Well, well, well!

So. Two fairly important movie trailers came out in the last 7 days, and both (though one more so) have set social social media all-of-a-flutter.

First; Jurassic World.

Now, I loved Jurassic Park, and this film looks pretty awesome. But, well a genetically engineered, man-made hybrid dinosaur? Some speculate that the park is a cover for the people behind it to create dinosaur super-weapons. That would be an interesting take- but the focus of the trailer is on the park. Does the phrase "don't sh*t where you eat" mean anything to you? I mean, you have thousands of visitors- and press no doubt- and you're creating an army of super-lizards behind the scenes? What about that second island, for all the experimental stuff- I mean, they obviously got the dinosaurs on Nublar under control..

The dinosaurs looked pretty good mind, though there were many criticisms of the CG in the trailer, it is obviously not a finished piece, so those criticisms can't be taken too seriously. No, for me the story is more of a niggling worry- a worry that might also be for nothing upon the movies release.

Second (and slightly more exciting); Star Wars VII- The Force Awakens.

I have a feeling that this is for Star Wars fans what *some* Star Trek fans wished the reboot movies could have been (though I personally had no complaints about them). J.J. Abrams has stated for years that, of the two franchises, Star Wars had a closer place in his geeky 'lil heart than Trek. And boy does it show in this trailer!

Neither bogged down with excessive CG, nor quite the rough-and-ready of the originals, this looks like the space opera that both young and old have fallen in love with, returning with flare. And the voice over is a curious mix of Andy Serkis and Benedict Cumberbatch, and pleasantly sinister (though the new Sith(?) lightsaber is a.. unique design. Okay, it's downright weird.), the new R2 unit, however, is cute- and will no doubt make for many a must-have toy for next Christmas. Of course, just like Jurassic World audiences and fans will make the final judgement, as the contents are only to be speculated at this point.

Though you'd have to have a heart of stone not to have cheered when the Millennium Falcon swooped onto the screen.

Agents of SHIELD- The Things We Bury [SPOILERS FOR UK]

Oh. My. GOD.

Seriously, this series- it has improved in leaps and bounds since early season one.

But then this series was always destined to delve deeper into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's mythos, if from the viewpoint of the everyman (or secret agent anyway). And I always thought it achieved this, albeit with a few teething problems, that may just as easily have been on me as the viewer than the actual production. Either way I have always enjoyed the show, and thought it an admirable start to widen the MCU beyond the cinema constraints.

So this review/bit-of-nonsense write up will deal with spoilers and potential spoilers for UK viewers who haven't seen the header-episode.

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First, it was wonderful to see more of Agent Peggy Carter, SHIELDs creator/head agent and possibly its first Director(?).

We saw her in the season opener- accompanying the Howling Commandos (weapon in hand no less) to arrest Nazi and HYDRA head Daniel Whitehall/Werner Reinhardt and to seize the alien artefacts, and aliens, thus helping bring HYDRA to its knees *cough*. In this episode Carter is shown interrogating, threatening and eventually locking the aforementioned away, never to see the light of day again!

*cough* Sorry. Terrible frog-in-the-throat ;)

Of course this is all to build up the head of SSR/SHIELDs own series, starting in the New Year, which looks very interesting, and closely tied to everything we have seen so far and hopefully really easy to get into. It'll be interesting to see in more depth, how the two different generations of agents handle the day-to-day of aliens and monsters.

Of course The Things We Bury didn't just give us more of Agent Carter. It gave us glimpses of Whitehall's rise to the current head of HYDRA. Like he was going to die in that cell..

It also gave us this^ unnamed character, played by Dichen Lachman, no stranger to either sci-fi or Joss Whedon's works (previously Dollhouse of course). She comes to Whitehall- or Reinhardt really, a terrified young woman, taken as part of (possibly) the group that discovered The Obelisk. She is forced to touch the device, which a previous unfortunate didn't survive, but unlike him can handle it with no ill effects. Reinhardt is determined to cut her open to discover why, when Carter and the Commandos come to take him away.

Years later, in 1989, he is released and discovers the young woman, still young! And he continues with his dissection. All this is fairly intriguing on its own, but the real kicker comes right at the end, when, after seemingly dumping the body, the mysterious Doctor (Skye's father) discovers her, and swears revenge on someone he seemed to care for very much! 

So it seems we've been introduced-briefly- to Skye's mother! 

Both parents seem to have qualities that are, well, alien. So it's a bit difficult to pick out whether they were both extra-terrestrial, or if the mother just had (as the episode implies) qualities that would mark her as being saved upon alien take-over (or had the take-over already happened by then?!).

Either way, it's all getting very interesting. 

The other fairly major plot, rather overshadowed, was Grant Ward's cathartic revenge on his brother, the Senator, and his parents for how he and his younger brother were treated. After which Ward is shown to be making his way into HYDRA's ranks, alongside Skye's father. Although in a rather nice little twist the Doctor basically calls Whitehall out as his enemy. So he may not be on Coulson's side, but he's certainly not on HYDRA's, and I suspect Ward may have a strong ulterior motive there too. 

So a very solid episode. It's nice to see Fitz back in the field as well, and performing as well (if not better) than season one. Though it is worrying to hear that the viewer numbers are still falling, and that the producers are preparing for cancellation. I think this is a damned shame, this show has just gotten better and better, and is starting to set things in motion for the movies it would seem. If people (globally, not just the US) are willing to put so much stock in X-Factor and I'm A Celebrity, why not scripted shows too? I miss watching those- especially ones based in sci-fi or fantasy! Falling viewer numbers are what makes these shows die an early death, and the networks less willing to take chances on them. And we shouldn't be letting that happen. We pay for these shows by subscribing, buying DVDs and Blue-Rays. We review them, and live-Tweet our reactions to them. And we campaign for them when they face the axe.

So please give Agents of SHIELD a second chance, because it is so much better then naysayers would have you believe. 

Skip to the end.. Ish [Agents of SHIELD SPOILERS for UK]

Oh. My. GOD.

The Writing on the Wall was tense. I really thought Coulson might've flipped his lid for sure!

We got more squick-scenes like this;

And confirmation that more SHIELD agents had been to "the magical place" than just Coulson and Tattoo Man (from a previous episode, who uses his body as a canvas the same way Coulson uses a blank bit of wall).

Including an agent-turned-memory-wiped-artist, whose works definitely seemed familiar;

All of which..

The final scene shows what, yet another former agent inadvertently discovered, seems to be a 3D map of a city! 

Alien? Well yes, one line in the episode seems to hint that the big blue alien, whose blood had been used to revive/cure all of these agents, is "older than the pyramids"- or, at least, the mystery of him is.

I couldn't help but wonder what all this is leading too.. Especially in the lead up to Age of Ultron and the potential of the Civil War storylines that the movies are steam-rolling towards. 

Some Tumblr users have speculated that Skye's line "it's a map to knowhere", should be taken literally- that it's a map of Knowhere, as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy. But I can't see much point in that. Guardians and SHIELD may exist in the same universe, but neither SHIELD nor HYDRA have to capability to leave the planet to get to Knowhere. And even if they did, it would be a struggle to find it or get past the Guardians or the smugglers or Nova Corps or pretty much every space-going race out there! And no offence, but that map doesn't seem to conform to the outer dimensions of Knowhere (which is an alien slum/waystation/flea-market- not a place advanced civilisations would willingly live, surely?).

Personally it would make much more sense for the map to be of an alien city buried on Earth, Stargate Atlantis style. In fact a quick internet search shows the final puzzle looking not-to-dissimilar to plans of the Teotihuacan pyramids of Mexico; 

 Imagine this, but 3D. And more alien-looking..

It has the look of being built underground (or at least embedded in a bigger structure, maybe internal layout of a ship?).

Of course this is all speculation and conjecture. But considering all the powerful assets HYDRA are gaining, or trying to gain, it wouldn't surprise me if a city-ship wasn't in the MCUs future. After all, if further speculation is correct, and Skye's crazy-ass father is a Skrull, then how would he have gotten here? Maybe this city is what he came to Earth to find? 

It's all very intriguing either way.. 

Doctor Who- Death In Heaven [SPOILERS!!]

Uhm..

I'll be honest, I think the only real reason this episode exists is because its Remembrance weekend.

Which is fine in one sense. It worked for the Family of Blood two-parter (and in my personal opinion,  done much better), and the themes of sacrifice, loss and bravery in the face of combat have all been covered to great emotional effect before.

Except.. And I know that if anyone reads this, they'll hate my guts but- I don't like Clara.

Well to expand on that, I don't feel emotionally connected to Clara. And through her Danny. I also had some issues with the character of Missy/The Master. Not because somewhere between John Simm's last appearance and now, there's been a sex change, but because the character wasn't dangerous-mad, not until the last half an hour or so. Though when Michelle Gomez (Missy) does let loose, she does give Missy a certain nutty flair. But the pay off wasn't a surprise I don't think for most fans. They either thought she was The Rani (like me) or indeed, The Master.

Also Ingrid Oliver (who pleasantly surprised a lot of people with her role as Osgood in Day of the Doctor) was quickly dispatched in this episode (i.e. deaded), meaning that her chances of joining in in any future Who adventures becomes extremely unlikely- though does anyone truly die in science fiction?

 RIP OSGOOD. WE BARELY KNEW THEE.

Speaking of dead, Danny was brought back as a Cyberman. But a Cyberman that would protect Clara blah blah blah. Skyline covered this angle already (probably others, but I can't see everything). 

I still don't get why Missy wants to use dead people, corpses that barely have any biological elements as to be useful, to create an army for the Doctor for his birthday? She did it all for him, yet she must have known that he wouldn't accept it. Even if Danny hadn't ordered all the Cybermen (on the Doctor's behalf) to destroy themselves, he would have just ordered them all to jump into the sun. 

Again I think this episode was just put out in honour of the weekend, because the plot doesn't have a payoff that I can see.

And it isn't even really over! It's more-or-less stated the Nick Frost's starring role as Santa in the Christmas episode will wrap up (hehe) the Doctor and Clara and possibly even Danny's story. (And boy does the teaser that followed the ep look like Doctor Who meets Alien).

So I can't even make any definitive statement about tonight's episode, because it might not have ended yet!

Still it was very nice to see UNIT in action again, though t would have been nice to see their SHIELD-esque helicarrier in action again.. Maybe for Christmas Constable Butterman?

Doctor Who- Dark Water [SPOILERS!]

They don't look quite this dated though..

And the Cybermen aren't the only ones to return with a new look!

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Yes the Master is back! And this time she's Missy! (Short for Mistress. Obvs.)

I honestly came so close to guessing right on that one, as I was convinced she was Time Lady Rani. 

And guess what? Missy wants to conquer humanity! Again! Well a third time! (Maybe this'll be the charm. Though I doubt it.)

So in this episode we see Danny Pink killed in a hit and run(?) and sent to Heaven/Limbo or whatever it's been referred to in this series so far. Where, we learn, Missy has harvested all the minds of the recently deceased to become Cybermen?

I put a question mark by this, because apart from the kiddies- who'll rightly be hiding behind the sofa- anyone over say, ten, will have a few questions.

Like; why are whole bodies being used to build Cybermen? How did Master/Missy escape from being sucked back into Gallifrey's past? If recently deceased are being used, how come Missy makes a gleeful point of saying that the dead outnumber the living? And why the dead? You don't need an organic brain to build a Cyberman, not really- there's no point, and never was. And how are you harvesting the memories and emotions of people who have been dead for a long time? 

Apparently the white noise on your radio/TV translates to the voices of the dead, who are still somehow aware of their old bodies- fine. Go there if you must. But how does that play into the whole "let's make a Cyberman" game?

Admittedly this is a two-parter, and we may get all answers to some of these questions. But it doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, yeah, it's a kids/family show. It's supposed to be scary. 

But didn't Doctor Who used to scare with monsters? 

Not the very real concept of death, and what happens when you die. 

I just think that there are kids out there, who might have suffered a death recently, who might take this sort of idea seriously. And even if they don't, it's more than a little disturbing for what (used to be, seriously BBC? 8:15 at night? This isn't Torchwood ya' know) used to be tea-time TV. Danny coming face-to-face with a boy he killed as a soldier? Jesus!

So. We'll just have to see what comes with next week's instalment. 

Oh and sorry, Missy is not a patch on John Simms Master.