Insert Lots of Coins - Growl (Taito 1990)

Ahhh, the early 90s, when all of a sudden, saving the earth and shit became popular for the first time since the 70s..and what better way to promote saving the earth than by with a violent video game!...fuck yeah!

Wait a minute..is that Indiana Jones?...no, course its not...never mind...
So yeah, the game was originally released as a coin-op arcade game in Japan under the name of "Runark".....Run Ark?...Lost ark?...Indiana Jones as one of the playable characters...nah, i'm imagining things...

It made its way westward and was rechristened "Growl"....probably because people would get the distinct feeling that it was an Indiana Jones game, and therefore Stephen Speilberg would probably want paying...but as we all know it definitely isnt, oh no, nah, never, gawd bless ya no...

So yeah, I, like most people, encountered this one day in my mis spent youth, and shovelled a hell of a lot of 10p's into it....why?, well, because its a fucking hard game thats why, it has "Noob trap" written all over it!.

The gameplay is similar to other brawler type games of the time, like Double Dragon for example.
You shovel in your money, then you can choose from one of four characters, but everyone always seemed to choose they guy who definitely isn't Indiana Jones.

The storyline is simple, one day at what we are informed is the early 20th century, a "Park Ranger" is sipping on a nice glass of something in a bar, when a bunch of evil and quite heavily armed poachers bust in and blow the place up, from then on you move from level to level punching the fuck out of anyone that happens to look at you in a funny way, and eventually kicking the shit out of an end level boss in order to release one of the many endangered animals that those sneaky bastards have managed to trap while you were sitting in the pub.
Like Double Dragon, your basic attacks are punches, kicks, flying kicks and a sort of shoulder barge thing which is of questionable use. The difference between this and Double Dragon is that the screen gets busy..and I mean BUSY, at any one time you will more than likely have at least a dozen badass muthafuckas trying to break their foot off in your ass, and most of them take quite a bit of a pummeling before they eventually change occupations.
You can pick up weapons along the way, ranging from pipes,knives, rocks, pistols, assault rifles (dafuq?, is supposed to be like, the 1930s, why the fuck can you pick up an M-16?) , rocket launchers (aww come on!) grenades, barrels, explosive barrels, a bullwhip.....a bullwhip?...*sigh*.

The end level bosses are usually some sort of big, burly bastard who takes a ridiculous amount of damage to kill off, and if you aren't holding a ranged weapon (you'll never have a gun, because their ammo runs out reyt quick it does, you're best off trying to keep hold of the bullwhip..seriously, its the best weapon in the game), expect to get killed a lot as your guy rains punches down on them, all while taking damage.

One interesting, and somewhat funny, feature is the ability to kick someone while they're down. Basically, sometimes you will beat someone up to the point at which they fall to their knees, at that point if you move in close, you can knee them in the face, rabbit punch them, or even grab them by the collar and slam them around a bit before throwing them off to the side, where they make a handy improvised weapon if you have shitloads of assholes trying to administer a kicking in your direction.

The game lasts for a mere 6 levels, but trust me, if you're playing this game in an arcade, to get that far you'll probably have spent at least a tenner, and that's why they invented emulators.

The final boss is seriously weird, I wont spoil it but if you ever happen to play this game and get to him, you'll be having a serious "WTAF?" moment.

A curious thing about this game, which probably explains its difficulty, was that most examples of the cabinets that show up are 4 player set ups. Now, while most games would adjust the difficulty depending on how many players are currently shovelling money in, this game doesn't...because fuck you that's why!.

In 1991, the game was ported to the Sega Mega Drive, losing the real voice bits, most of the cartoony graphics, and the need to shovel in money in the process....the port was shite, but at least they replaced the M-16...with an AK-47..oh, and they made it single player only...yeah..thems were good times...

The game was also included in the Taito Legends collection, released for the PS2 and XboX, however this version, while being a more or less faithful port of the arcade version, removed all the blood and/or gore that appeared in the original....no longer did the level bosses splatter everywhere when they blew themselves up after being defeated by not Indiana Jones....shame.

Anyways, the game wasn't terribly well received at the time of release, primarily because it was designed to make you burn through money quick, regardless of how l337 your skills were, and secondly because of its flimsy plot and fairly bland action, that we had all seen before done much better by such games as Final Fight and Double Dragon.

Overall - 5/10

Serial offender - The Girl From Tomorrow/Tomorrows End (1990 & 1993)

Another delve into the mysterious and murky world of childrens TV serials finds me once again washed up on the shores of Australia for another sci-fi outing, this time with hints of time travel and environmentalism....

Produced by Film Australia (one of the writers went on to create "Spellbinder"), "The Girl From Tomorrow" was one of the numerous TV series created by Australian TV networks in the 1990s, most of which ended up being shown on CBBC (as in the case of this one) or less frequently CITV and Channel 4. An odd thing I found out about this series is that the premise is actually based on a Soviet TV series called "Guest from the future" (Гостья из будущего) which aired on Russian television in 1984.

The show begins in the year 3000, most of the Earth is uninhabited due to a disaster which occurred in the year 2500, which led to the entire northern hemisphere being rendered an uninhabitable wasteland.
Alana is a 15 year old girl who was born on Titan (by the year 3000, the moon, Mars and some of Jupiters moons have been colonised, with Venus in the process of being terraformed), but whose parents sent her to Earth to get an education. While on Earth, which is now a veritable ecological paradise, she becomes close to Tulista, one of her teachers who instructs her in the use of the "transducer", a device which resembles a headband and acts as a brain amplifer, allowing the user to manipulate objects by thought alone. Alana hopes to become a healer (I love how when trying to be exotic, programs like to replace the word "doctor" with "healer" to make it sound less scientific and more cuddly) and the transducer can be used as a healing device, however, as Alana finds out in the opening sequence of the first episode, if someone uses a transducer isn't able to concentrate or control their emotions, the transducer can be a pretty destructive weapon.
One of the leading scientists in the year 3000, Bruno, has invented a time machine, and Tulista, being a historian amongst other things, has been chosen to travel back in time to the year 2500 in order to try and find out the exact nature of "The Great Disaster", which they hope will enable them to make better progress in rebuilding the northern hemisphere, this causes much concern for Alana who believes that time travel is dangerous, and Tulista will be killed, so, she smuggles herself into the "Science Dome" just in time to see the time machine vanish into the past.
The machine returns almost as soon as it left, although 28 days have passed from Tulistas point of view (relativity is awesome innit?), but Tulista has an unwelcome guest with her in the shape of Silverthorn, an all round ne'er do well from the year 2500, who immediately proceeds to threaten everyone in the science lab with his laser pistol, but soon goes off the idea of being their overlord when one of the scientists demonstrates the incorrect use of a transducer. Silverthorn, realising he isn't going to be welcome in the future, decides instead to try the past, and, grabbing Alana as a replacement hostage, he sets the time machine going again and transports himself and Alana back to the year 1990.


Once there, Alana experiences culture shock as she escapes the time capsule (which materialises in a rubbish dump) and wanders dazed and confused through the local town, before she eventually meets up with Jenny Kelly, a typical 90s teenager with strange coloured hair and a penchant for being rebellious.


The remainder of the series sees Alana try to find the time capsule and return home before the 28 day time limit causes it to go without her, all whilst trying to avoid the machinations of Silverthorn, who is doing surprisingly well for himself due to his abuse of the Time capsules databanks which allow him to make money by knowing about things before they happen.

(This series was filmed in 1991, however it didn't air until 1993)


Following on from the end of the first series, "Tomorrows End" sees Alana return to her home time, however Jenny has to go with her, as does Silverthorn, both of whom sustained injuries which only the advanced science of the future can heal. After a month living in the future, it is decided that both Jenny and Silverthorn must be returned home, as their presence in the future has somehow altered the past. While Jenny has fully recovered from her injuries, Silverthorn claims to be suffering from total amnesia, however this is just a ploy to gain peoples trust, which allows him to steal Bruno's plans for an upgraded version of the time capsule, a time portal.
Jenny is returned to 1990 without incident, however when Silverthorn is returned to 2500 (which is shown to be an over populated, polluted post industrial wasteland), he tries to steal the time capsule again, but Alana and Brunos new assistant Lorien escape and travel back to 3000, however when they exit the time capsule, they find the future Earth has been totally destroyed. Quickly deducing that Silverthorn must have done something to alter the future, they return to the past, only for things to go horribly wrong as Lorien is captured and turned into a mindless slave for "Globecorp" (a megacorporation that owns everything on Earth) and it turns out Silverthorn has been using the time portal to bring items from the past into the future, including some nuclear weapons (all weapons, short of personal weapons, have been banned by Globecorp, being as countries blowing each other up is bad for business) which are then used by Globecorps director of operations on Earth, a megalomaniac called Draco, in an evil scheme to take control of Earth away from the board of directors who live in opulent luxury on the moon, while everyone planetside is left to slowly starve or be poisoned to death.




A third series was planned, but was never filmed as funding was not made available, being as the series' special effects budget was quite high, plus the two main actresses were getting too old to convincingly play teenaged children.
There is a strong environmental theme running through the show, although this was common in the early 90s, what with the hole in the ozone layer being discovered and concern mounting over depletion of natural resources etc.
The series does make attempts to be funny on occasion, most of which are successful, albeit cringeworthy in places, such as Alana becoming all giggly after consuming a chocolate eclair, having never been exposed to processed sugars before, which leads to Jenny being embarrassed whilst trying to ask a boy out, and then later leads to Alana spewing up in class as he stomach finally rejects our 20th century processed food.
The remainder of the shows humour usually comes courtesy of two "stock" characters, Petey, Jennys younger brother (standard annoying pre teen boy type) and Eddie (standard clueless goon type), both of whom go through a series of bungles and misadventures over the course of both series' .

The series now looks really dated, but, thanks to its time travel theme, this is perfectly ok, as all the scenes in 1990s Australia are authentic, although the visions of the future do have that distinctive "wobbly set" feel to them, and are properly representitive of what people in the early 90s thought the future would be like.

Another odd thing is that although Silverthorn is made out to be a big badass villain, some lines of dialogue in the 5th episode of the series illustrate that although he wants to exploit his knowledge of the future for his own personal benefit, his intention is on the whole, good, as he wants to stop the world from becoming the radioactive hell hole that it became by his time, this is probably the first time I saw a villain on TV that had this kind of noble purpose hidden behind ruthless ambiguity.

I have fond memories of this series, as it approaches the subject matter in an intelligent and entertaining way, without being condescending in some manner as shows like this intended for children end up being these days, although that said some of the episode "cliffhangers" were a bit daft

EPis0dIC! - Alien Nation "The Spirit of '95" (Se01E13) 1990

The episode begins with Buck and Susan visiting the campaign headquarters for the "Alien Vote Amendment", which aims to allow newcomers, all of whom have been granted citizenship and indefinite leave to stay in the united States, to have the right to vote.

Both Buck and Susan believe strongly in newcomers right to vote, as does "Wyatt Earp", the newcomer campaign manager and Jesse, the human campaign manager.
Susan and Buck both volunteer to help the cause, and their assistance is welcomed, however both Jesse and Wyatt are more interested in having George, a respected newcomer police officer, speak out on the issue. Although Susan says she cannot promise she can get any assistance form George, Buck is more enthusiastic, however just as Susan begins to feel ill from her ongoing pregnancy, the campaign headquarters has to be evacuated due to a bomb threat, one of several that have happened since the campaign began. Up until now though, all the threats have been hoaxes, but this time round, as everyone waits outside, the building explodes.

Sikes finds he has been voted in to be the chairman of his apartment blocks residents association, much to his displeasure, however he has no time to worry about it as he is called to investigate the bomb. As it turns out, Jesse says that he received a phone call from someone claiming to be a representative of the "United Purist Party", a right wing ultra conservative political movement dedicated to denying newcomers any rights to vote, or indeed, any right to exist as free sentient beings.
George is disgusted that people would go to such lengths to deny people their rights, and reminds Sikes that the countries foundations were based on people standing up for their rights, however Sikes states that matter doesn't interest him, as he generally doesn't vote.
Their investigation is made somewhat easier by the arrival of Max Clay, the head of the UPP, at the station. Max threatens Sikes and George with litigation if they make any statements directly linking the UPP with the terrorist bomb threats, as they have no direct evidence linking the incidents to him or representatives of his party. Max also states that it is the UPPs party line that direct threats and use of violence is neither encouraged or condoned, however as George points out to him, they have, in the past, made carefully veiled threats of violence against newcomers. Max launches into a monologue about how the Bible states that God created man in his image to have dominion over the Earth etc etc, and it is the Purists intention to keep mankind's "destiny" on course by whatever means necessary, even if that includes being violent or inhumane toward newcomers..George swears and leaves in disgust.

Buck is out canvassing with Wyatt while Susan helps Jesse set up the campaign headquarters in the Fransisco house (George isn't terribly pleased by this) however after having a few doors slammed in his face, Buck is shocked when Wyatt is kidnapped off the street, seemingly by some purists, who almost run him over in the process.
George is outraged at this, the second attack on his family that day, and heads over to UPP headquarters to politely "remind" Max Clay that violence can work both ways, and if anyone associated with the UPP attacks or threatens his family ever again, he will personally take care of the matter.
Meanwhile, Sikes is called to the scene of another kidnapping, this time Jesse has been taken off the street by the same vehicle car took Wyatt, however his investigation is cut short when he is called back to the station to receive a reprimand for Georges threatening behaviour towards Max Clay.

Sikes returns home to find he has to sit as chair at a meeting of the residents association, which quickly devolves into an argument between the other residents over whether they should pay $700 for an elderly resident to have a ramp installed on the back door, which apparently Sikes said he would look into at the last meeting, but hasn't because A) he is too busy with his police work and B) he doesn't care. As it turns out though, the weird old lady who has asked for the ramp has lived there since the place was built, brought up 3 children there and her husband died there, so she feels an attachment to the building itself in a way none of the other residents do. As it turns out later, Cathy paid for the ramp to be fitted out of her own pocket.

At the station the next day, Sikes arrives to find George giving an interview to Burns, the stations almost resident hack journalist. Burns is quite happy at George giving some very strong views on the purists, but Sikes steps in and stops him before he says something stupid.
Just then, Wyatt is dumped outside the station, having been badly beaten. Although he says that he does not know where he was taken, he says he knows that Jesse was there with him, and the people who held them, who identified themselves as purists, drew lots over which one of them to release. Unfortunately, Wyatt isn't able to give a description of his captors as he claims he was blindfolded all the time, but then he shocks both Sikes and George by insisting on giving a press conference right there and then to "expose" the treatment the UPP is meting out to newcomers.

With all the clues pointing to UPP involvement in the kidnappings and bombings, Sikes is a little surprised to receive an invitation for him and George to come and see Max Clay at their campaign headquarters. Clay explains that he personally instructed all members of the UPP to not make any violent action against anyone by letter a week before the trouble started, and he also presents Sikes with the proposition that maybe Wyatt and Jesse planned the bombing and kidnapping themselves, as despite the press conference and all the negative press about the UPP, the AVA movements approval ratings have only risen by 14%, as opposed to the expected 25%. George dismisses this notion as laughable, but Sikes sees his point. George asks why Sikes is so cynical about politics, and he explains that several years ago, a lobby group campaigned to outlaw chemical weapons, a motion which was passed through congress and lauded as a step towards the end of the production of weapons of mass destruction, however the money saved on developing, maintaining and building chemical weapons was funnelled straight into the development, maintenance and building of nuclear weapons instead of being used for peaceful means. Sikes says it was this incident which caused him to lose faith in the political system.

A report comes in that the car used in both the kidnappings of Wyatt and Jesse has been spotted, so Sikes and George follow it, only to find Wyatt at the wheel when it pulls up at a cheap motel on the outskirts of town. As it turns out, Wyatt confesses that Jesse planned the bombing and the kidnappings as a way to get free publicity for the AVA and to turn popular opinion against the UPP, however Jesse is ill and called Wyatt to come and take him to the hospital. They enter Jesses room to find that he has been beaten to death.

Now having a murder investigation on their hands, George and Sikes immediately suspect Wyatt, as the tyre iron from his car was used to kill Jesse, but no motive can be found. Sikes calls the phone company and asks for the call records from both Wyatt and Jesses telephones, however he finds that there has already been a wire tap made on both phones, seemingly without any authorisation.
Their investigation leads them to the phone company, where one of the employees there, a staunch purist supporter, had put a tap on the phones at the request of Max Clay, however he denies committing Jesses murder, saying he only told Max Clay where Jesse was when he had called Wyatt to ask him to take him to the hospital.
The vote comes, and the motion to allow newcomers to vote is passed in 32 states, meanwhile, at an investigation committee, the UPPs activities linking them not only to violence towards newcomers, but also to the murder of Jesse are brought to light, and the UPP loses all public credibility as Max Clay repeatedly takes the 5th whenever he is asked about his involvement. The judge ends the proceedings by ordering all the UPPs records to be seized and a full investigation into their activities be carried out.


This is one of the best episodes of the series in my opinion. firstly, it deals in a none too subtle way with the topic of racism in human society, and the efforts of those who use this racist attitude in order to further their own desire for power over others.
Secondly, it also deals with abuses of the political system to allow people to achieve their aims, regardless of the costs.
A very well written episode this be!.

Alien Nation : The Series (1989-1990)

Following on from the original film , the Alien Nation TV series continues the story of a "future" (the series is set roughly in 1991/1992) United States which becomes inhabited by 250,000 aliens after their ship crash lands in the Mojave desert.

Although the series was intended to be a direct follow on to the film, there were numerous small changes made to characters and back story, for example, the two main characters, Matthew Sykes (renamed "Sikes" in the TV series) and "newcomer" Sam "George" Fransisco (renamed simply "George Fransisco" in the series, his original pun name said to have been foisted on him by a bored immigration official) are now played by Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint as opposed to James Caan and Mandy Patinkin respectively.
In addition, Georges family was slightly changed, With his son now being named "Buck" instead of "Richard" as given in the film.

I first encountered this show as part of Yorkshire televisions "late night" weekend slot, as it usually aired on a friday or saturday night during the early/mid 90s. Itwas strange as i thought that there were at least 2 or 3 series of this show made, the series itself consisted of a single series of 22 episodes, each lasting 47 minutes, and the concept is explored further than it was in the film.
Several new aspects are added to the background of the "newcomers", whose race is named officially as the "Tenctonese", although the pejorative terms "Slag" or "Spongehead" are used by people to refer to them on occasion, a point which in the first episode, George explains to Sikes that calling him a Slag is the equivalent of calling someone a "nigger" or a "kike". Although the newcomers show they too have prejudice by referring to humans as "terts".

The series does have a couple of plot arcs, and each episode generally consists of two story lines running simultaneously in some way.  Themes explored include:-

• The culture shock that ensues from humans suddenly having 250,000 completely alien people dropped on them, which leads to various racist themes being explored, such as jealousy that the newcomers are generally stronger, smarter and more resilient than  humans. So much so that during the course of some episodes, a human centric "purist" movement is shown to exist, which spreads various rumours and lies about the newcomers. The irony of this is is that many black, oriental and Hispanic people end up repeating the same things about newcomers as what was once said about themselves, for no other reason than to express hatred towards something different.
• The new types of crime that spring up once the newcomers begin integrating into human society. Although a lot of this crime is pretty much the same as human crime (drug traffiking, prostitution, theft, murder, gang warfare etc) the problems end up becoming more complex being as that they involve an alien culture, and as such, many of the human characters do not always understand what is happening. 
• Inter species relationships are also explored, with Sikes slowly becoming more and more attracted towards his newcomer neighbour "Cathy", as well as a few episodes depicting both aliens and newcomers in mixed or same sex relationships (it is also shown that the newcomers have no taboos about same sex relationships amongst either their own people or inter species, although some do have prejudice about mixed sex inter species relationships).
•  An interesting sub plot throughout the series is the introduction of a ruling class of newcomers called "overseers", nearly all of whom went unnoticed on their arrival on Earth and all of whom seek to once again take control of the "lesser" newcomers. George finds the overseers detestable, as do most of the other newcomers once they have been freed from their influence. One episode deals with a terrorist obtaining a cannister of the mind control gas that the overseers used to keep the slaves in line, and several episodes deal with the police finding and closing down operations to create "Jabroka", a drug which has roughly the same effect on newcomers as crack cocaine does on humans.
• Sikes and Georges ongoing struggle to make arrests despite interference from the ambitious and somewhat buffoonish Captain Grazer.

The series is unashamedly a "buddy cop" type program, but also has elements of being a sci-fi soap opera, with many of the "B" plots being little more than simple "aliens/humans not understanding each other" type affairs, but for some reason, it really works well, and quickly establishes a core group of likeable characters performing believable actions within their almost normal environment.
There are numerous examples of comedy in there as well, ranging from simple cultural misunderstandings (such as Georges wife being utterly repulsed by the concept of Halloween), right down to instances of heavily satirical and/or black humour. 

But, despite how well the series was received, its days were numbered as after only a single series. This came as somewhat of a surprise to viewers, and to the production crew, who had expected to at least get a second series based on the shows approval ratings. The problem was, the show aired on FOXs "Fox Network" during its early days as a prime time TV channel, and, due to the network not attracting as much investment from advertisers as they had expected, cuts had to be made to the network budget, and, Alien Nation, being an expensive show to make due to the large amount of special effects and make up needing to be applied to actors playing aliens, ranked as one of the shows which had to go in order to save money.

The story didn't end there though, with five feature length TV movies being produced between 1994 and 1997 which picked up from where the series left off and resolved all the unfinished story lines.

The show still enjoys somewhat of a cult following today, and is one of my firm favourites.

War Of The Worlds - The series (1988-1990)

The War Of The Worlds TV series was first envisaged as a concept in the 1970s by Director George Pal and was intended to be a direct follow on the the 1953 movie, however the series did not make it to screens due to no interest in it.
In 1988 however writer/director Greg Strangis managed to pitch a similar concept which found favour amongst US TV executives who were, at the time, quite keen on making TV series based on successful films, as the same year saw a "Friday the XIII" TV series and a "Nightmare on Elm Street" TV series.

Two full series were made, however there are massive differences in the settings and tone of the second series compared to the first, so much so that barring a couple of shared characters, the second series could be considered to be something entirely different based on a similar premise.

Series 1 (1988-1989)

The back story goes that both the events of the 1953 Film and the 1938 Radio Broadcast were actually real attempted alien invasions, however following the end of the 1953 invasion, the aliens (note - the aliens are not referred to as "martians", as a rule in all episodes, as the concept of life on Mars had long since been disproved and thus useless as a believable plot point) did not die when exposed to Earths bacteria, instead, the aliens entered a state of torpor, and thus, after the 1953 war ended, thousands of "dead" alien bodies were sealed into oil drums and sent to storage areas all over the world, supposedly for scientific research purposes, but in reality they were quickly hidden away along with any spacecraft and artifacts so that the worlds governments could quickly and quietly rebuild and forget about the horrifying events of the invasion.
35 years pass and in present day (1988) a group of environmental terrorists attack and take over a military storage compound, which they intend to hold for ransom due to it being used to store nuclear waste. Unfortunately for them the facility is also one of the places that sleeping aliens are stored, and, in the process of their assault on the facility, the terrorists cause the aliens to become exposed to radioactive waste, which reanimates them. The aliens quickly counter attack, and demonstrate that they have the ability to merge their bodies with a human body, thus allowing them to appear as human (This was actually a cost saving measure so that numerous difficult to produce alien costumes didn't have to be made and maintained, plus it also allowed the aliens to directly influence the plot. It should also be noted that throughout the entire series, the aliens are never seen clearly).

The aliens are discovered when they make a transmission requesting orders from their superiors, and this leads to the introduction of the series' main characters:-

Dr. Harrison Blackwood  (Jared Martin) - The adopted son of Dr. Clayton Forrester and Sylvia van Buren. Harrison is an eccentric scientist who carried on Dr. Forresters work on the aliens, even though after the great cover up no one believed in aliens any more. He becomes head of "The Blackwood Project" a secret group dedicated to finding and stopping the aliens before they take over the world. Blackwoods curiosity quite often gets the team into trouble.

Norton Drake  (Phillip Akin) - A paraplegic computer genius who intercepted the aliens first transmission. (In the pilot episode of the series, Norton sported a faux Caribbean accent, however this was dropped for the series proper, although in the first few episodes he still uses it, however the actor playing him re dubbed his lines in his own voice) Norton, as well as being a top notch research scientist is also an expert hacker, and helps the team get access to information by bypassing governmental "red tape" from time to time with his skills.

Lt.Col Paul Ironhorse  (Paul Chaves) - A US army special forces operative of native American ancestry who serves as the liaison between Dr. Blackwood and the military. Ironhorse is a staunch conservative and generally prefers military action over scientific investigation, putting him at odds with the pacifistic Dr. Blackwood, however over time the two grow to hold a respect for each other.

Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green) - A Microbiologist and single mother who comes to work for Dr. Blackwood prior to the arrival of the alien threat. Throughout the series Suzanne works on numerous biological methods of identifying or attacking the aliens, as well as finding out more about them. Suzanne is a very "by the numbers" scientist, which causes problems with Blackwoods eccentric approach to science.

The Blackwood team are tasked with researching and finding ways to combat the aliens, however the aliens themselves face numerous problems. Firstly, although they have been resurrected by the radiation, its effect of killing the germs that harm them also causes their bodies to break down from radiation sickness, meaning the aliens can only spend short periods inside a human body before they too begin to disintegrate. Secondly, the aliens do not have access to their advanced weapons or technology this time round, so therefore have to make do with crudely adapted human technology, or hopefully be able to scavenge some of their own equipment from secret storage facilities, or left over from previous visits to Earth.
Over the course of the series the aliens revive more of their own kind and try numerous strategies to subvert and kill mankind, some of which end up being horribly successful (yes that's right, the baddies win sometimes), but the series does end on a fairly high note, as it turns out that humans may have allies from space as well as enemies, although by the end of the series, it is established that an alien colonisation fleet will arrive within a few years.

Series 2 (1989-1990)

Series 2 saw some major changes to the shows format. Firstly, the setting was changed from "present day" to "almost tomorrow", this allowed for the timeline to be moved on to accommodate the arrival of the alien colonisation fleet.
Also, and more bizarrely, the aliens from the first series (the "Mor-Tax") were replaced with another set of completely different aliens, the "Mothren", with little to no explanation given as to why.
Also, Ironhorse and Norton are killed off in the first episode, and instead replaced by a mercenary called John Kincaid (played by a pre-Highlander: The Series Adrian Paul).


In this series, Earth has fallen into a period of chaos and great social upheaval, leading to an almost total breakdown of civilised society.
The Mothren arrive on Earth, and, unlike their predecessors the Mor-Tax, have no trouble whatsoever adapting to the environment, however they find it inconvenient that the humans haven't been massacred, allowing them to begin full colonisation procedures, however, over the course of the series they try to complete their mission of finding a new home world, despite their many internal conflicts.



Overall Thoughts



While the series' original concept, and thus the first series itself was quite good, it completely went to pot with the changes made for the second series.
The first series mixed sci-fi with elements of adventure and horror, and was genuinely scary to me when I first saw this series as an 11 year old, especially some of the gruesome ways that the aliens killed people.
A nice touch was that Jared Martin was instructed to copy actor Gene Barrys mannerisms in his portrayal of Harrison Blackwood, so as to make another link between the film and the series.
Another nice touch was the episode "An eye for an eye", which first aired on the 50th anniversary of Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast and pays tribute to it by having the Blackwood team visit the setting of the radio play and tangling with aliens with help from some of the town militia who fought them during the 1930s.
The series also had a lot of environmentalist themes, as well as some cleverly crafted bits of satire and black comedy, most notably that each episode of series 1 was titled after a biblical quote, which had an ironic connection to the plot for the episode.
Series 2 was just awful, with far too many plot and character changes to make the two series' related in any way, even the episodes of it themselves are boring, save for one episode which involves Blackwood travelling back in time to the 1950s.

This is a good series, so long as you only really watch series 1, well acted, and for the most part well scripted. Some of the special effects are a bit bargain basement, and any instance of alien war machines appearing in the series is simply repurposed footage from the 1953 film, but, even though the program is very 1980s in its stylings, and thus may be a little difficult for younger people to get their head round, it is still watchable and entertaining.

Dystopiarama - Robot Jox (1990)

A bit of a bizarre entry for this sub heading but this film is, nonetheless, a Dystopic film.

Robot Jox is a 1990 Sci-fi/Action film directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Gary Graham and no one else of any note, well, apart from a very young looking Jeffrey Combs in a role credited as "Prole #1".

This film is unusual for its time as it makes extensive use of stop motion and puppetry in order to portray the battle robots that play a large part in the films plot.

The plot is thus:-
In the late 21st century, the Earth is suffering the after effects of global resource wars, and, having seen the devastation and total pointlessness of nuclear conflict, the remaining nations of the world have formed themselves into two power blocs, The Free Market and the Confederation, and totally banned open warfare.
Instead of fighting in senseless and wasteful war, conflicts are instead sorted via a gladiatorial contest known simply as "The Games".

The games differ from previous gladiatorial contests, as they are fought using battle robots, piloted by warriors known as "Robot Jox".

The rules of the games seem fairly simple (or as simple as I can make them out to be from watching this movie) :-

#1 - Both sides may only enter one robot to fight per battle.
#2 - The robot may be armed with whatever weapons or technology the owners choose, and there is no obligation for either side to reveal what weapons or technology their robot is equipped with.
#3 - Once a robot has entered the battle arena, regardless of who is piloting it, it is considered that the challenge has been accepted. Leaving the arena without referee permission results in disqualification.
#4 - Combat will continue until one robot or Robot Jox is unable to continue.
#5 - All referee stipulations and directions are to be obeyed immediately and without question, failure or refusal to do so results in disqualification and forfeiture of the match.

The "Markets" best pilot is Jim, who fights under the alias "Achilles". Achilles is on the verge of surviving and winning 10 matches in a row, a feat only accomplished by his mentor, the Texan tactical advisor Tex Conway, who 10 years previously managed to destroy the Confederations most powerful robot with what he claims was a lucky shot from his vehicle, which was little more than a super heavy tank back in the days when bipedal walking war machines were unheard of.

Achilles is to fight the Confederations "Alexander", a ruthless russian pilot for the territory of Alaska, which if he wins will mark the end of his contract with the Market, however Alexander says he will kill Achilles and stop him achieving his goal.
Their match gets off to a good start, with both robots exchanging ranged fire with machine guns and missiles, before opening up on each other with lasers.
Alexanders robot fires a long blast from its laser cannon, but Achilles manages to deflect it with a piece of reflective armour located on his robots arms, then he plans to hit back with their secret weapon, the "Green Laser", which their science boffin, Dr. Matsumoto, says should guarantee them victory, however, they soon find that they have a spy in their midst when Achilles fires his Green Lasers, only for Alexander to deflect the blasts using his own reflective armour plates. The referees switch off both robots ranged weapons, so the action switches to melee combat, and Achilles is placed at a disadvantage as Alexander relentlessly pummels him with repeated blows from his robots hydraulic fists, but, just as Achilles thinks he has regained his advantage and damages his opponents robot with a hidden cutting torch, Alexander cheats and reveals that his secret weapon is the ability for his robot to fire one of its fists like a missile, which malfunctions and veers towards the crowd. Achilles throws his machine in the way and manages to block the out of control missile, but his robot falls on to the bleachers, and 300 people are killed. The match is declared a draw, as although Alexander won the match, he broke the rules by using a projectile weapon when at the time they were prohibited, so a rematch is to be fought in 1 week.

Achilles then decides he has fulfilled his obligation and decides to retire, but is alarmed when he is told his place will be taken by a new breed of genetically engineered soldiers called "Gen-Jox", who have superior strength, endurance and reactions, but who are completely inexperienced and extremely arrogant.

As the film goes on, The spy is revealed and Achilles ends up fighting Alexander once more for revenge.

The film is really good, considering its subject matter, and the special effects for the robots are amazing considering not one bit of CGI was used.
That said, the acting is somewhat hammy and the characters spew out line after line of cliched dialogue, but this doesnt alter the fact that this film is a nice, fun film, which will appeal to young and old alike.

If you want to watch this film, you can find it HERE

Book Review:- The Difference Engine (1990)

The Difference engine is a 1990 steampunk novel co authored by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

In a departure from the two authors speciality in the cyberpunk genre, the novels plot takes place in an alternate late 19th century in which Charles Babbage's mechanical computer (the titular "Difference Engine") was considerably more successful than it was in our reality, thus starting the computer revolution at least 100 years earlier than it occurred in our "prime" universe.

As such, the British Empire became considerably more powerful than it did in actuality, and the use of these early computers has kick started a social revolution within the empire, where the hereditary peerage system has been scrapped and replaced with a meritocracy which actively promotes learning and speciality in the "practical" sciences, as such, figures such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Babbage and Lord Byron occupy high places within the government (with Byron being the Prime minister for most of the novel after deposing the Duke of Wellington who had seized power in a violent coup d'etat).

The closest rival that the British Empire faces is France, who also have their own computers (which they call "Ordinateurs"), and in this reality, the United States is made up of a series of smaller countries, all of whom don't particularly get on with each other, named ones include the "Union of States", the "Confederate States of America", "The Republic of Texas" and the "Manhattan Commune" (a communist state which occupies most of new york state).

The plot of the book itself is made up of a series of vignettes, each one concentrating on a series of characters who fit in with the overall story arc, this overall story arc concerning the ownership of a box of punch cards containing a computer program, the use of which is speculated about by many of the characters but only actually revealed in a small paragraph right at the end of the book, meaning the punch cards simply act as a "mcguffin" of sorts, with no effect on the plot other than the fact that they exist.

The vignettes are usually prefaced by some sort of passage, written in the style of a police report, a news report or a diary entry from one of the other characters explaining the setting and background to the events, before the storyline begins proper.
This can be somewhat confusing in places, as the books overall plot does not strictly follow a linear time line, and the prose itself is written fully in the style of how it would have been written and spoken in the 19th century, thus it contains many archaic terms and turns of phrase that the uninitiated reader may struggle to make sense of, as well as some forms or social etiquette which have long since fallen out of use but which were quite common at the time.
It should also be pointed out that although this book is set in the "prim and proper" Victorian era, it does indeed contain numerous sexual scenes, described in detail, most notably occurring during the sections dealing with the character "Edward Mallory".

All in all, the novel is a fairly good piece of alternative history fiction, albeit a difficult one to read, and will require some research being done for those who are not familiar with the time period or the concepts being discussed.