Genre Character of the Week: Sam Tyler

Having recently watched Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel, I got into a Time-travel mood and realized that I had missed one of my favourite Time Travelling characters in Science Fiction. So this week we’ll be looking at Sam Tyler (pictured left) from the BBC Series, Life on Mars.

As a teen I thought a lot about time travel, whether backwards or forwards, the idea always intrigued me – I wondered how well I would do in such a situation and thought pretty highly of my own abilities. Unfortunately for Sam, he isn’t in any way prepared for the event when it occurs. A Police detective for the city of Manchester, Sam is hit by a car in 2006, then awakes in 1973 (when he would have been just under five years of age), and is as assumed to be a replacement detective in the same precinct and is given pretty much his original job.

The series plays with Sam’s attempts to understand his own situation, which he describes in the opening sequence as either dead, in a coma, or actually back in time. His search for a way home is the overall theme of the series, but each episode focuses on a standard police case, which Sam helps in solving.

What I love about the character is his ability to balance working with these old school officers while attempting to use modern police techniques which have no merit or precident in his new time. His character’s continued fish-out-of-water existence makes for some incredibly entertaining viewing, as his new co-workers are pretty crude by any standard.

If you’ve never given the show a try – give it a look. Just keep an eye out for the Test Card Girl, one of the images Sam keeps seeing over and over again and a strong contender on my list of creepiest girls in genre television.

Episode Review: Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife

Since I started reading Sandman comics in the '90s, I could then say that Neil Gaiman was one of my favourite authors, after years of books like American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book, I can honestly now say he's in my top three. Saturday night I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who and sat spellbound for an hour as I watched an episode written by Mr. Gaiman.

First of all, I don't want to give a lot of spoilers, so I'm going to have to limit myself on praise for the episode. Here goes:

1) This is probably my current favourite episode of the new season

2) The episode is full of nods to previous Doctors

3) The major idea behind the episode was such a great, simple idea, I can't believe I had never seen it in an episode before.

Honestly, if you're not currently watching Doctor Who, give it a shot - up here in Canada its on my local Science Fiction station, and I can honestly say it's probably the best currently airing SF show out there - also your kids will love it.

Things I've noticed: The Sheer Genius of Jeeves and Wooster

*sorry I didn't get this out earlier, apparently Blogger was down all day.

Last year at one of my two book clubs we were given the book Life with Jeeves, a collection of the majority of the early short stories of the Jeeves and Wooster cannon. Until this point I had never heard of either character, except perhaps Jeeves in terms of the search engine. From the first story forward I could not stop smiling, chuckling, and guffawing (and I am not the sort to use the “G” word loosely) as I moved through the 30 short stories and eleven novels that make up the series.

Written by English author P.G. Wodehouse between 1914 and 1974, the series chronicles the adventures of Betram (Bertie) Wilberforce Wooster, professional bachelor and his personal valet, Jeeves. What amazes me about these six decades worth of stories is their simplicity. Every story basically works as follows:

1) Bertie has recently acquired some sort of horrible fashion accessory (hat, boots, disturbing moustache, etc.), Jeeves does not approve

2) An acquaintance of Bertie (aunt, friend, random person off the street) shows up, assumes Bertie will help with some sort of plan to help them in their personal, financial, or romantic lives

3) Bertie attempts to help and makes everything worse

4) Things get even worse than previously described, often with Bertie becoming engaged to some sort of horrible woman who wants to “make something” of Bertie

5) Seeing how terrible Bertie has made things, Jeeves solves every problem, from the romantic to the political, often in a simple word given to the right person.

6) Completely grateful for Jeeves’ help, Bertie promises to remove/destroy the offending accessory he acquired in step one.

It is incredibly important to mention here that although the structure of each of these stories is almost identical, each one quickly moved up my personal list of funniest stuff I’ve ever read. These books had me laughing at dinner, work, and bus stops and in all honesty, also have me laughing right now while I’m blogging about them.

In addition to a great collection of short stories and novels, there was a television series that ran for four seasons in the ‘90s starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (pictured right), that quite perfectly capture the spirit and wit of the original work.

This series is quite simply, some of the funniest stuff I have ever read, and although I can’t consider it Horror, SF, or Fantasy, I still recommend it with the highest recommendation I have – the newly invented Bookmonkey Stamp of Approval (image forthcoming).

Genre Character of the Week: Owen

Last weekend I got in a copy of Let Me In from the public library, and as a big fan of both the original Swedish film and novel, I was interested to see how an American re-make would look. Short story – I was pleasantly surprised and pretty creeped out; Long story – let me introduce you to this week’s genre character, Owen.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, the story follows a twelve-year-old boy who meets, and falls in love with, a twelve-year-old vampire. Think of it like Twilight, but focusing instead on two younger children (although the vampire is much older than she appears), and significantly bloodier than the Stephanie Meyer supernatural romance series.

Set in 1983 in New Mexico, the film follows Owen (pictured left), a child of divorce with a big bully problem as he meets his new next door neighbour, Abby, a strange girl who walks through the snow covered streets barefoot and sometimes, in Owen’s words, smells weird.

The thing I like best about Owen is how heart-breakingly relatable he is to me, who as a twelve-year old in 1988, also dealt with my share of bullies (although not nearly as vicious as the ones in the film) and knew well the power of a sympathetic ear. Owen, played by Kodi Smith-McPhee (who I also really liked in The Road), comes across as a kid desperate for attention, and when Abby shows up, even being as stand-offish as she is, he finds in her a best friend.

The film does a remarkable job of showing Abby through Owen’s eyes, and by the end of the film I was definitely able to understand why they became such good friends.

If you’re in the mood for a more grown-up look at vampirism, this film is a remarkable watch.

Movie Review: Thor

So my family just got back from taking my wife out to her Mother's Day film pic - Thor, directed by Kenneth Brannagh.

First of all, let me state that my wife is pretty awesome for wanting to go see this movie, although to be fair I'm sure it was for the eye candy more than it was to see the Mighty Thor in action.

The movie itself was a lot of fun, think of a lot of high action and drama - like a soap opera of the Gods mixed with some good old fashion fight sequences. I was also impressed by all of the fish-out-of-water humour reflecting Thor's interaction with regular folk on Earth.

I was also pretty happy with the cameo by an upcoming Avenger and thought the music (by Patrick Doyle) was outstanding. In the end the film was well-acted (especially by Chris Hemsworth as the lead), had a nice story and was a lot of fun. Also it used many ideas and concepts I enjoyed in both the Simonson and Straczynski (who co-wrote the story) runs.

I heartily recommend it.

Things I’ve Noticed: Horror Sequels can be tricky

I watched Paranormal Activity about half a year ago, and earlier this week checked out the sequel from my local library. For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise, the premise is that the audience is being presented with actual footage of paranormal events surrounding a woman in the first film and a toddler in the second. The first movie is made almost exclusively from the point of view of the new camera purchased by the haunted woman’s boyfriend and the second film is made almost exclusively from the security cameras installed throughout the home of the toddler.

The first film was a lot of fun in a sort of Blair Witch Project vein, and there were more than a few scares throughout – without going into spoilers I will say that the movie is worth a watch, but maybe only if you can watch it on TV or get it cheap.

The sequel was pretty interesting to me for a couple of reasons: 1) rather than an actual sequel it is almost 90% Prequel – featuring events that happen a few months before the first film and having a two minute chunk taking place after the first film, and 2) The movie does a great job of building suspense and getting you genuinely nervous for the family. My only complaint about the sequel was in the casting – and this is tricky, the lead, played by Sprague Grayden (who I liked in Jericho and loved in Sons of Anarchy), does an incredible job playing the toddlers mother, but as she was an actress I recognized from other films, her casting placed a barrier between me and total immersion in the experience. The first film was cast with unknowns, so I could suspend my disbelief and pretend that this might have happened, but my familiarity with the lead in the second just kept reminding me that this was a movie.

In the end, both films are fun, and I was happy to see a sequel that played with chonological order as well as overall concept, actually adding an interesting layer to the franchise.

Genre Character of the Week: Mrs. Frisby

Less than a week before Mother's Day and I can finally use one of the first ideas for a blog post I came up with - looking at the various moms in genre fiction and film who really affected me as a child. This year, Mrs. Frisby (pictured left), from the film The Secret of NIMH.

Here's the thing about Mrs. Frisby - this mouse is a pretty amazing mom, when her kids and home are in danger she goes way, way beyond the call of duty to save her family.

I've never read the book, but the movie had a huge impact on me as a child, I still own the soundtrack and am currently listening to it on my iPod.

Happy Early Mother's Day, Mom.