Doctor Who Christmas Special (2011)

This year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special threw in a plot framework that referenced C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, then went in an entirely different plot direction with a forest full of intelligent trees threatened with destruction and a family in need of getting their killed daddy back (it’s world war 2 again). After nearly spoiling the entire plot, I can safely say this was not an ambitious story or even well plotted (the ecological-motivated sub-plot looks like it has been gutted and feels a bit dumb) or even remotely interesting in an SFnal way.

But at least I had fun watching it and there were a few very well done moments, like when the Doctor admits as much as needing other people to feel something, because he has seen too much and lived too long to relate to the universe as normal people would do. Only through them he can feel wonder and magic again. That and the realization, that despite being so world-weary, he’s still “human” enough to feel alone on Christmas and that he really needed a hug. No really something you needed a Christmas Special for, but still fun to watch.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S3 (1998-1999)

The third Buffy season is in many ways the high-point of the entire series for me. There’s the whole Faith plot, that gives Buffy a sort of dark mirror and allows her to realize that for all that went bad in her live, it could have been far worse. Aside from the whole rise-and-fall-of-another-Slayer arc, there’s also the new season villain, the mayor, who is absolutely perfect.

A real threat, despite the high stakes of the game, who still has a sort of convincing motivation going on (convincing, not compelling, there’s always a choice involved). He’s old, very old, and believes he has left all humanity behind and is ready to change into something else to make his life meaningful again. Only, humanity is such a sneaky thing and encroaches even upon someone as evil as the major in unexpected ways. When you think you have evolved beyond humanity’s need for caring and giving, it turns out that switching that part of the self off is nearly impossible, even for an immortal old fiend.

The interaction between Faith and the mayor was heartbreaking in a disturbing sort of way. Here where two villains, completely lost to society, who had found something in each other that brought out the best in both of them (sure, with the intention of doing more evil, but still). He was utterly evil and still acted like a human being who could do right by those he cared for, who thought he had long abandoned all humanity and still felt the sting of caring, who knew his enemies better than they themselves, but still didn’t see his own weakness. His rage at Buffy for putting Faith into a coma near the end was all-too understandable. That’s why the mayor was such a great villain, he was complex and faceted in a way villains rarely are (though Buffy-obsessed Angelus in the previous season was excellent too, come to think of it). A part of you feels for a great villain like that, wants them to win, despite knowing what that would imply.

As for the rest of the season, there was still annoying stuff going on: teenage temper flaring high, Xander being an ass (though Willow had her own share of asshattery going on). The whole Xander/Willow plot about cheating on their respective partners felt all sorts of unconvincing and plot-enforced, not as a natural element that evolved out of the plot. But apart from those weaknesses, I loved the season.

The Immortal Iron Fist (2007-2009)

There’s one interesting and one remarkable thing about the Brubaker/Fraction/Swierczynski Immortal Iron Fist run. The interesting thing is that it pretty much retcons a legacy into the Immortal Iron Fist mythos. Something that until recently has been a staple of the DC Universe, but is rare in the Marvel universe (though how much of the legacies survived in the new DCnU is up to the question). The remarkable thing is that it tells a story about class struggle against the background of ancient, mythic cities that use human weapons trained in supernatural mystic arts. Like discovering the dark side of Shangri La, but not in an absurd over-the-top way, but in a story arc that is utterly convincing and compelling. Once you’ve started reading you’ll forget where the story is set and take it at face value.

The thing is, writers in the superhero genre have one problem, they have to write about super-powered beings trying to change the world for the better, while at the same time they aren’t allowed to let their heroes actually tackle real-world problems, since then the fictional universe wouldn’t resemble our own anymore (not that they really did, but it’s the illusion that they do that matters). This wouldn’t be a problem if our world was actually just and didn’t really need saving, but if you follows the news at all, you’ll know that this is not entirely accurate. Slavery and war remain at an all-time high these day, to name just a few of the more overt problems. So what to do if you can’t solve any real problems? You infuse your fictional ancients cities with those problems and address them this way.

Putting a real world problem in a fictional location and then address it in a convincing way is hard. You have to deal with the messy parts in a realistic way while still allowing for the more fantastical elements of the setting. You can’t just use the setting for telling your story, you have to make the setting the story and despite the fantastical elements you have to make it a story about things normal people can relate to: exploitation of the weak, having no voice because being poor or female and so on. And you can’t win by hitting the problem, which is part of the superhero genre and what often makes it look so impotent when applied to real world problems, as there’s no one thing that can be solved by getting hit.

Since this is a comic called the Immortal Iron Fist, you can expect a little bit hitting and kicking as well. But it’s not the solution, merely a tool to get there. The thing to win is re-education of the weak, giving them the ability to defend themselves and choose their own path. And that sounds all good and well, but here’s where the messy side turns up. For all the good intentions, those who in way usurped the throne still may fall back into the old pattern of “we’re trying to save the weak” by taking away their choice. How the new rulers of the seven cities planned to deal with the population of the missing eight city was a perfect example of falling back to tyrannical ways (Swierczynski part of the run), despite the best of intentions. Wanting more democracy and actually living it are two different things. Sometimes we humans seem hardwired for the top-down approach, no matter our best intentions.

This is why the Brubaker/Fraction/Swierczynski Immortal Iron Fist run is so excellent. Sure, on the surface it’s about heroes fighting with mystical arts to save the day. But it’s also about creating a better world, not by fighting evil bad guys, but by changing society to give people the power to chose their own fate. And the final arc is an object lesson in how hard it is to actually live up to the promise of basic democracy. Everyone who tries to take away that choice, even for the best of intentions, is more threatening to society than any external threat could ever be.

The Quatermass trilogy (1955-1967)

The three Quatermass movies from Hammer, The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Quatermass 2 (1957) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967), are all based on BBC TV-serials about Professor Quatermass, a physicist and pioneer of the British space program. Seeing all three movies one after another, one can get a very confused message out of them.

On the one hand, all of them are about malign influence from outer space: an energy life form merges with a cosmonaut in the first one and threatens all life on Earth (this is the most boring of the three, with the infected cosmonaut walking around aimlessly until he transforms for the big boss fight). The second movie is about alien parasites that take over a human city and build a command center from where to take over the rest of the world (the best of the three, parasites taking over human as pawns to stage an all-out invasion is always a winner) and the third is about an artifact from a long-dead Mars civilization that had its own racial purges and tries to reenact its deadly philosophy in the heart of London.

Yet, while the message on the surface seems clear, outer space equals evil (there are places where men is not meant to go), there’s also Quatermass. Perfectly played in the first two movies by Brian Donlevy, he was a driven man, believing in man’s future in outer space and willing to sacrifice anyone to get that future. He was unlikable and cold, yet on the other hand without him humanity probably would have been killed all along. And the tools of our salvation in all movies where his analytical, cold mind weighting the possibilities of what happened and thinking up ways how to solve any threats.

In the second movie his rocket ship is even essential to saving the human race. Without someone like Quatermass driving us to our limits and beyond them, thinking in ways nobody did before, we might not have survived the threats from outer space at all. So, there’s also a clear theme of science as our savior. This gives a confused, perplexing message about the dangers and possibilities of human exploring outer space. But exactly that ambiguity, a scientist who is gung-ho for space exploration has to save the world again and again from threats from outer space, is what makes these three movies so fascinating.

Salvation and destruction come from the same source. While outer space seems like a minefield of dangers and threats, not engaging the bigger universe outside our little world is even more dangerous, as the malign influences aren’t just content to wait for our arrival. Without someone like Quatermass asking the big question and willing to make the hard decision, we wouldn’t survive.

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Even after 25 years this game is still fun to play. In a sense it’s the granddaddy of platformers (though by far not the first, it’s the one most remember when speaking about their first platformer game), its entire design is a hallmark for greatness. All the platforming elements that seem so generic these days (jump on things to kill them, get power ups, moving platforms), the controls that feel slightly lacking when compared to for example the SNES Super Mario World with it much more precise controls, felt revolutionary then. I still remember seeing an arcade version of the game with a cluster of kids standing around trying to beat it.

Sure, all things considered, the game looks its age, but that doesn’t change that it’s a game that can still be enjoyed today, not just as a historical artifact, but as a game by itself. You don’t have to fight an inane control scheme to understand how to play the game, even gamers who’ve never played this probably get it in a few seconds (though with the new generations of players growing up with touch and motion controls this might change).

But while the game follow a philosophy of simplicity, each new world manages to introduce new gameplay elements you have to master, new enemies to get around, new deadly traps to avoid, more tricky jumps to do. You’ll learn as you advance, in a progression that feel entirely natural. From the easy peasy initial levels to the more challenging levels later on, you’ll never feel like it can become too hard, as you’ll go with the flow and master the game while playing. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the hardest things to do in game, remain challenging without becoming frustrating. The hallmark of any truly great game.

Tyrian 2000 (1999)

Tyrian was a shmup released for the PC in 1995. Tyrian 2000 is pretty much a re-release of the 1995 game with one more episode under the belt and a few bug fixes. It’s one of the best shmups I’ve ever played, if you’re into the classical 8-&-16-bit era of shoot’em ups. Gameplay-wise its pretty basic: destroy everything that moves to earn money, upgrade your ship with better weapons, destroy more stuff, etc… until you meet the bosses and send them to hell.

What makes the game so good is the length (each of the first four episodes has around ten levels, though to some extend levels are reused throughout the four episodes) and the gameplay. While the game doesn’t really offer anything new or original, it’s just a very well crafted shmup, which makes it extremely enjoyable to fly through the levels and blast things away. I would have liked to say that the story is also one of the big draws of the game, but for that the writing is a bit underwhelming and the overall plot not all that interesting (see Star Control 2 if you want to see how good writing can make old-school space opera into a sublime experience). The often-times (unfunny) attempt at humor also doesn’t really work. But the gameplay alone is worth everything.

And it’s completely free. If you want a version ready to play on Windows 7, try the one from Good Old Games.

Astonishing X-Men 25-35 & Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis 1-5 (2008-2011)

Following Joss Whedon’s run on the Astonishing X-Men, Warren Ellis held up the tradition of publishing a book that was continuously late, yet after reading it in one go totally worth every delay. The Astonishing X-Men mini-series Xenogenesis comes after issue 35 and should be read as part of the official run, btw.

The one weakness of Ellis’ run is the lack of an overall arc, it’s two excellent and one okay story, but there’s no overall story-skeleton, no big event that really makes you remember the story in times to come, apart from its inherent quality. But apart from that, Ellis run ranks as one of the best stints on the X-Men in recent times. So, what does have Ellis’ Astonishing X-Men to offer?

An invasion of an alternate reality that excellently built upon consequences due to the House of M crossover, an attack of monsters that are build from genes of past X-Men foes (though the actually enemy turns out to be a bit silly) and a visit to M’Bangawi, a fictional African country in the Marvel universe, that references the Furies from Moore’s Captain Britain run.

The stories exhibit the typical elements of Ellis’ fiction: snarky and clever dialog, excellent pacing, a much higher amount of interesting science fictional ideas than your usual Marvel comic and a moral center that shows that these are, despite all, real heroes. I don’t actually say that too lightly, because despite being part of a genre that is all about superheroes, few of those comics are so up front about actually saving people instead of fighting for fun than superheroes written by Ellis, from his Authority run to this. They might be violent and a little bit self-righteous at times, but when written by Ellis they actually feel like heroes.

KOLM 2 (2011)

The first K.O.L.M. was a nice, minimalistic metrovania-type platformer that was fun for its short running time. The second part is more of the same and starts exactly where the first part ended. You still have all the robot-parts you collected in the first game, you still hear voices from the off that give the game some narrative drive and you’re still in the same cavern complex as before.

Same is meant literally, the original levels are actually all there, though slightly altered and with more rooms at the edges to explore. While I thought the first part was a sweet little game, I found the second part a bit too much of the same. The thing I found a little bit annoying the first time around began to really grate the second time, the endless zoom-in-zoom-out effect, which really didn’t do much for the gameplay and was really distracting in the bigger levels. Also going through nearly the same levels again didn’t fire up my enthusiasm.

It’s still a solidly crafted game experience, but even the additional two-player mode near the end didn’t make the game more enticing. There’s just not much to do than going through the same old levels (and the new rooms don’t look much different either), collect a few items and beat the damn thing. And the ending really made me questioned why I played through the entire game. Felt like wasted time.

All You Need Is Kill (2004)

When I first read about the first book out of the Haikasoru imprint from VIZ, somehow the label light novel stuck in my head and my interest in reading it lessened. I admit this was an error of judgment, because it’s as serious (or mature if you want to use another term) as things can get. Basically it’s an Earth invasion novel about alien Von Neumann probes that are tasked to unTerraform the world for its silent masters. At first sluggish and easy to kill, the so called mimics soon adapt to the defense strategies of the humans and soon Earth is under siege.

Into that situation is thrust one of the Japanese recruits who has to fight his first battle, dies and reawakens later just a day before said battle. If you know the movie Groundhog Day, you’ll know what to expect next. The same day, repeating again and again, with the Japanese recruit the only one remembering the past loops. The main difference is that the loops aren’t a tool to find personal happiness, but about becoming a better soldier to survive as long as possible in each loop and find out how to break them.

Upon reading the novel Heinlein’s Starship Trooper came to my mind, which I heard was marketed as young adult novel (though I can’t find any citation for that, at other places I read it was the first novel of Heinlein after his juvenile phase and not marketed so) and also has a sort of coming-of-age arc with the personal outlook of a young man going from recruit to highly trained professional. Even the endings are eerily similar in that the story ends at an appropriate moment in the personal journey, while the bigger story, the war against the aliens, is far from over.

Apart from that, though, they are very different. Where Heinlein’s novel is all about duty and citizenship, Sakurazaka’s novel is much bleaker in outlook and has none of the dogmatic approach of Heinlein. His protagonist Keiji merely wants to survive and in the beginning, if he could, would have abandoned everything. The novel feels more authentic in its depiction of the inner turmoil of Keiji when he’s confronted with the real battlefield for the first time as well as his entire development over the course of the countless loops.

And as for the bleakness, that comes out of Keiji’s personal journey as well, as there’s a mean twist near the end that makes sure nobody gets easy off. This is not a novel about winning a war, but about realizing that in the end all that counts is the survival of the human race, not individuals. It’s a game of numbers, and as so often in those, some eggs get broken (the title really is appropriate). Pretty heavy for a light novel, but then, looking at some of the harrowing stuff that gets published as young adult these days, I wonder if its the adults that need protection and not the young ones.

One thing that was also really nifty about the novel was that it gave a good explanation for why the loops happened and didn’t just use it as a literary device. It’s not a hard SF novel, but it uses well-known concepts from the SF-toolbox in a smart way. You can’t ask for more.

Deadpool 1-12 (2008-2009)

Daniel Way’s first two Deadpool TPBs are an utter delight to read. Where other writers stumble, the dreaded crossover, Way manages to not only survive but to let his first arcs on the latest main Deadpool series (there are so many others at the moment that it’s easy to get lost) prosper. What you get is exactly what the title promises, first it’s Deadpool against the Skrulls (he fights them in a baseball stadium, then on their ship, then the Skrulls try to integrate his abilities into a new super-skrull batch and things get out of hand (lesson learned, don’t try to mass-produce Deadpool, it only leads to death and more death)). After that, it’s Deadpool against Osborn and his various henchmen, which again is the usual, highly entertaining mix of low but fun comedy and countless violence.

There’s nothing new about Way’s take, if you’ve read Deadpool before you know what to expect, but it’s nicely refined backed by excellent art. And just plain fun to read.