Series creator Vince Gilligan has been talking to E! News about next week's series finale.
Says Gilligan: "It gets very serene and calm from here on out," before adding "No, it gets pretty crazy. I mean, it's been crazy but it continues to be the roller coaster you've come to expect from the show."
Gilligan then went on to comment on the section of fandom that still view teacher-turned-drug-kingpin Walt White as heroic.
"I personally find it hard to root for Walt myself these days. But people are still rooting for Walt, God bless them," he said.
"If
they're still digging Walt, that's great. I still find him fascinating.
I find him a little harder to root for, but I wouldn't argue with
anyone. However you feel about him is cool."
See the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad tonight on AMC in the US, or tomorrow morning on Netflix in the UK.
With a certain anniversary coming up, it seems that every cult and sci-fi site out there is doing a run-down of “The Best Doctor Who Episodes”, of the “Greatest Monsters” or “Sexiest Companions” and so on.
So Geekin’ Out thought that it would be fun to celebrate the Fiftieth by looking at some of the very worst things that Doctor Who has ever done. Rather than just bashing the show, though, we thought that we would take the most unpopular aspects of the show and showing why they aren't really that bad.
Never ones to shy away from a challenge, we start this occasional series by presenting the case for the defence in ‘The Doctor Who Audience vs. …Adric”. Bugger.
Is it too late to do the “Five Sexiest Monsters”…?
Look at those curves...
Near the end of Tom Baker’s run, producer John Nathan-Turner decided that the time was right to reintroduce the male companion figure to Doctor Who, a role that had not been filled for half a decade. With Lalla Ward’s popular Romana II due to depart halfway through Season 18, taking K9 with her, the hunt began for the character - and actor - that would take their place.
And so it was that in Full Circle we were introduced to a charismatic, rebellious, cynical and magnetic young man - a character who rebelled against authority, had a deep contempt for the rules (with a sneer to match), but also deep down (hidden perhaps even from himself) possessed a strong sense of honour, courage and justice. This square-jawed anti-hero was a fascinating creation.
The new companion was his wimpy, maths-nerd little brother who wasn’t cool enough to join the rebel gang.
Yaaaaaaaay!
They say that first impressions are everything: the first impression of Adric unfortunately sets the tone for his entire run: a whiny kid in pyjamas with a done-by-mum pudding bowl haircut and a badge for mathematical excellence. That his first story then had him - as a story point - compared unfavourably to every other young guest character, let alone his far more interesting brother, with the various characters essentially telling the audience from the start that, yeah, Adric’s a bit crap really was an unfortunate decision that only confounded the difficult start that his costume and look had given him. The show had essentially doomed him from the outset.
Not that the characterisation got any better from that point out. Adric was an arrogant, overly-smart wimp, with a pompous superior attitude that we rarely saw any justification for on-screen. This, coupled with a reputation for constantly betraying the TARDIS team, made for a character who did nothing at all to warrant any sympathy or support from the audience from the moment of his introduction until his death near the end of the subsequent season. An unlikable or arrogant companion can work, in the right hands, if there is a hint of character development thrown in, if they grow as a consequence of travelling with The Doctor, or even if these negative traits just seem at least to be deliberate, but nothing in the scripts we were given does anything of the sort. Adric’s entire characterisation can be summed up in one word - “smart”. And since the title character of the series is famous for being the smartest man in the room, you have to wonder… what the hell was the point of Adric?
Casting Matthew Waterhouse didn’t help, either. Not only was he, let’s face it, a pretty poor actor, but he was massively inexperienced, and also a self-confessed Who fan and completely thrilled to just be a part of the show, so the poor lad always just took whatever was thrown at him, never having the balls - as a more experienced actor may have done - to point out that certain scenes as written or as directed weren’t working, and that maybe he should try them a different way. This had a very detrimental impact on his performance. He has also gone on record as stating that Tom Baker was always a bit of a dick to him, and by all accounts the Season 19 cast weren’t too kind to him either - Peter Davison and Janet Fielding especially seem to continue teasing the kid even now through the DVD commentaries (and, hell, The Doctor and co. as characters were never shy about teasing Adric on-screen either - he was a companion so bad that he made the rest of our heroes look like bastards too). Waterhouse was clearly having a miserable time throughout his short run on the show, and that reflected on-screen - Adric just looked so fed-up and unhappy in every scene he was in.
The Doctor, realising that, yep, Adric is still there
So - we have a bad character, disliked by cast and viewers alike, played by a bad actor, going through zero character development. How the hell do you start to defend that?
Well, let’s be honest, nobody is going to claim that Adric is any good. But does he really deserve all the hate he’s received over the years? Truthfully (and not just because it‘s what this article has to argue), no.
First, let’s look at Waterhouse’s acting. No, he’s not very good. That’s undeniable. But honestly, Davison (and the very occasional turn from a clearly-bored Tom Baker) aside, nobody comes out of this era of Who well. When the painfully tedious Chris Bidmead took over as script editor, he routinely set about removing any traces of personality from any of his characters in favour of telling “entertaining” stories about computers, machines and “hard sci-fi ideas” (in quotation marks for a reason, Bidmead…). Nobody in his tenure really gets any material to work with. And of the three companions of his era, it’s hard to find faults in Adric that weren’t shared by other characters: Tegan was just as sulky and argumentative as Adric, while Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa was just as flat and dull in her line delivery (and just as boringly clever). Indeed, Adric was originally supposed to survive Earthshock - it was Nyssa that was viewed as the weakest link, and it’s only intervention on Davison’s part that lead to Adric getting the chop instead.
I wonder why he chose her...
It doesn’t help that there were too many regular characters to give anyone a chance to shine. Companions were routinely sidetracked just to leave enough room for the story, either by being held captive for considerable periods, being forced to stay in the TARDIS to watch monitors for episodes at a time, or - in Nyssa’s case - just plain staying in bed for an entire serial. Waterhouse may have been a dreadful actor, but he never really even got a chance to at least try.
At least when Adric gets sidetracked it’s funny. He literally spends the whole second half of Black Orchid eating.
Also, the lack of character development claim is a bit unfair. For the first time since Jo Grant made a passing reference to going on a night out with Mike Yates, we have just a hint of romance between two companions. Adric and Nyssa share many moments that convey a mutual attraction between the two - they are clearly very fond of each other, but neither ever quite acts on it. This is the sort of on-TARDIS romance that is a staple of the current run of the show, so in a way, Adric was a character well ahead of his time. Of course, neither Waterhouse or Sutton are particularly able performers, so it’s easy to miss this budding relationship on first watch through, but when you do pick up on it, it’s really quite a sweet little subplot.
Sexual chemistry ahoy!
And as for his reputation for constant betrayal, this is actually a bit of a myth purported by those determined to hate the little nerd. In some serials, such as State Of Decay, Adric is only pretending to betray his friends in order to infiltrate the enemy. In others, such as Castrovalva, he is clearly siding with the enemies under duress - he is, after all, a prisoner and is being tortured into helping. Admittedly, in Four To Doomsday he sides with the frog monsters who want to kill all humans, but, nobody’s perfect.
Eh, they seem trustworthy enough
When you consider that the next male companion to be introduced was actively trying to kill The Doctor for much of his run, and was always trying to wriggle his way out of saving his friends if it put himself at risk, and he has become one of the more popular companions of the 80s, it’s a bit harsh to hate Adric for this.
We haven't forgotten...
Adric finally starts to show some true potential in Earthshock, his final serial. After finding himself the token “odd-companion-out”, confined to the TARDIS for the first two episodes, the character really comes into his own in the latter two episodes, finding himself paired up for screen time with The Doctor for one of the few extended periods of time in Five’s era. Here, Adric starts to show his noble side, and his courage: when he is captured, he insists that his friends don’t put themselves at harm to rescue him, and when he finds himself on a ship headed on a collision course with Earth, he deliberately tricks everyone else into leaving, staying behind to face certain death while he tries to save the human race. Managing to move the ship back in time, he is left on board as the craft crashes to Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs, but ensuring that mankind is safe. It was a shocking move at the time, and still gives a chill now. And, most importantly, Waterhouse is actually really good in this whole serial. Aside from an unintentionally hilarious sequence where he uses as computer terminal from the furthest distance possible (the actor clearly scared of the pyrotechnics that are about to be unleashed), the young actor absolutely nails this performance. Anyone not moved as Adric stands, outwardly calm but tightly clutching his dead brother’s belt, and waits for the inevitable crash is dead inside.
Then there’s the impact of his death on the series as a whole. Adric’s dino-bothering demise is not the first time that a companion has died, nor is it the last (hell, just two seasons later the Fifth Doctor kills one of his crew himself). But somehow this is the death that has the most impact on The Doctor, then and since. The ghost of Adric looms over the rest of Five’s tenure (occasionally literally). From this point on, the Doctor’s era becomes increasing seeped in violence. Body counts rise, to the extent that at times the survivors can be counted on one hand (indeed, Warriors Of The Deep has just one guest star left standing, and I’m pretty sure that that’s just because the writers forgot all about him halfway through the final episode).
Hang in there, Guy In Red
The Doctor is not immune to this violence, but rather he embraces it, becoming more reckless and brutal - Six has the reputation for having the most violent era, but Five is the Doctor who embraces his dark side the most, gunning down enemies, flooding bases with deadly gas, performing a mercy-killing on his own companion - he even contemplates flat-out executing Davros in cold blood. The loss of his companion has really hit him hard, setting him on a downward spiral. As arcs go, this isn’t as pronounced as the sort of complex fare that modern show runners RTD and Moffat have delivered, but it’s definitely there. And it’s the whole reason that Five bows out - his exit in The Caves Of Androzani is entirely a result of Adric’s sacrifice. Here is The Doctor, again facing the possibility of a companion dying as a result of travelling with him, and this time he will do everything necessary to stop it, including sacrificing his own life. It is no coincidence that Five’s last word is “…Adric…”
This sort of multi-season character arc is the type of thing that is synonymous with the show now, and arguably Adric’s violent exit can be seen as being as much of a starting point for NuWho as the Seven/Ace relationship.
So, yeah, Adric may well have been poorly written, and poorly acted, but he wasn’t really any worse than many of the other companions in the Fifth Doctor’s era, and his legacy has actually had more impact on the series than almost any other companion.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past director Bryan Singer has tweeted a picture of his editing bay as he works on the movie.
While there's obviously a lot there for fans of desks (or cola drinks) to enjoy, the big news - and no doubt the thing that Singer really meant to reveal - is the dilapidated state of Xavier's School.
Despite Prof. X's (temporary) death in X3: The Last Stand, the school seemed to be prospering at the end of the film, so this is quite an interesting tease for the state of affairs that will lead the past and present versions of our heroes to join up in next Summer's massively-ensembled flick.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past is out on the 23rd May, and stars (deep breath) Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer
Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page,
Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Fan
Bingbing, Boo Boo Stewart, Adan Canto, Evan Peters, Josh Helman and
Lucas Till.
Series star Michael C. Hall has admitted that this weekend's series finale of Dexter may split viewers' opinions.
Echoing similar sentiments expressed by Exec Producer Sara Colleton, Hall told TV Guide "I feel like it may well be polarizing. I think it will be a
broad spectrum in terms of the response to how the show ends."
Hall added that he hopes that when the dust settles on the show, fans consider Dexter to have been a "consistently compelling and cohesive ride".
Here's hoping for at least one last profanity-laced one-liner from Deb
"If
you play a character long enough as an actor, your sense of acting and
your sense of playing that specific character become fused in a way that
it's sort of a mind bender," he said.
"I'm glad to sort of disengage from this particular guy and move on to other things."
One thing that this sadly implies is that there'll be no Zombie-Robo-Doakes in the finale, because, face it, it's the one thing that everyone would agree would be awesome.
"Surprise, Motherfucker!"
Just so long as they don't throw in Moloch...
Showtime, meanwhile, have not ruled out Dexter following in the footsteps of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead by launching a spin-off series.
See how it all ends on Showtime this coming Sunday.
Will Dexters's web of deceit finally close in on him?
Twitter user Cookie ( @cookieswafting ) has tweeted a photograph that apparently reveals a new set for the Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Now, it's fair to say that you can't make much out from this (in fact, we have to take Cookie's word that this is, in fact, from the Who set), but what you can see certainly looks interesting. It seems that the set is for some sort of ancient tribal (or Native American?) camp. Coupled with last week's photos of Matt and Jenna larking around outside the towerblock that has previously been used by the show for the Powell estate, this paints a picture of an episode that will see The Doctor and Clara jumping around in time a bit.
What is most impressive about this latest Christmas episode - Matt's last as The Doctor, with Peter Capaldi set to be the man behind the Sonic Screwdriver by the time we tuck into our Boxing Day cold turkey sandwiches - is just how little we know about it.
Hello Doctor...
Filming has been going on for a few weeks now, and aside from one extra who claimed to be a Cyberman for the adventure, we don't even know anything about any guest stars set to appear, let alone plot details.
Exciting, isn't it?
In other Who news, a trailer has surfaced for Big Finish's 50th Anniversary episode The Light At The End. Starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann, the audio drama features more Doctors (as far as we know...) than the BBC's television episode, and sounds like it's going to be really rather good...
Find the trailer here: https://soundcloud.com/user472277528/doctor-who-the-light-at-the
The Light At The End is available from Big Finish in November
In an amusing turn of events, the full script for The Fifth Estate - the movie that sees Benedict Cumberbatch star as WikiLeaks founder / alleged rapist / international fugitive Julian Assange - has been leaked online... by WikiLeaks.
It sounds like a clever piece of meta-marketing, but this is no publicity stunt. It turns out that WikiLeaks just really hate the movie.
Assange
Alongside the leaked script, WikiLeaks posted some pretty damning things about the film, which they claim is nothing but "fiction masquerading as fact".
"Most of the events depicted never happened, or the people shown were not involved in them," the memo reads.
"It
has real names, real places, and looks like it is covering real events,
but it is still a dramatic and cinematic work, and it invents or shapes
the facts to fit its narrative goals."
Cumberbatch
WikiLeaks submitted via Jeff Skoll of Participant Media suggested corrections," the statement continues.
"These corrections were ignored and the closing text of the finished film retains the falsehoods.
"Although
the film has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and
numerous other media organizations have been shown review copies, the
studio continues to refuse to show the film to WikiLeaks staff.
I'm guessing that Assange won't be sneaking out of the Ecuadorian
Embassy where he's been hiding away for a trip to the pictures for this
one, then. But if anyone is passing the embassy, kindly return any toys
you may find to Mr. Assange's pram.
Also starring Daniel Brühl, The Fifth Estate hits UK cinemas on the 11th October, and releases in the US a week later. See the trailer below.
The latest actors that they have linked with J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Wars sequel are Friday Night Lights/The Wire star Michael B. Jordan and Spooks' David Oyelowo.
According to the site, both actors have been in to read for roles, and are currently "under consideration". It is not known if the two are up for the same role or not, and - of course- Latino Review have no information on who they would be playing.
This leaves the number of working actors currently not rumoured to be involved by Latino Review at approximately seven.
But, hey, odds are that by the time the film releases in 2015 LR will have successfully guessed the full cast, if only by playing the law of averages.
Start getting your "Where's Watto At, String?!" jokes ready now...
SuperheroHype have released the first pictures of Man Of Steel star Henry Cavill on the set of Guy Ritchie's upcoming big-screen adaptation of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The film will see Solo (Cavill) and
Kuryakin (Armie Hammer, no doubt hoping for more success than the last
time he tried to bring a small-screen icon back to the big screen) on a
mission to "stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which
is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the
proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology."
There's a very nostalgic retro-look to these images, which fits in well with the film's Sixties setting. Hopefully Ritchie won't fall into the same trap as his recent Sherlock Holmes movies, which felt like period pieces in aesthetic only.
Also
starring Hugh Grant, Luca Calvani and Mad Men's Jared Harris, and with a script from Ritchie, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is currently filming, and is expected to hit some time next year.
You can see the full gallery of images at:
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/179327-first-look-at-henry-cavill-on-the-man-from-uncle-set
True Blood star Carrie Preston has revealed that the cast were not surprised at the recent news that the HBO show's upcoming seventh season will be its last.
Speaking to E! News, Preston said "We were all suspecting it, because all of our contracts were up so they
did a renegotiation for one more year and so we thought, 'Oh, it's
coming'.
"But then when you hear it, it's like, 'Oh', this pang. I think we're going to be counting our blessings and really trying to make the most of every moment [of the final season]"
Speaking with EW, director J.J. Abrams has been discussing his vision for Star Wars: Episode VII.
Says the director: "It’s been nice seeing how important [Star Wars] is and to be reminded how important it is to so many people.
"We
all know that [Lucas'] dream has become almost a religion to
some people. I remember reading a thing somewhere, someone wrote about
just wanting [Episode VII] to feel real; to feel authentic. I remember I
felt that way when I was 11 years old when I saw the first one. As much
of a fairy tale as it was, it felt real. And to me, that is exactly
right."
When asked what the tone of the next film would be, Abrams evasively mentioned that "it’s going to be an evolving thing."
"I would say we are working really hard to make a movie that feels as emotional and authentic and exciting as possible," he adds. "Whatever your favorite Star Wars movie is and how to compare it is really sort of subjective.”
Well, that clears it all up, doesn't it...
From a script by Michael Arndt, Star Wars Episode VII is out in 2015.
The latest name to be linked to Star Wars Episode VII is The Lovely Bones star Saoirse Ronan.
Latino Review, who are apparently incapable of going more than forty-eight hours without having some sort of casting report about the film, claim that Ronan has been in to read for a role. They don't have any details on who she was allegedly auditioning to play, but claim that somebody else was in to read for a "female villain role."
The site is also refusing to let their report that Benedict Cumberbatch is to appear in Episode VII die, despite Benedict Cumberbatch himself stating that it's not true.
"Gettin' reeeeal tired of your shit, Internet."
Says the site: "DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE ABOUT BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH NOT BEING IN STAR WARS. HE IS IN THE MOVIE! In fact, he will be in all three Star Wars
films! It’s all a smoke screen. Folks, remember when Cumberbatch denied
being Khan for over a year? Same situation here. At least give us the
benefit of the doubt hence why we are bringing this up.
"Point is, he
lied before and he can lie again. Google it. One more time because it is
worth repeating, Benedict Cumberbatch will be will in the upcoming Star Wars
movies. I don’t care if he denies it till opening day. We were right
before about him playing Khan, and we will be right again on this one.
Technically, his part in Episode VII is very small but the role is much
bigger in Episode VIII and Episode IX."
Of course, there is a vast difference between keeping your character's identity a secret - especially when it's meant to be a massive twist - and flat-out lying about being in a movie altogether.
But hey, you've got to admire their pluck at least.
Star Wars Episode VII is out in 2015. No casting details are yet known (despite Latino Review's best efforts).
Marvel have unveiled two more posters for the upcoming sequel Thor: The Dark World, this time focusing on the ladies of the film.
The
movie - the second in Marvel's "Phase 2" that will culminate in
Avengers: Age Of Ultron in 2015 - features Chris Hemsworth's Thor being
forced into a tentative alliance with the villainous Loki when an army
of Dark Elves headed by Christopher Eccleston threaten both Asgard and
Earth.
The posters show Natalie Portmas's Jane, Thor's human love who is brought to Asgard and Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif of Asgard.
Portman has also hinted that she may know something about Marvel's Phase Three plans.
Speaking to SciFiNow, Portman said that "it will be exciting when there is a central female character which I
think is coming - I have heard is coming - and, of course, also a
central non-white character will also be exciting. Title characters."
As we reported on Tuesday, Stan Lee has claimed that Marvel are planning a Black Panther movie, so that'll be the "non-white" hero. As for the female character? Rumours persist that Katee Sackhoff is up for the role of Ms Marvel. Watch this space.
Also
Starring Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Zachary Levi, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo, Thor: The Dark World releases in the UK
on October 30th, with a US release following on November 8th.
