Godzilla (2014) Review

With the new Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019) film out on the Friday after I write this I thought it might be interesting for me to go over the 2014 film. After watching it again I wondered if it would be a good idea to do this… And yes it is.

Godzilla (2014) is certainly a film. To say anything more about it I need to dive head first into just what Godzilla is, it’s history and impact. So lets do that.

The original Godzilla is a film from 1954 Japan. For context this wasn’t even ten years after the end of the Second World War, and Japan had surrendered in the face of nuclear destruction. As a nation it was terrified, with good reason. A nuclear bomb, while cliche in media today is no joke. A single device destroyed a city. Killing thousands, tens of thousands in a single stroke. It’s a weapon not meant to fight wars, but to end them. Definitively. You drop a bomb that not only wipes out a city, but poisons the land causing horrible death for hundreds of years to come? You damn well better be afraid.

That’s what Godzilla, the original Godzilla, was meant to be. In the original film wherever Godzilla walked he left radiation, his shadow killed people. His shadow. A giant, unstoppable, monster created by man’s hubris wreaking havoc and destroying all it touched. Its existence a warning and terrible reminder that sometimes man’s blind ambition can lead to him toying with things beyond his control.

In a country as traumatised as Japan, and a world that was already hovering on the brink of armageddon in the form of the nuclear arms race, a film and monster like Godzilla was inevitable.

Doctor Who Series 11 Overview

I need to clarify something, I’m not angry.

I’m disappointed.

I’m going to start this overview with the characters, move on to the episodes and then sum up with my hopes for the 2020 season. So with a lot to get through we best get started with The Doctor.

Having time to reflect is a good thing. It takes us away from the immediacy of a moment and can often give us a better sense of the whole picture. A great example would be that when I first saw Jodie Whittaker in the role (during The Woman that Fell To Earth) I felt there was some good potential there. The joking rename of the villain to the unimpressive Tim Shaw is perfect Doctor. The irrelevant moments, the idle easy humour that off sets the violence. That’s again very Doctor and I wanted to see more of that.

We didn’t. What we got was a very generic version of the character. When this version should have done something outrageous and clever, just because they could, Whittaker just seems to stand there. Where one incarnation would rage loudly, another would become cold and calculating Whittaker simply stands around. There’s no urgency, no passion and no real joy to the character here. Somethings do work, but not quite in the right way.

Having seen Jodie Whittaker in other roles, and some what enjoyed her acting to be honest, I’m left wondering if she’s sleep walking through the part. I can’t see any passion in her performance. She’s not been given much in the way of material to work with and I doubt she even understands the role. There’s more to the Doctor than just pulling the same funny face once or twice an episode. 

There’s more than a few concerns in the writing. In her first episode the Doctor cobbles together a Sonic Screwdriver, you’d think that means this Doctor is an engineer and a tinkerer. Someone who builds things for the sake of the plot. In her defence she does, twice more, but it’s not really in her character. It feels out of place every time she does it. At one point she derails an entire story, slamming on the narrative breaks, for a speech about some technology they come across. This is a one off, we don’t see this side of her again really. It’s all horribly inconsistent.  

It takes a while for some actors and writers to home in on the personality of a Doctor. We’ve seen it happen before. Capaldi flip-flopped his Doctor’s traits several times, Sylvester McCoy’s first season was a disaster, however his second alone makes him one of the best Doctors in my opinion.

With a season as short as this one I don’t think anyone’s gotten a grasp of this Doctor yet. So the generic grab bag handful of half baked traits they’ve bolted together to make Doctor 13 still needs time to mesh right. I am convinced that the potential is still there, but it needs something more to bring it out. More episodes, more focus on the Doctor. Most importantly more interesting and better villains.

A hero is defined by their opponents and Whittaker’s bad guys so far have been a collection of weak, half baked and ineffectual parodies. With the notable exception of the New Years Special. The new villains don’t have any depth to them and no real weight. In any other season they wouldn’t have even registered as filler.

Doctor Who Series 11 Special Resolution Review

Did Chris Chibnall get a book on how to write a horror story over Christmas?

Now I know this was probably recorded back sometime around August, but the joke works. I’m just not that funny. So what did I think of the episode?

It felt like a season ending adventure, a lot more than The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos was. It was a strong story, with some really exciting moments. Good timing, both comedic and dramatic, and worked very well over all.

It’s not a perfect adventure. There are flaws, and I’ll look at them in a moment, but there are serious strengths. We really saw the threat of a single Dalek. Last time we saw that’s with Dalek, back in 2005, since then it’s been whole armies. Now a single Dalek is a threat again. We saw just one annihilate an army here, even taking on a tank and winning. This is powerful stuff. We also got some nice body horror, with the Dalek taking control of a human body for transportation early on.

We also got a limited car chase, a nice little bit of romance for our guest characters and while predictable in places I can’t really complain about that this time around. Rather than lifting sections wholesale from other, better, stories Chibnall seems to have figured out what he’s supposed to be doing. 

After the shear incompetence he showed during the season proper this is a refreshing change. I honestly found myself wondering if it really was just Chibnall who did this, and he wasn’t helped by a ghost writer. Someone with experience in writing Science Fiction and horror. I think he was.

One of the things that helped convinced me of this is the way the subplot about Ryan’s dad appears at odd thematic points. Only to bring the story to a crashing halt when they did. One scene we get a Dalek murdering a couple of police officers, the next a tender moment between Ryan and his previously absent father. The tonal whiplash almost gave me a neck injury.

Another part of the theory came about because this time around Chibnall actually knew something about Doctor Who history, with references to the Black Archive and even UNIT. Of course that brings us to UNIT. According to what we are told UNIT is currently disbanded due to budget issues. On the one hand this is a good thing, forcing the Doctor to solve this without their help. On the other What the absolute hell? UNIT has been a steadfast ally to the Doctor since the 60’s and now they’re just gone like that?

The last Doctor (Twelve) negotiated a colony of Zygons on earth, with UNIT policing them. What’s happened to that? It just doesn’t make much sense, the reason given is it’s budget has been cut because alien invasions aren’t that common anymore. I question that logic, just about every alien race passing by has tried it in the last dozen years, but alright. Maybe after the Dalek’s killing spree, and knocking out the entire communications infrastructure of the UK, they might get their act together.

Speaking of getting their act together. That is what this special sort of feels like. Chibnall and team got it right. Series 11 had growing pains. It tried really hard, but just didn’t quite work. With this special it did and it’s not quite the good news you think. The next season isn’t due until 2020, a long year away and whatever the good will this special earns might not be enough.

One or two great episodes in a season do not make up for a mediocre greater whole. I’m going to be posting a full season review in a couple of days, but this special was indeed one of the highlights. If Chibnall did pull someone in to shadow him for this one, understandable given the amount of episodes he did this season, then I hope he keeps them. If not and this was just a case of a good story done well, then brilliant. More please.

In fact more like this in general. Social commentary was never the problem, it was the bad stories that couldn’t justify it. More creative, entertaining episodes like this was would address that problem and bring both newer and classic fans back together again in the love of good story telling and staying true to Doctor Who.

10 out of 13

Would be better, if not for the tonal whiplash at points. A good start to the year though. See you in 2020 Doctor.

Doctor Who Series 11 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos Review

Well that was technically the season finale and er… 

It took up 50 minutes. The effects were decent. The direction was solid, nothing too spectacular but not too pedestrian either. Bradley Walsh’s Graham was a star, deadly serious but funny with what I’m convinced have to be ad-libs done on the fly. Tosin Cole’s Ryan talked sense for a change and did a good job of grounding Graham, showing how much he’s grown since we met him.

Yaz was… there I guess. I’m sure she had a point A good one, and not entirely useless as she’s been from most of the series. I just need someone to try and prove it.

And I can’t put it off any longer. He did it again. Chris Chibnall read the wiki entry on a Classic Adventure, thought it sounded interesting and made a complete mess of it. This time he cribbed (Chris Crib-nall? Is that too obscure a joke to make) stole from Douglas Adams’s The Pirate Planet. Telepaths with near unlimited power, stolen planets crushed into the size of a small basketball and the Doctor having to fix it all. All done so much better in the Classic Tom Baker Story.

Throughout Jodie’s Doctor’s confrontation with the main bad guy I just wanted her to break out in a Tom Baker like response. Mocking the “surprise” villain. Sarcastically praising their “incredible ingenuity” and admitting:-“Very rarely have I come across a plan so ambitious, so incredible in scope. Tell me, are you challenging for the throne of the kingdom of morons, or have the other contenders simply given up in awe of your brain melting stupidity?”

Doctor Who Series 11 They Take You Away Review

I’ve tried to be fair about Who in these reviews. Sometimes I’ve been a bit too critical and others I’ve been willing to over look things I really shouldn’t have. There are reviewers out there that have just been praising the show and I’ve been left wondering just what they saw I haven’t. There are other reviewers that lay into the show and have nothing good to say about it. I think all three groups, the overly critical, the soft touch and the middle ground can agree on something:-

Bradley Walsh is a fantastic actor.

In every episode both his character and his performance have been a highlight. This time he really proved it. Considering he did this while also filming a nightly general knowledge quiz show and from all reports being the joker of the cast I’m in awe.

It’s worth noting this isn’t his first time in Who, well not technically. Walsh played a villain in the Sarah Jane Adventures, The Pied Piper. An evil alien that disguised itself as a clown and kidnapped children to feed off the fear doing so generated. Look it up if you have a chance because it too is a really good performance.

I say all this knowing my previous prediction. Now that Ryan has called him Granddad I fear the characters days are numbered. Still that’s the future, right now I’m looking at the ninth, and penultimate, episode of the season.

And I don’t know what to say.

Honestly this episode has left me stumped. It’s not entirely unique in Doctor Who. The Planet of Evil, for example, is a 70’s adventure where the Doctor visited an anti-matter universe. Same happened more recently in Hide and the Doctor’s Wife. Both involved micro universes just outside our own.

However, in many ways it’s not Doctor Who. At least not standard Doctor Who. There was no villain to conquer, or really a threat if I’m honest. It was an adventure and had a high concept science fiction plot at heart. Without a major villain the antagonist is an sentient aspect of creation that was banished somehow in order for the universe as we know it to exist.

Doctor Who Series 11 The Witchfinders Review

“Pendle Hill is a prison for intergalactic criminals!”

It was at that point I lost it, totally, and collapsed on the floor in hysterics.

Going into this one I had a very bad feeling it was going to turn out like Rosa. You see the Pendle Witch Trials were a nightmare. If anyone was even thought of being a “Witch” they were tried and quickly executed with very little defence. Superstition and fear ruled. People carved symbols to ward off the evil they were sure stalked the good folk of the villages.

The truth was a little more complicated. Put very simply Pendle was home to a number of small villages all of which had local healers. Often women, but not always, who knew how to cook certain herbs and other plants to fight infection and other such things. However, a good number of people didn’t understand diseases at the time, attributing them to demons in the blood rather than bacteria. The result was these healers were seen to be commanding the demons out of people.

If they could command them out, who’s to say they couldn’t command them in? As a result superstitious people began to fear the knowledge these people had. Blaming them for whatever bad luck befell a person or area. Naturally when someone fears something they don’t understand it’s easier to attack it that to try and learn.

Hence the hanging of witches.

This is a summary and leaves a lot of important detail out, which makes it a difficult topic to go into and explain in the confines of a 50-odd minute show. With no clear solution. In the case of Rosa they messed up historical accuracy in favour of delivering a heavy handed message. Given I actually live in Rawtenstall, a town not 15 minutes from Pendle, I feared that, once again, historical accuracy would be thrown by the wayside in favour of some sort of ham fisted lesson. Fortunately this didn’t happen and the Pendle Witches became a backdrop to a far more traditional Doctor Who story rather than the entire focus.

Doctor Who Series 11 Kerblam Review

Really, was that the whole point of the silly name? That gag at the end? Was it worth it?

Yes, yes it was.

I can say this is the the first truly good, not great but good, episode of the season. Somebody behind the scenes seems to have woken up and realised Doctor Who can be good and doesn’t have to be mediocre. 

Which is ironic because any other time this far into the season it would be a filler episode, the one that doesn’t really mean anything. It’s far enough along to have established everything, but not close enough to the end to need to ramp up the tension. So freed from Chibnall’s greasy grip, just told to try and be a fun and entertaining episode we got just that. They even were able to throw in a rather surprising, if only at first viewing, twist I don’t really want to spoil.

Unfortunately mentioning that there is a twist is sort of a spoiler, but you can’t review the episode around it. So if you’ve not seen the episode yet just take it on faith, it is worth watching.

Doctor Who Demons of the Punjab Review

As much as I don’t want I’m going to split this review in two. Set up a boarder between the sections and then look at them apart before fitting them back together. 

It’s a metaphor, go with it.

In part A I’m going to look at the plight of Yaz’s grandmother and her family. It’s a terrible time that in many ways appears to mirror the troubles of Northern Ireland. A boarder is being enacted dividing India and Pakistan, this devision is religious as much as political. Separating Hindu and Muslim as much as the two peoples. Unfortunately Yaz’s grandmother is marring a hindu from across this new boarder and her soon to be brother-in-law has been radicalised by extremist propaganda…

The result is a tragedy. Just one more in a time where they are all too common. What was politically expedient at the time proves to be a terrible burden for decades and generations to come.

It’s a moving, powerful, tale that really pulls on the heartstrings. Strong performances and instantly relatable characters. Some likeable, others not so much, but all together well written and enjoyable. A solid drama I can’t really fault, made all the more poignant knowing that this was all together too possible. This not only could have happened you’re left with the heartbreaking certainty that it probably did, and more than just with this single family.

The story highlights one of those sad parts in human history the is often skipped over or out right missed in most summaries of our long past, not least because it happened so far away and there were other things going on. 1947 was the first moves in what we know now as the cold war. With Europe still reeling from the deviation of the second World War and the slowly descending Iron curtain about to cut the continent in two. The history books at this time are kinda full and there’s no room for anything more in schools.

So this period of India / Pakistan really does deserve something out there to raise more awareness of it. What makes this stronger than Rosa is we’re not following this one iconic figure. It’s so much smaller, dealing with just one family, but has such a greater impact for that. So I give this part of the story a solid score of 10 out of 13. Easily the strongest I’ve seen this season.

In Part B we’re actually going to look at the part of the story that is Doctor Who, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story. 

The time travel with Yaz crossing her own time line was utterly wasted. It even missed the otherwise pointless revelation at the end that the Grandmother should have recognised Yaz or the Doctor. It could have been anyone in that aspect and while I appreciate the rebellion in not going with the typical cliche, leaving Chekov’s gun unfired as it were, it isn’t exactly fulfilling.

The aliens were your typical fare. The basic idea of assassins and warriors that have given up their killing way was hardly original, but once again no threat what so ever. In this case though they weren’t supposed to be, so I won’t complain. What I will complain about is the psychic whatever flashes that gave the Doctor a headache a grand total of twice. Done just to build some tension, but that’s about it. 

A lot of the more science fiction elements just feel bolted on to the main plot and it doesn’t fit. In many ways they weren’t needed and should have just been removed. Focusing more on the main story.

That said there were a couple of nice moments. Yaz finally getting some much needed character development in a talk with Graham being one of them. but this side of the story rings hollow. Especially with the shear weight of what I’m calling part A.

Taken as a whole, which you have to do, this is still one of the strongest episodes so far. Even with the plot holes and dull aliens there’s enough here to enjoy and a serious message is in there as well. I wish the Doctor Who elements were better integrated. In another season this would have been incredibly out of place and have felt wrong. This season it’s some of the best we’re going to get.

8 out of 13

Doctor Who Season 11 Mid-season overview

Half way through this truncated season and I feel it’s necessary to take a metaphorical step back and look at the big picture.

I was looking forward to this season. I really was actually. Look, lets be honest here Steven Moffat had run out of steam by the end. Season 10 was an improvement over the previous two, but nowhere near as great as season 5. I blame Sherlock, it’s difficult enough to run one epic series, let alone two that become that amazingly popular and that ingrained into popular culture.

Both shows suffered because Moffat was torn between them. Still, I’m not here to go into that right now. We’re looking at Who. Now Chibnall cleared house behind the scenes as well as in front. This was going to be a fresh start for them. And Doctor Who needs to do that every so often. The show's been around for fifty five years, to keep up with the times it needs to change.

If it didn’t it would become stagnant. It would die off, much like Star Trek did in the early 2000’s. If you don’t innovate you lose viewers to those that do. Without viewers you fail and your show is gone. Especially in Science Fiction TV where they can cost more than smaller programs and the audience often demand more.

So with a new, fresh, show runner and a new Doctor things were looking up for the program. I was actually quite excited when I saw we were getting our first female Doctor. Of course there were people who didn’t like the idea, there’s always people objecting when the Doctor regenerates. I thought it was worth a chance.

There were also people at the time that called Chris Chibnall a hack writer, I didn’t particularly agree with them. I was never that impressed with Chibnall’s previous work on Doctor Who and Torchwood, true, but he was brought on as staff. Shackled by the guidelines imposed on him from the screenwriter. Now he was captaining the ship he could set the course. 

So we’re half way through the first journey on this captaincy. Where do we stand? Well the important thing to remember is it’s never too late to improve. You just have to know what the problem is. That said I announced in my last review that the gloves were off. I’m not going to be polite here. Chibnall has proven to be an incompetent, mediocre and stagnant writer.

Doctor Who The Tsuranga Conundrum Review

Wha…

I don’t know how to begin this review, because I truly am in two minds about this episode. On the one hand it was an utterly pointless waste of my time that I want to bill the BBC for to get my money back. On the other it was a whimsical piece of dada-ism in film making that deserves some kind of award.

I want to love Doctor Who. It’s important you know this. I want to be screaming from the rooftops about how brilliant it is. I want to argue with people that they are truly missing something of real importance by not watching it. Then I’m confronted with an episode like this. An episode where, after watching it, all you can do is ask questions that you know there isn’t going to be an answer to.

What was the Doctor and team Tardis looking for in the scrap pile? Why the hell was there a mine hidden in a pile of otherwise useless junk? Who called the medical transport?

But no time for that… Suddenly the ship is attacked by a space gremlin! and OH NO! It eats metal and feeds off energy! We’ve never seen that before… Oh wait I’ve lost count of how many times that nonsense has been tried! For the sake of, the Transformers Cartoon did this in the 1984 and it was a long long way from original. It’s right up there with the “What if it’s the MAN that becomes pregnant?” cliche. And will you look at that. Whats more he’s not ready to be a single parent, oh the tragedy! Will he keep the child, or give it up for adoption?

Here’s a hint, whichever one is the most cliched, and the most cowardly from a writers perspective. (I don’t want to belittle real life single parents that feel they can’t take care of their child and forced to give them up to adoption, but this pat solution is pointless) Speaking off we also have the pilot that’s suffering from a degenerative condition and their brother that they lie to because they want to maintain their perfect image. Whoopee bloody doo! 

These are all ideas that have been done by Red Dwarf, back in the 90’s. And back then they were a bad joke! The Dwarf boys were laughing that it was old hat two decades ago! Now what is meant to be the premier Sci-Fi show of the era, the trend setter that has redefined Science Fiction for more than fifty years, does this? You can’t make it up. Is this supposed to be so retro that it’s new or something? Is it supposed to be a new take on the old ideas? Because believe me its really neither.

Doctor Who Arachnids in the UK Review

Think I’d better mention that I don’t like spiders. 

They have the effect of creeping me out. Too many legs, eyes and fangs. Don’t forget the fangs. Then there’s the webs wrapping you up, covering you, suffocating you. Being mummified alive. Trapped in tomb no bigger than yourself, screaming silently as you slowly die… 

Anyway Arachnids in the UK was meant to be a horror story. Back in the day Doctor Who was legendary for scaring people, the joke being the viewers often hid behind the sofa to het away from the terrifying things they had to see. Horror has been a staple of Doctor Who since it’s inception and it’s always been that The Doctor taught children it was alright to be scared. That fear was good and bravery wasn’t the absence of fear, but doing what had to be done despite it.

It was one of the best lines in the Curse of the Fatal Death (a comic relief skit on Doctor Who from the 90’s) when the Doctor was thought dead that summed it up wonderfully:- “…It will never be safe to be scared again.”

This is why we needed a horror story, specially around halloween. We needed to be scared. To be terrified. To be brave. So, were we?

Kind of, yes.

I would actually describe Arachnids in the UK as a tribute to shlock horror movies. There’s a whole sub-genre of horror films that feature some aspect of nature grow wildly out of control. Films like Night of the Lepus. Usually these films feature morally questionable experiments going awry or Nature fighting back against mankind’s often selfish actions.

In this episode we got a morality tale about (wo)man’s science messing with nature and things it shouldn’t trifle with. How the quick solution isn’t always, or ever, the best one. We also got to see the real monster, as always, is the worse excesses of humanity. Which all worked in a way and all straight from classic monster horror movies.

Doctor Who Rosa Review

Well that was… Horrific. On many different levels.

Trying to review this episode is difficult because its a difficult topic. They try to address it in a ridiculously short amount of time. 50 minutes is not long enough to go into any real detail. Add in the pointless time criminal sub plot (seriously what was the point of that guy?) and we have even less.

The problem is I don’t feel like I’m qualified to comment on it. Being English, from the hills of Lancashire and born long after the events in question, it’s not something I have the context to address. Certainly not in a short written review of the Episode in question

Yes I know who Rosa Parks was and yes I know why she was famous. I have the morals to say the very concept of segregation appals me. It’s a vile practice from a time I hope has long since past, but unfortunately still effects people to this day. It is something I would hope to have the courage to have fought against, were I there at the time, and would stand up against today should I be in a position to do so. I didn’t need the episode to tell me this. I most importantly didn’t need this episode to make me feel guilty about it! 

But I wasn’t the audience for this episode of Doctor Who. The audience was the people who are only just learning about this stuff and that’s alright. There are people in this world that don’t know about Rosa Parks just yet that could have watched it. That needs to learn that one woman’s bravery, and her anger, was important.

The problem there is that, again, it was and remains a complex issue that 50 minutes can’t do justice.

Doctor Who The Ghost Monument Review

Can I talk about Enlightenment. I want to talk about Enlightenment. No, I’m not taking a sudden right turn into philosophy and using the tile as clickbait. Enlightenment is a Classic Doctor Who adventure from the Peter Davidson (5th) Doctor’s run and in all honesty is one of my favourites of his time in the TARDIS. 

In it the Doctor lands in the middle of the final stage of a vast intergalactic boat race. It’s goal? Enlightenment. Ultimate knowledge. It’s all part of the never ending conflict between two Guardians, the Guardian of Light and the Guardian of Dark. Paired forces of elemental creation so powerful they have developed their own wills and personality. 

Whoever wins the race would have the freedom to do what ever they chose. If they did “good” with it they would tilt the scales in favour of the Light Guardian. “Bad” well then the Darkness gains in power. That is how the Guardians work, though proxies. Choosing champions to represent them across time and space, sometimes without them even knowing they have been chosen. Other times…

The Companions in “New” Doctor Who:- Part One

Well we’re looking at a new season of Doctor Who on the horizon and I’m getting around to a project I’ve waned to do for a while. Look at the Companions in Doctor Who since it’s relaunch in 2005 and try and put them into some sort of perspective.

A lot of my opinions have actually evolved and changed over the 13 years since this restart began. Characters I saw as fairly inconsequential, or irritating, in retrospect either aren’t really, or are for a completely different reason. I want to look at those reasons. 

Before start there’s two things I have to address, first of all there’s going to be some vitriol. I’m not going to be nice on occasion here. The gloves are most defiantly off and because of that I need to make sure the blows are going to land in the right places. I’m only looking at the characters, not the actors themselves. I don’t know them. Do know the characters and I have to be fair to them and those that came before.

Now here’s the tricky one, what do I class as a companion? I could make up some arbitrary rules, but to be honest that would be me looking for excuses to include or not include certain characters. A companion is a Companion if I say so. It’s my list so that’s my reasoning!

Timothy Dalton, the best Bond?

Alright I'm very late to this party, but on the other hand who cares. One of my presents this christmas was an iTunes Voucher, I know, I'm spoilt here and I used it to FINALLY get the fourth season of Chuck.

While it's not important to me I've always liked the show, just never had the time to get past the third year. So over the last week or so I've been watching the episodes and kicking myself over what I've missed. And the reason why could be summed up in two words:- Timothy Dalton.

Let's shoot, or at least wound, the elephant in the room; Dalton was and still is, in my opinion, the most underrated Bond. Often dismissed as the "oh yeah, him." of the Bonds. Not as infamous as Lazenby, nor as popular as Connery I still think he's one of the best Actors to play the role and deserves to be a lot more recognisable for roles outside of the franchise.

What do I mean by that? Simple; I say Connery and you think Bond. He's iconic in the role, that doesn't mean it's his only one though. Hunt for Red October and Highlander are two very strong roles but in the end he's always going to be Connery and you're always going to think Bond. It's the same as Leonard Nimoy and Spock. He's done hundreds of other roles but he'll always be that iconic character. The key difference is that Nimoy is a better actor.

Sorry he just is, for one if you asked him to play a Russian or Egyptian he wouldn't do it in a board Scottish accent! What does this have to do with Dalton? Simple, he's such a good actor that Bond shouldn't be the first thing you think. He should have a dozen roles fighting for attention. People should be discussing which role was his best and there should be a dozen answers.

Now his role, or roles, in Chuck have cemented this for me but go back and see what he's accomplished. The best way I've found to tell a good actor is to watch as many of their roles and interviews as possible and see where they overlap. Watch Dalton's Bond, then watch Hot Fuzz and throw in a bit of the Rocketter. Chuck shows his range, but I promise after seeing the last two I can forget about Bond. Which is harder than you'd think.

Still I'm going to look at that signature role. The biggest problem playing Bond is the layers. Connery pulled off a hard nosed, womanising killer with a sarcastic sense of humour that always came out when the more ridiculous things happened. Lazenby was the same man, sort of, but looking for a way out. He found that in his short lived wife. Connery's Bond was having too much fun to retire. Moore, well Moore was a wet lettuce. He's my least favourite, the humour was reduced to almost slapstick levels, the plots comical (Moonraker and Octopussy, Really?) and I still feel Moore himself played the role more slimy than smooth. Then came Dalton.

It was the end of the cold war, Russia was no longer the threat it once was and the more criminal elements Bond would go after weren't what they once were. The whole  atmosphere was changing. Now was the time for the old spy looking for retirement plot line, a man out of step with the current situation. And that's what we got, at the same time we got Bond. Datlon's take walked the knife's edge. A man that would do whatever was necessary with charm and skill, while at the same time knowing that his humanity was being stripped a wafer thin slice at a time.

Unlike Moore there's a cold anger to Dalton, while Connery laughed at the more incredible events Dalton made the quip to hide that vain of ice that would quickly turn to lava. Dalton's Bond has done things he's not proud of for queen and country, the shine has worn off. The glitz and glamour has unfortunately given way to the very 80's defeatism. Alright so the films were made in the late 80's but who cares if they were a little behind. They are far from perfect, but Dalton does a bang up job in both and it's a shame he didn't get the third film he was contracted for.

I'd also say he was influential. Both Brosnon and Craig have portrayed a darker, perhaps more sadistic, Bond than before. In some ways a much more flawed version of the role, following in his footsteps. Thanks to Dalton's portrayal James is a lot more human, not to mention more understandable now than the smug, self confidant Moore or the sarcastic, smirking Connery. Still he had the charm, wit, sophistication  and silver tongue necessary to pull off some fairly stunning stunts and cons.

But like I said that's not all. In the Rocketter he played Neville Sinclair. Basically Errol Flynn, if he was a Nazi sympathiser and spy (a whole kettle of worms I'm not going to go into, only to say that the character was undoubtedly based on the allegations). He played the character wonderfully; amoral, selfish and greedy. A monster who played at being a man, living it large in the spotlight at the hight of Hollywood glamour all the while being this dark evil force. As soon as the heroine scratched the surface she revealed the dark core.

Then we have Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz. Another villain, but a lot different. By running the Supermarket he basically has a monopoly on the small town's shopping and a respected place in the community. While the true bad guys are a cabal of… well let's not give that away… Skinner obviously thinks of himself as the lord of the Mannor, going as far as to declare it his village. Again Dalton pulled out that sardonic wit to literally be the mustachio twirling vaudevillian villain. You can't help but laugh as he doesn't even bother to hide it this time.

Then comes Chuck, in which he plays three different people. The chief bad guy (noticing a pattern, well great actors always prefer that role, it let's them keep their teeth sharp), the bad guy playing a bumbling fool and a regretful father. I wouldn't call it a tour-de-force but it comes close. After all the above to see the character that Dalton ends up playing just proves that he's, after all that, a great actor.

I have to admit that I do feel a bit guilty going on for what is about one and a half pages of A4 about the guy, but the honest truth is I do respect him and feel that he is really under appreciated out there. I've said my piece, I hope I've made my point.

Thomas 

PS I'd be remiss if I didn't mention his stint on Doctor Who as Rassilon himself! While I hate that two parter with a passion that grows even more every time I see it the shear menace and bombast he made in the first half was brilliant. You felt the threat building in his actions and his delivery, while not at all subtile really made his lack of pay off that much worse. Seriously he could have at least walked around a bit. Just because he's talking doesn't mean he should stand around like a statue...