tonycarr Reviews

The Four Just Men: The Moment of Truth (1960) Season 1, Episode 36

Why?

[4/10 · 21 May 2024]

I couldn't work out what this was doing in The Four Just Men. There's no crime, no evil wrongdoers, just a sulky, bad tempered kid who has his first fight as a bullfighter. I get that he is frightened, I would be terrified, but it is not exactly edge of the seat stuff. Tim gets him to perform by lying to him about his father, a famous bullfighter who had died in the ring. Lying didn't seem very "Just" to me.

I don't know if bullfighting is still practised in Spain but showing it makes the episode seem terribly outdated.

The only thing memorable about this episode is Doctor Who meeting Pussy Galore.

Beyond Paradise: Episode #2.6 (2024) Season 2, Episode 6

I can't quite make my mind up

[7/10 · 15 May 2024]

What is Beyond Paradise? I thought it was supposed to me a crime show but it seems to be a soap opera with comedy thrown in. I'm getting a bit bored with Martha and the foster parent story line. Not only does the lead character have personal problems but we've dragged in his mother in law. This must be the the only crime show where the detective's sidekick being relegated to third billing.

I also can't get my head around the ooo arrh phoney accents. Why is the young policeman sound as though he is doing an impression of Benny from Crossroads?

On the plus side Kriss Marshall is always good and at least we've got away from DIP's silly idea of getting all thr suspects together and explaining the solution.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Hegemony (2023) Season 2, Episode 10

Finally....

[1 February 2024]

I greatly enjoyed the first year of SNW being the best of the current series that I have seen (not that that bar has been set very high) so I was looking forward to season 2. Alas it was something of a disappointment. Fat too much angst and soap opera. Pike and Spock were side-lined in early episodes. The crossover episode and Star Trek - The Bad Musical were bizarre and hard to watch. The comes Hegemony. Star trek as it is meant to be. The Captain and crew on the bridge of the Enterprise dealing with dangerous aliens. Good exciting stuff with a good old fashioned cliff hanger. Added to that the return of a much loved character will get back for the next season.

Just one question. Why did I have to wait so long?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023) Season 2, Episode 9

Somewhere in Heaven there is a Science Fiction Creator known as "Spinning Gene"

[30 January 2024]

So now we have Star Trek - The Schmaltzy Musical. I thought "Those Old Scientists" was bad but at least that was meant to be for children. At least I managed to get to the end, unlike this. It's hard to see who thought this would be a good idea and why. I know it's science fiction but the idea that this weeks anomaly makes everybody burst into song is ridiculous in the extreme. And how come everybody has good singing voices? Why does nobody sound like me?

I had high hopes of SNW. I loved the first series, especially after the blubfest that was Discovery but this season is turning into a soap opera with emotional crises all over the place. Can't we get to some good old action and adventure.

This episode belongs in the same bin as "Spock's Brain" "Threshold" and "Sub Rosa"

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Those Old Scientists (2023) Season 2, Episode 7

A very educational episode

[2/10 · 26 January 2024]

Well, it certainly taught me a lesson. Never to watch Lower Decks. I have never seen such bad acting, so much running around pointlessly, so much shrieking, so much gabbling incomprehensibly in all my born days. I appreciate there is room for Junior Star Trek but why bring it in to SNW. To be honest I am biased because I hate crossovers (except Trials and Tribbleations).

The story is non existent, being merely a ruse to shoehorn the two characters onto the Enterprise where they do nothing except make never ending references to past characters and the ending is rushed and botched. I feel sorry for Frakes. One strictly for the fanboys.

If I want to watch cartoons I'll watch proper ones like Bugs Bunny.

Star Trek: Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II (2005) Season 4, Episode 19

What was the point of it?

[2/10 · 14 October 2022]

To be fair, I'm not a fan of mirror universe episodes. I don't see the point of them. This one is one of the worst. The effects are good and the fanboys will get a buzz out of the references to Kirk and Co though the Gorn is totally unnecessary. Gregory Itzin makes an entrance and is promptly killed off

The problem is that this episode wanders around the place desperately searching for an ending. Not only that, the characters were so deeply unpleasant I stopped caring what happened to them. You could have killed them all of and I wouldn't have bothered.

All in all a filler of the worst kind.

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

Has its faults but....

[7/10 · 18 May 2022]

I haven't seen this since it was released in 1965.

It's obviously made on a low budget, The. Doctor has clearly regenerated into Einstein minutes and I could live without Roy Castle's pratfall's but it's a fun way of spending 80 minutes. At least there is a refreshing lack of high speed, gabbling, maniacally waving sonic screwdrivers, woke stories and po-faced lecturing.

Star Trek: Voyager: Spirit Folk (2000) Season 6, Episode 17

Begorrah and bejaysus this is embarrassing and insulting.

[1/10 · 17 December 2021]

This is Voyager's obligatory "Lets make the holodeck characters aware of themselves" episode so a bad start. What makes it worse is that it is also an obligatory "Lets treat the Irish as though Finian's Rainbow" is a documentary. Hokey Oirish accents, superstitious, beer scrounging and violent. Why do the writers dislike the Irish so much. You would have thought that they would have learned lessons from Up the Long Ladder but apparently not.

I couldn't even get to the end.

Churchill (2021)

Very good but missing about 10 years

[8/10 · 27 May 2021]

This was a very goof series about Churchill but strangely episode 5 ended with Churchill losing the 1945 election and episode 6 opening with him in retirement in the South of France. No mention of him winning the 1951 election, being given a knighthood and standing down as PM.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Dark Page (1993) Season 7, Episode 7

If you don't like this episode....

[9/10 · 11 May 2020]

Then you clearly have no idea what Star Trek is, and has always been, about.

I've never been a fan of Lwaxana and have always found her pointless and irritating but in this episode we have a deep and involving story that was well written. This is the episode that lets Majel show her acting talent and boy does she deliver. An incredible performance, both powerful and nuanced. If only she had more stories like that, instead of saving it till the last.

Those who think it's like a soap opera clearly haven't understood that Trek is essentially a soap opera in space. No matter, the are lots od prorammes with nothing but whizzy lights, lasers and space battles

By Jeeves (2001 TV Movie)

Oh dear

[4/10 · 10 May 2020]

Andrew Lloyd Webber has been releasing various pieces on Youtube during the current pandemic and this was this weeks offering. What's bizarre is that this is from the man behind Cats, Evita, Phantom, Superstar and all the rest. You can only think that he knocked this up one morning while having a toilet break. The music is totally unmemorable, less than twenty four hours later I couldn't remember one song, apart from "By Jeeves". The guy who plays Bertie has completely missed the point and absolutely fails to get Bertie's slight goofiness. I'm not mentioning the accent because I can't do better then another reviewers "Concorde" jibe.

The only saving grace here is Martin Jarvis who is Jeeves to a T.

If you want some proper Wodehouse then get the box set of "Jeeves and Wooster" and let Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie show you how it should be done.

Doctor Who (2005–2022)

The date of this review says it all.

[1/10 · 6 May 2020]

This series started on 1st January and I've only just watched the last episode. Time was I'd be watching them as soon as they aired. Now I can't be bothered. I'm really watching out of a silly sense of loyalty

I'm old. I watched the first episode on 23rd November 1963 and never have I seen anything this bad. This last season has been awful. The writing is pompous, patronising and lecturing. We know pollution is bad, we don't need a long winded lecture. The cast is woeful, three companions are too many. Yaz and Ryan seem to have strayed off the set of Eastenders. Only Bradley Walsh saves the day. He is far and away the best part of the whole show. As for Jodie Whittaker she is truly awful, the worst incarnation ever. After two seasons she turns in the same performance. This consists of endlessly waving the sonic screwdriver around like a demented magician and wittering endlessly, gabbling so fast so we can't make out what the hell she is talking about. We also seem to have gone back to the Colin Baker era for fashion. It appears that she can travel through time and space but finding a pair of trousers that fits is beyond her. I hate to say this because Jodie is a fantastic actress, as anyone who saw her performance in Broadchurch knows.

The last episode had the lowest number of viewers ever. Sad

Doctor Who: The Timeless Children (2020) Season 12, Episode 10

If it wasn't for the new Master it wouldn't get one star

[1/10 · 6 May 2020]

This was awful. The cyberman looked as though I was watching Star Wars and the ending was just a badly thought out, badly written piece of junk. I mean, what was the point?

Sasha wiped the floor with Jodie in the acting stakes and the cyborg was good but that was it. Apparently this episode got the lowest number of viewers ever and it's not difficult to see why.

Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen (2020) Season 12, Episode 9

By far the best episode of the series

[6/10 · 29 April 2020]

Not there was a lot of competition.

I would have given 8* but everything has an automatic two point deduction because of Jodie Whittaker. I hate myself for saying this but she has to be the worst Doctor ever. Her constant wittering, incessant waving the screwdriver at everything and the clown suit drive me nuts. Not to mention her arrogance and lecturing all and sundry. When you put this against her amazing performance in Broadchurch it could be a completely different person.

That sais the Lone Cyberman is good, as is the new Master

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Suspicions (1993) Season 6, Episode 22

Not bad for a Crusher episode

[7/10 · 24 April 2020]

I noticed that a lot of reviewers complain that Crusher gets off because she is proved right but has still carried out an autopsy despite Picard ordering her not to. Data not only disobeyed Riker in "Quality of Life" but he also endangered his Captain's life yet he seemed to face no punishment whatsoever. No one seems concerned about that. Isn't it likely that Reyga's family pleaded for leniency since Crusher has not only discovered who killed him but also proved that his invention actually worked thus creating a Ferengi scientist the equal of any other?

Arrow: Fadeout (2020) Season 8, Episode 10

Must be me then

[4/10 · 23 April 2020]

When it started it was a series about a crime fighting vigilante and that was fine. Ignore the fact that the hero has a bow and arrow while the bad guys have automatic weapons that that the lead character is as wooden as an arrow. It's not meant to be Shakespeare. Just an enjoyable bit of silliness. The first series were fine enough but then they started having crossovers, which meant you either had to watch other shows or you missed bits. Then it started to get really stupid with parallel universes and people dying and then coming back to life. I still haven't worked out why Oliver had to die or how that saves anything but apparently Star City is crime free. Why just Star City I have no idea

The finale seems to have Moira and Quentin suddenly coming back from the dead for no discernible reason. There is a glimmer of hope when someone kidnaps William but that fizzles out. The rest of the time is spent dripping in sentimentality rather than genuine emotion.

Hawaii Five-0: Ka 'i'o (2019) Season 10, Episode 7

So once again...

[2/10 · 5 March 2020]

McGarratt just ups and goes to another country. Doesn't the state of Hawaii ever get fed up with paying for the 5-0 task force when they aren't actually doing anything in Hawaii.

Not surprising they have pulled the plug

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Qpid (1991) Season 4, Episode 20

Fun but pointless

[7/10 · 25 January 2020]

I don't like Q very much. Turning up unannounced and demanding to be centre stage all the time is irritating. That said, John de Lancie plays the character very well. In this episode Picard and crew are transformed into Robin Hood and his Merrrie Men (despite Worf's protestations). Picard must save Vash (another irritating character) from death. To show her gratitude she promptly runs off with Q. Why is a little unclear.

All in all a fun episode but we don't really learn much.

And would every one please not it is pronounced Robin Hood. Two separate words with all vowels short. It is not pronounced Rarbinhood.

Arrow: Purgatory (2019) Season 8, Episode 7

Once upon a time...

[5/10 · 17 January 2020]

This used to be about a masked vigilante fighting crime in his city. What happened to that?

The plot has become incomprehensible, people who are dead suddenly come back to life and children from twenty years in the future suddenly turn up and no one knows how. At least this week we were spared too many of those tedious fight sequences. They all look exactly the same and look as thought they were choreographed by the London School of Ballet.

All I can say is that it must be a fine time to be a criminal in Star City. All their crimefighters have left.

Downton Abbey (2019)

Proves that TV shows never make good movies

[6/10 · 12 January 2020]

I have always been a fan of Downton Abbey and was looking forwards to seeing how it would appear on the big screen. Sadly, not well. To compensate for the fag-paper thin plot they shoehorned in a lot of sub plots that made no sense. An IRA murder plot, Barrow being gay (we already knew that and it's ridiculous to make out that he didn't know there was a gay hangout in his own area), the maid who wasn't and the farcical nonsense of tricking the Palace courtiers. Mr Bates had nothing to do, Mr Mosely was cringing, and I wanted to pour concrete into Daisy's mouth to stop the continual whining.

On the plus side Maggie Smith is brilliant and the scenes between her, Penelope Wilton and Imelda Staunton are by far the best thing in the whole two hours.

Star Trek: Discovery: The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry (2017) Season 1, Episode 4

Have I missed something?

[7 January 2020]

This ship is powered by something called a spore drive, right? A lot of mushrooms powered by an overgrown dung beetle. Since it appears to be able to arrive at its destination instantaneously why, nearly 200 years later, is Jean-Luc Picard still crawling around the universe at warp speed? And why has no one ever mentioned this before, ever?

Cats (2019)

Not as good as 10 but certainly not deserving all the vitriol.

[7/10 · 30 December 2019]

I've never seen Cats before so I was uncorrupted by past experience. Wasn't particularly looking forward to it in view of all the negative press but I'd already booked the tickets and guess what? I really enjoyed it. As a musical about singing cats it does a good job. It's lively and enjoyable which is what you want in a light hearted musical.

As for the cast Judi Dench does a fair job singing for an 85 year old, certainly better at singing than a certain co-star of hers a few years ago. Of course, you could be arguing whether an 85 year old has the voice for it. The other older cast members, Ian McKellen and Ray Winstone do well. I'm old so I have no idea who the other cast were but they do their jobs well. I would argue that Jennifer Hudson overcooks " Memory" but most singers in this day and age seem to think that emotion means volume. I blame Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

If you're thinking about going ignore all the 1* reviews. It's not perfect but it's not the old dog that some say it is.

The Crown: Dear Mrs. Kennedy (2017) Season 2, Episode 8

I look more like JFK than Michael C. Hall does

[9/10 · 15 July 2019]

This was a great episode marred only by the fact that none of the three actors resembled their characters. Indeed why the picked Julian Ovenden -best known for playing Andrew Foyle in Foyle's War - to play Bobby Kennedy is a mystery. I have no idea who Michael C. Hall is but he is the worst of all those I have seen play JFK. They get closest witch Jackie even to the extent of putting her in a variation of the iconic pill box hat.

My big gripe is that being a British show they should get the details right. Someone has already pointed out that HMQ was pregnant with Edward at the time. As someone who is old I remember the assassination and when the awful news hit it was after 7.30 in the evening here in the UK and very dark.

As a point of interest (or not) MacMillans country house is about twenty miles for where I lived and the President visited, causing the local paper to go into raptures.

Arrow: You Have Saved This City (2019) Season 7, Episode 22

So what happened there

[5/10 · 14 June 2019]

As an Englishman of a certain vintage I started watching Arrow so I could have something silly and undemanding with a glass of red before bed. n appropriate title too, since the lead actor is as wooden as an arrow though he did manage some emotion this week.

My problem is that if you don't watch all the other shows (and who has such an empty life) it makes no sense. I could never work out How Laurel was dead one minute and alive the next. Who was the guy at the end? Where did he come from?

I could put up with the flash backs, at least they enhanced the story, but the fast forwards? They brought nothing to the story and sometimes ruined any suspense since you knew that neither Roy or Felicity was going to get killed.

One other point. Why has Felicity started talking as though the tape machine is on fast forwards?

Hawaii Five-0: Ikiiki i ka la o Keawalua (2019) Season 9, Episode 14

Much better

[7/10 · 9 April 2019]

No ridiculous plots involving everyone suddenly tearing around the world, no silly bickering, just a fairly good story well told. The sub plot involving parents trying to foist their belief in whatever sky-fairy they picked on their children was cliched and has been done better elsewhere but still, an improvement on previous episodes