Review: Ashes to Ashes, Series 1 (2008)

'Ashes to Ashes' follows-on from its predecessor 'Life on Mars', this time with DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) transported back in to 1981, after a possibly fatal incident, where she finds she is part of DCI Gene Hunt's (Philip Glenister) team. Alex quickly works out that she is having the same experience as Sam Tyler from LoM (conveniently, she read his case file) and decides that the way back to the present day is to save her parents, Caroline Drake (Amelia Bullmore) and Tim Price (Andrew Clover) from dying in a car bomb.

I wonder why the creators, Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, chose to set the series in 1981, a period when there hadn't been any remarkable police procedurals other than 'Hill Street Blues' (and at a stretch, 'The Professionals'), unlike LoM, which was set in the early 70s and could reference many more series. Series 1 also seems to live in a vacuum; the fact that the UK economy was in a deep recession is hardly mentioned, and significant local events in the early 80s, such as the Brixton race riots, aren't used much in the series.

The dynamics between the Alex and Gene in the first few episodes in the new series were a bit wobbly, as if the creators were writing a female Sam Tyler instead of a totally new character, and it isn't until episode 4 that Alex steps out of Sam's shadow. Also, from that episode onwards, other members of Gene's team start filling out the series: macho Ray's (Dean Andrews) masculinity is tested, mop-haired Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and newcomer WPC Sharon 'Shaz' Granger (Montserrat Lombard) start making eyes at each other, and even desk sergeant Viv (Geff Francis) plays a part in the investigations.

More of a conventional cop series compared to 'Life on Mars' but still inventive and sometimes surprising.

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Torchwood Series 1 (2006)

'Torchwood' is an adult-oriented SF spin-off from 'Dr Who', featuring Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), previously a recurring character in 'Dr Who', as the leader of a secret government organization of the title. In episode 1.1 'Everything Changes', we are introduced to Torchwood via Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), a Cardiff police constable who tails the Torchwood team back to their base after an incident with an alien. She finds out that Cardiff is the centre of a rift in space and time, and the Torchwood unit in the city is assigned to monitor and deal with incidents related to that rift.

In line with the edgier premise of the series, there's a lot of violence, coarse language and sex scenes. Unfortunately, many of the early episodes seem to be little more than an excuse to draw a reaction from the audience. For instance, episode 1.2 'Day One' has the team tracking a sex alien and 1.7 'Greeks Bearing Gifts' has geek girl Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) in a girl-on-girl relationship with an alien. In addition, the team's doctor, Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), is bisexual, and Harkness is bedding Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), the team's administrator. It is not until episode 1.9 'Random Shoes' that the series leaves behind its adolescent focus on sexuality and starts to, um, actually tell stories.

During the course of the series, various events foreshadow the arrival of something extra nasty out of the rift. These threads are played out in the final back-to-back episodes 1.12 'Captain Jack Harkness' and 1.13 'End of Days', where a spooky time-traveller Bilis Manger (Murray Melvin) is introduced. The climatic fight between Torchwood and the Big Bad, though, is underwhelming.

Not a good start to a new series, too much effort on adolescent sexuality and angst, and not enough on telling stories.

2 out of 5 stars.

SF on Nine's Digital Go! channel

Channel Nine launched its second digital channel, Go! last Sunday (9 Aug 2009). It is pitched as an entertainment channel which I hope means that it will be possible to watch a series without it being rescheduled or interrupted by sport or other events.

Wednesday's schedule (named GO BEYOND) has three SF-themed series back-to-back: [the laboriously named] Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe (Rea G. should be pleased!) and Eleventh Hour. Nine screened the first episode of each series yesterday, so I guess it is repeating each of the series.