary Swank, Josh Charles, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Vivian Wu, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir EPISODES 1.01-1.10 In the age of Chris Hadfield singing Bowie songs in space, NASA boasting 60 million followers on Instagram and Tim Peake seemingly never off our screens, a layman’s knowledge of what it really means to be an astronaut is probably at its, er, peak. Which is why, when you watch Netflix’s new space drama Away, it’s hard not to notice all the glaring mistakes. Shocking, really, when you consider the entire series was prompted by a thoughtful, science-filled article in Esquire in 2014 about how tough mankind’s journey to Mars will be, once we finally get around to it. The biggest error in Away lies in expecting…

US HBO, from 14 September UK Sky Atlantic, from 15 September Creators Felix Barrett, Dennis Kelly Cast Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Paddy Considine, Emily Watson EPISODE 1.01 The destination of this Sky/HBO co-production seems blindingly obvious. Our hero (Jude Law’s grieving parent Sam) visits an island community, drawn in by concern for a girl – whom he finds hanging herself in the woods. The locals are true believers in their traditions. There’s a festival imminent, and mention of a dwindling crop (oysters). It’s even centred on a pub. Remind you of anything? All that’s missing is Britt Ekland’s arse. This first instalment sets up an agreeable slow-burn mystery, with Paddy Considine stealing the show as a suspiciously cheery publican. It’s a classy production – though all the out-of-focus extreme close-ups…

EXTRAS If LucasArts had ever made a Doctor Who adventure… RELEASED 14 SEPTEMBER Director Hugh David, Gary Russell, Luke Marcatili Cast Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Victor Maddern In terms of atmosphere, lost Patrick Troughton six-parter “Fury From The Deep” was clearly a success. This animated reconstruction amplifies the menace in some respects, but struggles to convey it in others – and also takes some liberties. Featuring the deeply sympatico TARDIS trio of the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria, the story tackles the then-topical subject of North Sea gas (the West Sole field, first to be developed, started production in 1967). A heartbeat pulse in the pipes, an abundance of sea foam and strange behaviour by control centre staff all lead back to sentient seaweed: but can the Doctor convince…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2000 | 12 | Blu-ray Director Andy Wilson Cast Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ian Richardson, John Sessions, Christopher Lee BLU-RAY DEBUT The cover blurb promises murders and seductions, but Game Of Thrones fans should be warned that this is an utterly different kind of fantasy. The beginning feels nearer to Alice In Wonderland, as we’re introduced to the denizens of the titular giant castle, most of whom seem deranged. The Alice character might be Steerpike, the power-hungry kitchen boy climbing (often literally) through Gormenghast’s high society – though Steerpike often plays mad as well, with Jonathan Rhys Myers seemingly channelling a young Rik Mayall. Based on the first two Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, this four-hour BBC series was a massively ambitious screen fantasy in 2000. The…

EXTRAS RELEASED 14 SEPTEMBER 2019 | 15 | DVD/download William Shatner and Jeri Ryan are the Trekkie-bait stars of this horror-actioner, from a screenplay by TNG’s Maurice Hurley. It’s a brash, often nonsensical slice of hokum, mixing spelunking, ancient Aztec curses and demons. Visually it punches above its budget, making effective use of real world cave locations, but even the joy of a flak-jacketed, near-90 Shatner blasting a demon in the head can’t save the muddled writing. + Extras None.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | SVOD Director Ninian Doff Cast Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben AMAZON PRIME Get Duked! arrives garlanded with gushy reviews, and with an audience award from the SXSW Film Festival under its belt, having wisely junked its original title of Boyz In The Wood as it “didn’t feel respectful” in the aftermath of John Singleton’s death and Black Lives Matter. Not that it made sense anyway – the entire film takes place in the Scottish Highlands, with barely a tree in sight. Happily, Ninian Doff’s debut feature lives up to the hype, delivering a film that has faint echoes of Attack The Block, Sightseers (indeed, Alice Lowe guest-stars) and Eden Lake, while at the same time being quite unlike anything else you’ve seen…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1982 | 15 | Blu-ray Director James Cameron Cast Tricia O’Neil, Lance Henriksen, Steve Marachuk, Ricky G Paull BLU-RAY DEBUT Aliens wasn’t James Cameron’s first shot at sequelising a beast-based ‘70s horror. He earned his stripes on this high-schlock encore to Joe Dante’s Piranha – though given that he was swiftly booted and replaced behind the camera by the film’s Italian producer, it’s debatable whether it truly counts as part of the King of the World’s oeuvre. It’s boilerplate exploitation fare: randy holidaymakers become fish-bait in paradise. Breasts are flashed, limbs are munched, marine life explodes. The weaponised piranha of the first movie are mutated still further, gaining the power to fly (it looks as goofy as you imagine). There are obligatory steals from Jaws and,…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | SVOD Director Jay Baruchel Cast Jesse Williams, Jordana Brewster, Jay Baruchel, Niamh Wilson SHUDDER You don’t generally expect a gory slasher flick to come pre-packaged with a ticking off about how they “legitimise violence and fetishise evil”. But Jay Baruchel employs just such cake-and-eat-it tactics here, with only partial success. The actor’s directorial debut – a pet project he spent eight years getting to the screen – adapts a 2010 graphic novel of the same name. It centres on Todd (Jesse Williams), a comic book artist keen to wrap up his creation Slasherman, a welding-mask-wearing serial killer based on a real-life ’80s murderer. Unfortunately for Todd, as he and his girlfriend take a research road trip through the killer’s home turf, it becomes clear that…

BEETLEJUICE (out now, 4K/Blu-ray), Tim Burton’s madcap early effort, sees a ghostly couple summoning “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse (a wired Michael Keaton) to scare off their home’s new owners. There’s little in the way of plot, and Keaton’s in it surprisingly little; the real stars of the show are the freaky production design and practical effects, which mash up German expressionism, Looney Tunes and goth. The Blu-ray extras are carried over: three episodes of the spin-off toon; a music-only track; trailer. An HMV-exclusive Cine Edition comes with a poster and patch. Whoop. We reviewed the surreally nightmarish Swedish/Danish film KOKO-DI KOKO-DA (out now, Blu-ray/VOD) in issue 325, when it was set for theatrical release, but Covid-19 put paid to that. It follows a bickering couple out camping, who are attacked by a…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 400 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Nydia Hetherington Publisher Quercus Glamour, danger and a seamy underside: circuses are made for stories. But while the title and cover of this debut novel might lead you to expect lots of the former, Nydia Hetherington’s main interest lies with the latter. At the prompting of a journalist, a famous former funambulist – say that five times fast – looks back over her difficult early life and rise to tightrope-walking glory. Seen through the pages of her childhood diaries, the circus is a place of neglect, cruelty, pungent animal smells and grubby sex, framed by parental myths and Manx folktales. Much of the novel revolves around the nameless narrator’s relationship with Serendipity, a surrogate mother-figure who recognises her talent for the tightrope,…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 292 pages | Hardback Author Jonathan Melville Publisher Polaris Publishing The fact that the Scottish climate isn’t always ideal for blockbuster filmmaking is hardly a revelation, but its inclusion says a lot about this thorough Highlander Making Of. While you can’t fault A Kind Of Magic’s attention to detail, the book never overcomes a significant obstacle: the fact that the behind-the-scenes story of the Immortal actioner simply isn’t that memorable. Sure, there were bumps along the way – a creative clash here, an unreasonable deadline there – but you’re left feeling that cast and crew generally rubbed along pretty well. It’s hardly Ben Hur. Jonathan Melville rounds up an impressive number of the key players – Sean Connery is the only significant absentee, not surprisingly – and…

RELEASED 10 SEPTEMBER 448 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Andrea Stewart Publisher Orbit Books Epic fantasy has long had a thing for One True Kings. You know the drill: a dreadful tyrant is murdering people for fun and generally imperilling the world, but it’ll be sunshine and kittens for everyone once the right dude is sitting on the throne. In recent years, though, some authors have had their characters dream a little bigger: how about instead of a different ruler, we try a different system? Here’s where Andrea Stewart’s debut, the first of a trilogy, comes in. Stewart’s layered worldbuilding – inspired by east Asia – produces a story in which the Big Bad isn’t simply an evil emperor, but the mechanisms by which the empire maintains its power. That these…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 656 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Authors George A Romero, Daniel Kraus Publisher Bantam Press You don’t need us to tell you how important George A Romero was when it comes to movie zombies. This novel, written in fits and starts by Romero and eventually completed posthumously by Daniel Kraus, feels like an attempt to tie a gory bow on the director’s legacy. An original tale (with scattered nods to the movies), it starts in the present day with the first corpse to come back to life, and ends decades in the future and a very different world. To convey the vast scope of their tale, Romero and Kraus take an anthology-style approach, dropping in on various characters as they deal with the dramatic changes unfolding around them. Because…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Millsverse Comics Writer Pat Mills Artist Various ISSUE 1 It’s 1977 all over again! At least, that’s likely what 2000 AD creator Pat Mills is hoping. This new all-ages sci-fi anthology (digital for now, with a print release to follow) feels like an attempt to recapture the anarchic brio of Britain’s most celebrated comic. The first issue (or “Phase”) features six strips and a linking narrative drawn by a variety of British comics artists, and all penned by Mills himself. That last point is Spacewarp’s biggest failing. Jurassic Punx (art by Bruno Stahl) finds two survivors taking on prehistoric monsters in the ruins of Liverpool. In Xecutioners (Gareth Sleightholme) an anti-alien taskforce take out infiltrating ETs. SF1 (Ade Hughes) is a future war tale. Slayer (James…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 192 minutes | CD/download Publisher Big Finish AUDIO DRAMA Following on from previous “retro Torchwood” audios, Torchwood Soho: Parasite heads back to visit another team in ’50s London – but don’t worry, this bunch are just as dysfunctional/heroic as ever. Torchwood agent Norton Folgate (a recurring character in the range) meets journalist Gideon Lyme, newly arrived from Tobago. A secret agent and a journalist probably aren’t the best combination, but this being Torchwood, professionalism will always come second to sexual tension. Someone is sending mysterious packages into England, and Folgate’s trying to discover who, while Lyme’s striving to uncover exactly what Torchwood is. Meanwhile, Lizbeth Hayhoe must have a bigger role to play – she’s voiced by Dervla Kirwan, after all. Oh, and there’s something hiding in…

DOOM PATROL IS GREAT! Rob Graham, email Titans and Doom Patrol are up among the all-time great superhero shows and Swamp Thing deserved a lot better than cancellation after just a few episodes. The only real problem is I’m getting bored with all the gritty reboots. Not every superhero needs one. It’s one of the reasons why I enjoy The Flash so much. So light and fun it feels refreshing. The Boys – which isn’t DC or Marvel – is another show I rate up among the all-time great superhero shows. It is very adult and gritty as well, but it works as a brilliant satire and these were original characters originally meant to be adult and gritty. While I am thoroughly enjoying both Titans and Doom Patrol I honestly think…

THERE’S A LOT MORE TO THE haunted house story of Relic than a smattering of sinister shadows, stifled sounds and an ever-growing sense of dread. Sure, there’s an ominous creak or two to be heard inside a crumbling country home – but first-time writer/director Natalie Erika James adds a multi-generational twist to the action, along with an insidious presence and a heartfelt theme of ageing and dementia. “This is a story about a family coping with someone who has dementia,” explains Emily Mortimer, who plays the lead role of Kay. “It’s about the ramifications, as well as the real-life horror, of dealing with an elderly relative who starts losing their grip on reality. “There’s no horror film that’s as scary as the horror of real life,” she adds. “Especially when…

DESCRIBED BY WRITER Evan Dorkin as “a kind of a side quest,” Dark Horse spin-off series Bill & Ted Are Doomed is both a prequel and a sequel, bridging the gap between 1991’s Bogus Journey and the recently released Face The Music. Set in the year 2000, it charts how their band Wyld Stallyns falls out of favour after embarking upon a disastrous world tour. “The year dovetailed with a specific event mentioned in the Face The Music script, which was a nice turn of events,” says Dorkin, who has teamed up with artist Roger Langridge. “You don’t have to read it to know the Bill and Ted story, but it fills in some gaps and explores the beginning of their slide into obscurity, as seen in Face The Music.”…

A RED LASER SLICES THROUGH THE mist as the familiar silhouette of Patrick Stewart walks towards the screen. But it’s not Captain Picard who addresses the assembled Enterprise bridge crew, it’s something altogether different. “I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance… is futile.” It’s 30 years since arguably the most iconic moment of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s entire run was aired. “The Best Of Both Worlds” broke new ground with the scope of its storytelling, effects and score, as well as the fact that it was Trek’s first season-spanning two-parter. All combined to ensure it has left a legacy not just in the Star Trek universe, but wider pop culture. Although The Next Generation was now three years into its run, it hadn’t all been plain sailing, with many fans…

TOFU STIR FRY, TWO CUPS OF broccoli, one cup brown rice. 0% yogurt, one grapefruit. Thirty baby carrots, 4 tsp hummus. No, this isn’t the preholiday diet from hell, but a typical day’s food for Emma Green, an astronaut played with trademark intensity by Hilary Swank in Netflix’s new 10episode drama series Away. At least, that’s what she eats when she’s earthbound. Up there, it’s a lot worse… SFX is having a nosey around Emma’s tasteful family home (actually an elaborate set in Vancouver), opening drawers to examine cutlery, and picking up and playing with space-themed ornaments. “Lex, money for pizza on fridge” is scrawled across a blackboard; naturally, we head to the fridge, where we find no money, but rather the meal plan in question, pinned under a family…

US HBO Max, Thursdays UK TBC Creator Aaron Guzikowski Cast Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Travis Fimmel, Winta McGrath EPISODES 1.01-1.03 HBO Max’s new SF series gives Ridley Scott the chance to explore his android obsession away from the confines of the Alien and Blade Runner universes. Scott’s not the showrunner – that’s Prisoners’ scriptwriter Aaron Guzikowski – but he produces it, directs two episodes, and his influence is keenly felt in the show’s ruminations on artificial life. Two atheist androids flee a religious war on Earth, taking a pod full of human embryos to Kepler-22b to start again. Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim) then try to raise a family, though only young Campion (Winta McGrath) survives on the perilous planet. When some humans arrive and try to forcibly…

UK/US Amazon Prime, streaming now Showrunner Eric Kripke Cast Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott EPISODES 1.01-1.08 When it comes to deconstructing the superhero genre, Watchmen may have grabbed all the Emmy nominations, but The Boys is a lot more anarchic, punky fun. Sure, watching a show plotted like a cryptic crossword can be intellectually stimulating, but sometimes satire works best when it’s punching you in the face. And The Boys season two is an even heavier hitter than its predecessor, taking broad swipes at fake news, Scientology, social media, institutionalised racism and pompous superhero movie franchises. It also boasts some glorious sucker punches, unexpected moments of gore that make “The Red Wedding” look like The Vicar Of Dibley. Season two’s main new element is an addition to…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | DVD/download Director André Øvredal Cast Nat Wolff, Iben Akerlie, Priyanka Bose, Per Frisch Here’s another Thor-ful tale to add to the other films/shows/books sparked by Chris Hemsworth’s iconic hammer-wielding. Shot among the Norwegian fjords for verisimilitude, Mortal nevertheless stars an American, Nat Wolff, who suddenly develops god-like electrical abilities and, X-Men-style, causes mayhem because he can’t control them. An angsty romance ensues as he bonds with a psychologist (Iben Akerlie) and goes on the run from the US authorities, who – weirdly – are allowed to chase him across Norway. The lightning effects are gorgeous, there’s a fabulous helicopter set-piece and Wolff commits to his agonised role with conviction, but through it all you can’t stop yelling at the screen: “When are…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | SVOD Directors Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman Cast Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, Machine Gun Kelly NETFLIX Pharmaceutical companies seem to be tied with multinational tech giants now as the go-to Big Bad for Hollywood actioners. In Project Power, Netflix’s latest sort-of-superhero effort, they’re behind a new drug that empowers humans with superhuman abilities for exactly five minutes. “Our goal is simple,” one of their honchos explains handily, “The next evolution of the human species.” There are two people on their case: Jamie Foxx’s Art, a tough-as-nails ex-military type searching for his kidnapped daughter, and Frank (a charismatic Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a New Orleans cop on a one-man mission to clean up his city. And despite their strident anti-drug rhetoric, they’re not immune from…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1965 | PG | Blu-ray BLU-RAY DEBUT Barely an incursion, let alone an invasion, this tale of alien contact is based on a story by future Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes, who recycled many of its tropes in Jon Pertwee’s debut “Spearhead From Space”. Shot like a foggy British murder mystery, far from the groovy heart of 1965, it’s an edgy, shadowy crawl of a movie, steeped in rocket age paranoia. The low-key creepiness is shattered by one outstanding shock moment. + Extras Trailer, gallery.…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1988 | 12 | Blu-ray/DVD Director Neil Jordan Cast Steve Guttenberg, Peter O’Toole, Daryl Hannah, Beverly D’Angelo BLU-RAY DEBUT Written and directed by Neil Jordan – who was soon to be acclaimed for his similarly Ireland-based classic The Crying Game – this is a wacky comedy desperately in need of some subtlety. Peter O’Toole shows up for the paycheque as the oft-drunk owner of a waning Irish estate who decides to raise funds by luring a gaggle of Americans with the fake promise of a haunted holiday. Naturally his castle’s real ghosts torment the guests instead, with a special shout-out going to the freaky, Jawa-like nuns and a fab cardboard squid. At the film’s heart is Steve Guttenberg, an actor in his pomp when this was…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | VOD Director Amy Seimetz Cast Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams, Kentucker Audley, Katie Aselton When the ultimate playlist of “Movies that sum up how much 2020 sucked” is drawn up, this existential fever-dream is a shoe-in. Though shot pre-Covid-19, it feels eerily like an expression of our collective unconscious now that awareness of mortality has been dialled-up across the globe. Funded by Amy Seimetz’s Pet Sematary earnings and featuring various of her actor friends, it centres on Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil), a young woman who realises – suddenly, and with absolute certainty – that she’s going to die the next day. Her best friend doesn’t take this seriously… until she has the same epiphany. Then her friends do. It’s anxiety as infection. Quite…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1985 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Richard Driscoll Cast Steve Monroe, Berderia Timini, Jeff Pirie, Vass Anderson BLU-RAY DEBUT Despite the title, there aren’t many laughs in this remastered curiosity. Part gritty social drama, part dystopian nightmare, The Comic’s meandering story follows wannabe comedian Sam Coex (Steve Munroe) as he murders his main rival and hooks up with a dancer (Berderia Timini), only to find success isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. Writer/director (plus producer, editor and production designer) Richard Driscoll rewrote the script partway through production after a disagreement with his original lead, which probably explains the film’s lack of coherence. It drifts in and out of dream sequences, never quite committing to any real place or time; half of the sets are…

RELEASED 15 SEPTEMBER 272 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Susanna Clarke Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing So vivid was the impression left by Susanna Clarke’s debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell that it’s a shock to be reminded it dates from 2004. Here was a book that, while clearly rooted in a deep appreciation of fantasy literature’s deepest currents, was like nothing else, a waking dream of an alternative history set in an exotic 19th century England where magic has been revived. If one did stop to think on why there hadn’t been a follow-up, a suspicion was that perhaps Clarke had Difficult Second Album jitters – and there have been hints of an abandoned novel. Less speculatively, in 2006 it was reported she was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. Clarke might have…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Lauren Beukes Publisher Michael Joseph It’s no surprise that the near-future dystopian novel has become a subgenre so popular that it practically demands its own section in bookstores. Even before Covid-19 hit, we were living through an era when the years ahead seemed unusually contingent, whether because of global heating, populism or economic insecurities. But the kind of subtlety and character development you find in, say, The Handmaid’s Tale is often less in evidence, with many of the more successful dystopian novels – The Hunger Games, Divergence – aimed primarily at YA readers, as if the genre is stuck in adolescence. Lauren Beukes’s Afterland reminds us that it doesn’t have to be that way, in part by focusing on a cross-generational relationship…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 656 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Bob Proehl Publisher Titan Books The mentor figure at the heart of The Nobody People goes by the name of Kevin Bishop, but you’re less likely to get him confused with the British comedian than you are with Professor X. That’s not to say the book is a mere X-Men rip-off, but the story has many dramatic beats that feel very familiar from Marvel’s mutant comics. When a former war journalist discovers that a secret society of people with special abilities is preparing to come out to the world, he’s employed to write stories that place them in a good light. But then guess what? There are plenty of normal humans who loathe and fear them. So what is it? Homage? It’s…

RELEASED 17 SEPTEMBER 304 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Michel Faber Publisher Doubleday Rejoice, anyone who had “Under The Skin author publishes children’s book” on their Unlikely Things To Happen In 2020 bingo card (right after “US President encourages people to inject bleach”). Yes, Michel Faber, who gave us the tale of aliens kidnapping Earth men to fatten them up for slaughter, has turned his hand to a whimsical adventure story – and the result is charming. In a small town on the south coast of the UK, 12-year-old Dhikilo wakes up one morning to find the letter “D” has disappeared. Suddenly, everyone’s calling her Hikilo, the road signs have all changed, and her English homework is full of new spelling mistakes. One visit to retired history teacher Professor Dodderfield later,…

RELEASED SEPTEMBER 344 pages | Hardback/paperback Author Paul Watts Publisher Miwk Publishing For a series that managed to grab itself a Radio Times cover in 1987, Star Cops was never as well treated by the BBC as it deserved to be. Just nine episodes were made of Chris Boucher’s groundbreaking SF crime drama, and yet here we are, 33 years later, reviewing an unofficial guide to this prematurely canned series. Author Paul Watts was, he tells us, “an impressionable 15-year-old when Star Cops was broadcast” and has never fallen out of love with it. This book is a unashamed lust letter to Watts’s favourite series, an immaculately researched tribute that burrows into every nook and cranny of not just the show’s nine televised episodes but also the unmade tenth (writer…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics Writer Jonathan Hickman Artist Mike Huddleston ISSUES 1-4 Going into a Jonathan Hickman comic, it’s safe to expect mind-melting concepts, a massive sense of scale, and lots of elaborate text pages. While all these are present in his new eight-issue miniseries Decorum, there’s also an engaging central plot that plays like a bonkers, female-centric SF remix of Mark Millar’s Kingsman. Set in a startlingly weird future, it’s the intergalactic tale of what happens when well-mannered contract killer Imogen Smith-Morley meets courier Neha Noori Sood and starts teaching her “the womanly art of assassination”. At the same time, potentially universe-shattering events are unfolding, and while these first four issues are in no hurry to tie these threads together, Hickman is clearly setting up some major…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Number of players: 2-7 Writers Grant Howitt & Chris Taylor Publisher Rebellion Unplugged RPG Rebellion has hit upon a neat idea for the first release from its new tabletop division. Adventure Presents is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game series in the form of a magazine. Each issue gives you everything you need to play out a standalone scenario over several sessions with a games master and up to six friends. Sure, it’s a bit tricky to socialise right now, but RPGs are much easier to play online than tabletop games. Issue one’s game, Tartarus Gate, is set hundreds of years in the future. Players take on the roles of crew members aboard a starship heading to the titular waystation. When they’re unexpectedly disturbed from suspended animation, they must…