Who is better? Doctor Who or Captain Kirk? Haryr Hill would make them fight to decide a winner... but we're not Harry Hill. So how to decide? Well, this question has been floating around since time began (aka The Sixties) and now, fans have provided the answer! Of course, I urge anyone who disagrees (or indeed, agrees) to flood our comments box with bile.
Last week, I did a little experiment. Basically, I slagged off Torchwood to see what the response would be. I've dished out a few kickings in my time (as well as fawning praise and boring even-handed reviews) and one trend that remains is that, if you have a go at a science fiction show, the response in the comments and emails is heated and personal. Slag off a comedy show and people tend to shrug a little more without having a hissy fit. Why is this? What makes science fiction fans so obsessive?
Related: Torchwood Finale | Torchwood is rubbish | Our Sci-Fi section
The last series (or 'season' if you're American or British and trying to be cool) of Heroes was a massive disappointment. As a show, it had gone from ambitious and confusing to barrel scraping, ab-flexing, thicko-action sci-fi. The next series had a fair amount riding on it. Such a departure left the show feeling like it was sat in it's own urine with the commissioner's axe swaying precariously overhead. So when the news came in of a potential storyline for the next batch, I was rather intrigued. Would we get a new, even badder baddie? Would the Petrelli sprout insect wings? No. Heroes looks like it's going to stoop low and give lonely sci-fi nuts a cheap trouser shuffle. Ladies and Gentleman... when in trouble, get Claire (Hayden Panettiere) to get off with a girl.
Russell T Davies has said that he wanted to make the Torchwood team less indestructible, and he's certainly done that. At the end of series two, Owen and Tosh were killed of by a nuclear explosion and Jack's brother respectively, and now the government want the remaining 'staff' dead to ensure that there are 'no survivors'.
Torchwood has gone on quite a journey - if you don't mind me going just a little X Factor on you - since its first, rather rubbish episode on BBC Three. It gained a big following, and some decent writing, and moved to BBC Two and now it's all grown up, with a five parter on BBC One - which is either special or disrespectful, depending on your point of view...
Related: Our bulging Doctor Who section
Heroes has been struggling of late (check the news that Bryan Fuller, the man credited for its improvements last series, has now left the show), so it's clear that the producers of the show are going a bit Twin Peaks and going for the surreal angle. So here's a sneaky peaky which has obviously been leaked because it's clearly true, of Sylar (Zachary Quinto) falling flat on his face with a dog, a giant pork chop and a butcher covered in blood. New characters in the next series? What an exclusive this is!
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[via HolyMoly]
Sci-fi and fantasy is a tricky genre to tackle. I mean, it's very difficult to get it right. For every half decent episode of Star Trek, you've got ten lame episodes of Stargate SG1 or Moonbase 3. Problem is that they're so very, very expensive to make... and it's that reason that sci-squib, Primeval is being cancelled by ITV. "After three very successful series of Primeval there are no plans at the present time for it to return to ITV. High-quality drama remains a key part of the ITV schedule although our current focus is on post-watershed productions," an ITV spokesman said. Hmmm. High quality drama you say? When I see some evidence of that, I'll buy that argument. Anyway, the show had a glimmer of hope in recent weeks, but this is certainly the death knell.
Related: Our Primeval section
Against my better judgement, I've been a fan of Heroes (BBC Two, Monday, 11 May, 9pm). I don't know how it did it, but it reeled me in... I mean, it's a sci-fi show fercryingoutloud! What on earth am I doing letting a science fiction, geekoid comic book thing past my defences. I don't like flights of fancy, especially when they involve emo like inner turmoil and people who can fly. I like dumb things with guns and swearing... but c'mon! Heroes takes the piss, right? Of course it does. However, this series has pushed its luck too far and now it's over, it's time to reflect.
Related: Our Heroes Section
This most recent series of Heroes (BBC Two, Monday, 11 May, 9pm) has been a real turkey. It's gotten so dumb that it's more akin to the usual sci-fi dross that we import from America, rather than the perplexing, fun ride of previous outings. Rather than feeling like a comic book like before, the latest outings seemed happy enough to run around the garden with its underpants on the outside of its trousers. However, that's not to say we should all give up... because next week, we've got the big season ender in a twofer, surely set to stand a few hairs on end.
Related: Our Heroes section
When Morph appears with a defibrillator in his lumpy hands and Alex is thrown across her still sparsely furnished room by the shock, you know she's in trouble. Back on Planet Earth, or wherever she's from, she's in a critical condition. It's a wonder she manages to do so much running around in her head. She's a professional. That's how she does it. And there are murdering, child-injuring animal rights protesters to be brought to book. Gene Hunt's reaction to a vivisection lab being under threat? "Send a Panda round." Classic.
By virtue of the fact that I'm terrified of watching Ashes To Ashes, because I haven't seen a single episode, thereby, leaving me dribbling and confused... and to the fact that I might be one of those idiots who says "Er, excuse me, but 'Dare' wouldn't have been released at that point", I decided I'd once again, take a punt on the reprogrammed and worsened Heroes (BBC Two, Monday, 20 April, 9pm). Last night's episode was called 'Turn and Face the Strange', and is leading into some secret... perhaps the raison d'être for the programme thus far. Skulls and burials grounds uncovered it seems, along with yet more hamfisted chasery.
Related: Our Heroes Section | All things Sci-Fi on TV Scoop
Only a few seconds in, and with Molly talking to her Mum via the medium of an episode of Grange Hill, there's no doubting we're back in the weird and wonderful world of Ashes to Ashes and any minute now the Quattro's going to be fired up and all hell will break loose. Except, rather than breaking loose, it's been tied up. Tied up and asphyxiated. At a strip club.
OK so I had a bit of fun with you this morning pretending that the snooker is the thing we've all been waiting for, when really it's this. Now I don't mind admitting that I was firmly in the "disappointed" camp with A2A series 1. On the disappointed spectrum my feelings didn't approach the heights of last weekend's Red Dwarf malarkey, or even the tragic waste of one of the year's three specials that was the Easter Doctor Who. No it was more of a vague feeling of unease that it was not as good as it could have been and had somehow lost its way from the heights of the old Life on Mars. So given my reservations last time round, why am I looking forward to this so much?
Related: Ashes to Ashes section | Life on Mars section
Of course, we can't just leave it at that. I thought it was pants and Anna (last time we heard from her) thought it was improving, but what did YOU think? With our comments facility still down (yes, I know), here's another handy-dandy poll for you to offer us your pearls of wisdom. Did it do it for you? Did you fly your ship down the intergalactic memory highway? Did you tattoo an H on your head? Or did you give up after one instalment? Click through and give it to us with both barrels.
Related: Everything Red and Dwarfish | Everything Pollish
"It's cold outside," go the lyrics of the theme tune during the closing credits, "there's no kind of atmosphere..." Hey, never mind outside. There's no kind of atmosphere in here either.
It's easy to get jaded and cynical about Doctor Who. Since Russell T Davies revived it, it has had such universal adoration that a backlash was inevitable, and yes, some of the complaints have been thoroughly justified. What we needed then, was a great episode, something to remind us why we all got so excited about this little show in the first place. Thank goodness for Planet of the Dead.
Slightly more than halfway through this first of the three-part revival of what was once voted Best Comedy Series, newly arrived hologram Katerina Bartikovsky delivers the official verdict on Rimmer. He's a bit crap. Sadly it's been ten years since Red Dwarf was Best Comedy, and those two words apply not just to Rimmer, but to this whole episode.
Whenever I think about TV theme tunes (and that's rather more often than it should be, probably) it strikes me that a lot of the very best come from sci-fi, both serious and comic. This particular time, I was prompted to think about the pressing topic because I've been reminded how great the Red Dwarf theme is (it's coming back this weekend, if you hadn't heard...!) It seems that many of these theme tunes manage to combine an otherworldly quality befitting of the genre with a real sense of excitement and adventure - and quite frankly that's a combination which appeals to me very much indeed. Over the cut there's a selection of brilliant themes, including Red Dwarf itself along with Doctor Who, Logan's Run and The Jetsons. It's an eclectic mix...
Related: Our Sci-Fi section | First Look - Red Dwarf Back To Earth | Nostalgia Corner
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