My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x09: "A Seat At The Table"

Written by Jordan Weiss
Directed by Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton

Batman (to Harley): "Some things never change, Quinn."

Unfortunately for Harley, she had to learn that lesson the very hard though going by the events of this episode. Much as I'd preferred not to have seen her nearly get back with the Joker and suckered into his web of horror, it somewhat made sense that this episode went there.

Harley's achieved her goal by joining the Legion of Doom and the moment she managed to shoot down on his ideas for a tower, she put a target on her back for him to screw things up for her. By the end of this episode, she lost her crew and worse of all, isolated herself from Ivy, which put the latter in danger to boot.

The romantic scenes with Harley and Joker in the past would've been fine to sit through but given how much the character has evolved in pop culture in the last few years, it did feel like a step back and even Harley should've been more aware that he was going to betray her the first chance he got. Hopefully this time with the losses she had to endure this episode, she'll realise that he's no good for her.

As for the crew themselves - I did like their side plot with Bane. Bane's as wonderfully theatrical as Clayface but unfortunately, it was King Shark who suffered the fallout of Bane not thinking his own mission of revenge out properly. Saying that though - why didn't Dr Psycho use his own telepathy during this particular heist?

As for Ivy - she wanted to take down Planetwide Pavers and reluctantly agreed to let Harley help her only for the latter to be caught up by the Joker, so Ivy went to wreck the place by herself and got captured. For now, I think it was Lex who deliberately set that trap up for Ivy. Harley better get her back next week.

- Fairly sure that Dr Psycho said something racist to piss Black Manta off during Lex's video introducing the Legion of Doom.
- Frank really does need to be added into the main DC comic universe. He's the right hand man that Ivy could do with.
- A few callbacks to the opening episode this week during the latest betrayal of the Joker there.
- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

A Seat At The Table certainly saw everything go wrong when Harley found herself separated from her real friends this week with even Batman having to point out that things don't change. Still though, I'm wondering if Harley will actually quit the Legion or be thrown out by Lex when he gets tired of having her around.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Doctor Who's 12x05: "Fugitive Of The Judoon"

Written by Vinay Patel & Chris Chibnall
Directed by Nida Manzoor

The Fugitive Doctor (to the Doctor): "Let me take it from the top. Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm a traveler in space and time and that thing buried down there is called a TARDIS. Time and relative dimension in space."

And that's how you drop a massive bombshell in an episode that not only brought back the Judoon and Captain Jack Harkness. I guess you can say both of those almost pale in comparison to Ruth Clayton (Jo Martin) being another version of the Doctor.

I said a few weeks ago the Timeless Child storyline could make or break this series and here, I don't know which it will be. The bombshell alone was needed after two weeks of sweet FA happening within the show but is Chris Chibnall really willing to mess with established lore? I can't blame fans for being concerned with the idea that he might but at the same time - how flipping amazing was Jo Martin's performance here?

Throughout the episode we assumed that she was a just a tour guide from Gloucester named Ruth Clayton. An ordinary woman with a slightly suspect husband in Lee Clayton (Neil Stuke) and an unwanted admirer in All Ears Allan (Michael Begley) but as soon as the Judoon made their presence known in the quiet town, things suddenly took an interesting turn.

Poor Lee though. He was assigned to protect Ruth but ended up dead as a result of the Judoon's employer, a Gallifreyan named Gat (Ritu Arya), who certainly has a grudge with this Fugitive Doctor and came close enough to killing her until the latter tricked Gat into taking herself out of the equation. This Doctor - she's a bit cold, definitely can command a room and had zero problem in ripping the piss out of our Doctor to boot.

But which Doctor is she though? Right now, I think she's clearly connected to the Timeless Child if now the very thing itself. She could be an Unbound or Parallel world/multiverse Doctor or Chibnall really could go there and make her the actual original Doctor prior to William Hartnell, which I'm hoping he'll avoid doing. Either way, I want to see more of her and I assume she'll show up again during the finale.

As for the other big thing this week - the hell is the Lone Cybermen about? Following a sabbatical of oh say, seven series and a decade, John Barrowman finally got his wish and briefly returned as Captain Jack Harkness in this episode. He mistook Graham initially for the Doctor and then got excited over the idea of his friend now being a woman while also introducing himself to Yasmin and Ryan before nanogenes kicked him off the ship he stole.

I complained about the last two weeks being bereft of anything meaty and going into the latter of the series, the Doctor and companions are going to have to deal with the Master inevitably escaping his latest prison, another Doctor, the Timeless Child and the Lone Cyberman. To that, I say: bring it on. Oh and no doubt Jack might be back a lot sooner than expected again. Either way, we're finally getting some meaty material to work with and it's about time.

- I noticed one of the Judoon was called Pol-Con-Don as a tribute to Paul Condon, which was a lovely gesture on the show's behalf.
- The Fugitive Doctor buried her TARDIS under a grave near a lighthouse where breaking the glass inside activated her back again.
- I was wondering when we'd get a same sex snog in this era and low and behold, we had Jack kiss Graham. The latter didn't seem too put off by it either tbh.
- It's great that the Doctor was honest with her companions about looking for the Master but she's gonna have to have that awkward conversation about Gallifrey before we get to the finale though.
- How lovely was the Fugitive Doctor's TARDIS? A little bit Hartnell-ish but with different lighting. She's also not a fan of Thirteen's sonic screwdriver though.
- Chronology: I'm assuming 2020 Gloucester. The episode also ended with a lead in to Praxeus as well.

Fugitive Of The Judoon was a massive step in the right direction and it does make me wonder why do we have to suffer some unbelievably mediocre episodes to get the goods like this. Let's see - the arrival of a new, mysterious Doctor, the welcomed returns of both the Judoon and Captain Jack, the current companions being useful, our Doctor getting a bit darker, the overall pacing and more arc related material. Easily a favourite of this current era.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Legends Of Tomorrow's 5x01: "Meet The Legends"

Written by Grainne Godfree & James Eagan
Directed by Kevin Mock

Ava (to everyone): "The public are gonna love this ending."

Well, we're back from the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths where over half of our cast members stayed away but everyone is back and this week, it's the wonderful world of documentaries as our wacky crew deal with being famous, much to the derision of Sara of course.

For this show, it's not the craziest thing they could've done and there was certainly a lot of fun to be had as Mick talked about stealing things, Mona showed her skills as a literary agent, Ava bumbled quite a bit and the likes of Ray, Nate and Behrad all hammed it up a bit for the cameras while Charlie took a ship and got the hell out of there for good measure.

Of course, all of this eventually got to Sara as the gang's attempts (following some well meaning but ultimately bad advice from Ava) to avoid talking about Oliver's death made Sara snap and lash out all of her feelings of the events of that big crossover that so many sat out. I'm loving all the post-Crisis continuity on all the shows at the moment and it's great to see Sara not hold her anguish in for anyone.

As for the main plot, we're into Encore territory where each week, some horrible figure from history thanks to Astra gets a second chance to be a pain on humanity and the attention turned to Rasputin (Michael Eklund) as the gang all tried to come up with different ways to deal with him and mostly getting it wrong.

Let's see - Mona went down the romantic route until Mick intervened, Ava tried and failed to assassinate him twice while Nate tried to get him to think beyond revenge and seemed to make some headway before the idea of a captive director (poor Kevin Harris) propelled his desire to kill the Romanovs on live television.

Of course the gang did eventually find a rather gruesome way to deal with Rasputin and when Constantine and Gary weren't removing a demon named Masher from a young boy, John used Rasputin to bring himself back to hell, so an encounter with Astra definitely won't be far off as there are more Encores to be dealing with throughout the series.

As for the rest of the episode, the Legends delved into the art of ruining Kevin's movie to maintain their non fame, found a Faberge Egg to coup their costs and it seems we're not going to have to wait too long for Zari to reappear as Nate and Behrad worked out why Gideon was acting up throughout the episode. As for Behrad, I do like him but it seems pointless getting too attached to him as I feel we'll lose him as soon as Zari's memories and so on are restored to the show.

- Nora and Ray are an official item now and she's largely relegated to fairy godmother duties, much to her annoyance. Despite being mentioned, Astra didn't appear in the episode.
- Mona got something of a nice but lowkey exit taking over Mick's Rebecca Silver books. Even though the character didn't work, this was a respectful way of writing her out.
- Despite coming back last week, this is actually the premiere episode and the show won't be back again until February.
- Chronology: 1917 Russia for most of this episode.

Meet The Legends served as a fun premiere episode. The Encore plot was nicely set up, the mockumentary main plot was a lot of fun and the somewhat rebooted group dynamic also worked rather well too. I've missed this show and this was a nice return to form for the series.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x08: "L.O.D.R.S.V.P"

Written by Tom Hyndman
Directed by Matt Garofalo & Ben Jones & Frank Marino

Lex (to Harley): "Ready to put your life behind you and make the world an even worse place?"

What a tempting idea, isn't it? After eight episodes, I'm actually surprised that Harley has gotten into the Legion of Doom but of course, it's not quite what it seems and she probably shouldn't get too comfortable there or with Lex Luthor's charm offensive either.

Yeah, it seems the Legion actually wanted Poison Ivy and of course the latter had no interest in signing up. Unfortunately her attempts to tell Harley that the Legion were using her backfired and their friendship came to a grinding halt in this one with Harley saying some rather mean things about Ivy's lack of social skills.

Before the big fall out though, there was some fun. Harley and her crew did manage to steal some jewels from Atlantis and Ivy also got to royally humiliate Aquaman (Chris Diamantopoulos) before the latter attempted to get even during the Big Baddie Party and got his backside handed to him by Harley with little effort.

I'm guessing the lesson for Harley is going to be that she doesn't need the Legion in order to make it as a true baddie and it'll be Ivy who will be the one to pick up the pieces when Legion eventually turn on her. Still though, that last scene with the Joker better result in Harley sticking to her guns and not getting sucked back into a relationship given that her only female friend is out of her reach right about now.

- Harley more or less figured out that Ivy and Kite Man (who was a waiter at the do) are an item. Ivy did seem less ashamed of him than in previous episode.
- Nice subplot with Sy Borgman and his mutated sister, Mirielle and I did laugh that Dr Psycho can't attend any mission where he'd have to interact with a female superhero.
- Bane's inclusion into the Legion involved politics. Bane also made a joke about PC Culture ruining comedy.
- Chronology: Not long from where the last episode left off.

L.O.D.R.S.V.P certainly gave Harley exactly what she wanted even if it was in the way she didn't expect and it resulted in her and Ivy unfortunately falling out. Still though, I did love all the Legion stuff and the Sy Borgman subplot gave us some great moments with Dr Psycho as well. Overall, another very fun episode.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Doctor Who's 12x04: "Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror"

Written by Nina Metivier
Directed by Nida Manzoor

Nikola (to the Doctor): "The present is theirs. I work for the future and the future is mine."

After last week's ecological misfire, things returned to a more neutral stance with this nice but unremarkable episode. Okay, I won't be harsh. This was mostly a serviceable enough piece as the Doctor and her companions encounters two famous figures in history (and rivals) while also battling one of the first alien female baddies this series.

Two weeks ago, in the second half of Spyfall, the show made great use of both Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan and here, the attention turns to inventor Nikola Tesla (Goran Višnjić) who is given a sizeable amount before his world collides with our main characters and the main threat of the week, in the shape of scavenger alien Queen Skithra (Anjli Mohindra) who needed Tesla's help in repairing her ship while planning to take over the planet.

Now this is where things get a little bit interesting. At first the Doctor is pretty hostile towards Tesla, even calling him a liar upon the first meeting but the two of them then suddenly bond over being inventors. Then both Tesla and Yasmin are captured by the Queen and the latter clearly had luck on her side given that the Queen was willing to kill Yaz in order to motivate Tesla into cooperating with her.

Then there was the meeting of the Queen and the Doctor. I'll admit that Whittaker and Mohindra played off each other well enough and while there was a certain camp quality to the Queen, I kind felt that between the badly lit design and the quick dispatching, the character's overall potential was a bit squandered here. Having seen some behind the scene photos of Skithra, I have to say that I've seen better efforts at cosplay that what the designers were going for with this particular monster.

As for Graham and Ryan, they were mostly relegated to a comedy act and while not strictly a bad one, it didn't really do either favours. Still though, their scenes with Tesla's rival, Thomas Edison (Robert Glenister) were decent enough and the latter did manage to put his issues aside with Tesla to play a part in defeating the Skithra. The episode did a decent job giving both Tesla and Edison screen time and giving a look into their history even if the episode felt slight itself.

- Robert Glenister who played Edison previously appeared in The Caves Of Androzani while Anjli Monhindra played Rani Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bradley Walsh played the main villain in Rani's debut story on that show.
- Nice use of a Silurian blaster in this episode. I kind of wish we had seen them but they'll show up later in this current era.
- Were the Skithra meant to be a relation to the Racnoss? There was a similar design even if they were related to scorpions instead of spiders.
- Yasmin seemed to be taking some styling tips from Missy in this episode. I noticed the Doctor decided not to blend in this week, compared to her last setting.
- Last week Ryan flirted with Bella and this week he seemed to be getting a bit friendly with Tesla's lady friend, Dorothy Skerrit (Haley McGee).
- Chronology: 1903 New York, making this the fourth New York based story the series has done since returning in 2005.

Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror is a solid enough episode with a great guest performance from Goran Višnjić in the title role. Saying that though, while Metivier is undoubtedly a more solid writer compared to Ed Hime, the episode could've done with a bit more oomph in places but other than that, it's a pretty inoffensive one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x07: "The Line"

Written by Laura Moran
Directed by Juan Meza-Leon

Harley: "I'm a bad guy, not a bad person."
Queen of Fables: "You're a dumb person. You're gonna regret letting me out alive, Quinn."

Oh Harley. So far you've made some decent enough judgments with your crew, even if I still suspect at some point that Dr Psycho might betray you. This week she decided that she wanted to help a mentor out with bringing the Queen of Fables into the mix. This also turned out to be something of a mistake.

When the courts decided to use Zatanna to return Fables to her human form and put her into Arkham, Harley broke her out and basically ignored every sensible bit of advice that Ivy had given her. Using Fables to then try and snag some unstealable weather device from Kord Industries then resulted in Fables highlighting just how much of a danger she can be when the Praxis family became the victims of her Big Bad Wolf. Well, all except one that is.

The surviving Praxis member, Jason (Phil LaMarr) quickly got some superpowers of his own and went on a vengeance spree with the attempts to finish Harley and her crew off once and for all. Harley unwisely showed some solidarity with Fables, only for the latter to kill Jason and warn Harley that sparing her life wasn't a smart idea. On the other hand, at least Harley has another nemesis she can go head to head with in the remaining episodes of the season.

As for Ivy, despite laying down some great lines about the levels of evil that both Harley and Fables are capable of, she was mostly in her own little B-plot with Kite Man. I've seen way too many people online hate that she's romantically involved with a man (newsflash: she's not gay) but this plot, silly as it might be actually took an interesting turn this week.

Kite Man might have the emotional maturity of a teenager but he does seem to genuinely like Ivy and while he was a bit much at the restaurant, I did feel bad for him when he realised that Ivy was slightly embarrassed to be around. I did like that Ivy met him halfway at the end of the episode though. This pairing won't last but for the time being it's inoffensive and fun enough to watch.

- Nice to see that Frank was back in this episode, though where did Sy Borgman disappear to?
- Another Joker free episode, but we did briefly get to see the Riddler in this one.
- Given where Harley was stealing from, it's a shame we didn't get to see another hero in this particular episode.
- Chronology: Fables spent 30 years trapped inside a book.

The Line was a nice study into the lines that both Harley and Fables are willing to cross as baddies. One of them is broadcast evil and the other is cable evil. As a description, I love this. Seven episodes in and this show continues to be bag of fun as Harley slowly builds up her credibility as a potential Legion of Doom member.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of DC TV's Crossover: "Crisis On Infinite Earths: Hours 4 & 5" (Arrow/Legends Of Tomorrow)

Last month, we had the first three episodes of the Arrow universe's most ambitious crossover event with Crisis On Infinite Earths. There were a lot of surprise moments in those three episodes and the game certainly changed for a lot of our main heroes. Could these last two episodes do better? You bet they could.

Written by Marv Wolfman & Marc Guggenheim & Keto Shimizu & Ubah Mohamed
Directed by Glen Winter & Gregory Smith

Barry: "An end."
Sara: "And a beginning. Thank you, Oliver."

Last time we left our seven, well one of them got replaced with Lex Luthor and the rest of them were slowly beginning to lose confidence in their mission. New boy, Ryan Choi somewhat went to town on bringing us all up to speed on that one while Lex continued to scheme and generally get on Kara's nerves while Barry was feeling a bit out of sorts to boot. On top of that, we did get a bit of a trip into the Monitor's past, met his wife, Xeen Novu (Melanie Merkosky) while also seeing the formation of the Anti Monitor. Between Lex trying to blackmail the Monitor for his own schemes, the Paragons also took some trips in past events, which made for seeing certain events in an interesting new way but then we got this moment to boot.

In the first three episodes of this event we got nods to Burton's Batman movies, a continuation of sorts to Superman Returns as well as characters from Smallville, Lucifer, the 90's Flash TV series, Titans and Birds of Prey and Burt Ward for Batman 66. All of that in itself was ambitious and shocking that they pulled it off. However the fourth segment went one better and had Ezra Miller's Flash from the DCEU pop up in a brief cameo where he got to interact with Barry. Seeing the two Flashs fanboy each other while trying to figure out what was going on was absolutely amusing and I'm kind of hoping now that Grant Gustin makes a cameo in Miller's Flashpoint influenced movie that's coming out in July 2022. It's a credit that the producers managed to keep that cameo concealed when pretty much every other one leaked and it's by far the best we've had in this five episode event.

As for Oliver Queen, well his days certainly seem to be done. It took a little way but the former Spectre, Jim Corrigan (Stephen Lobo) got through to him and he helped the Paragons to fan the flame while he lit the spark and battled the Anti-Monitor. In the end, things took a big change but before getting into that, there was no denying that Oliver made the ultimate sacrifice and while you can argue that it should've been Diggle and Laurel at his side during his final moments but the inclusion of Barry and Sara worked just as well for me. Of course whether or not Oliver is truly gone considering there are two episodes of Arrow left though is the other thing.

As for the changes, I think we all knew that worlds were going to merges so having Earths 1 and 38 become Earth Prime was hardly a shocker. More shocking was Lex winning a Nobel prize, being loved by everyone and also being Kara's boss at the DEO but I loved Kara's joy at being on the same Earth as everyone else even if it were tempered by Oliver's death and the Anti Monitor still being at large though. Of course as various characters banded together and we did get a rather quick defeat for the Anti-Monitor but not strictly a death as such. Either way, he's out of the Paragons hair for the time being.

As for the last few moments, things have certainly changed. Oliver's dead but no-one will be forgetting him any time soon and Barry setting up a Paragon council with himself, Sara, Kara, Clark, Kate, J'onn and Jefferson definitely means we should be psyching ourselves up for another crossover event at the end of the year. I've wanted Kara's world to merge with everyone's for a while now and while I was disappointed that we didn't see more Legends in their segment of this part, I do think it worked not having them as the show forges into a new status quo. Worlds may have died but many came back and at least two merged. The DC Universe certainly got a lot bigger now.

- Cameos: Marv Wolfman who wrote the original comic and co-wrote the fourth segment appeared as himself in the fifth part of this event.
- Other cameos included Stargirl and her gang from Earth 2, more Titans from Earth 9, Green Lanterns from Earth 12, Swamp Thing from Earth 19, Doom Patrol from Earth 21 and of course, Superman again from Earth 96.
- Superman and Lois have two boys instead of one and both Diggle and Lyla have Sara back again. Is Ryan also a single parent now too?
- Sargon the Sorcerer (Raúl Herrera) appeared and tried to use Beebo to distract the gang while Weather Witch also crossed paths with Supergirl and The Flash.
- I still can't believe they managed to get the DCEU into this event in some capacity.
- Chronology: Months passed since the events of the third part of this event.

Well, this was certainly a stunning event series and Crisis On Infinite Earths is definitely the pinnacle of what the Arrow universe has managed to achieve in the space of eight years and multiple shows. It's a credit to the CW they were able to pull this whole saga off the way they did and between the various nods, cameos, character moments and game changing events, things have certainly gotten a lot more exciting in this part of the DC Universe.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Doctor Who's 12x03: "Orphan 55"

Written by Ed Hime
Directed by Lee Haven Jones

The Doctor (to Graham/Ryan/Yasmin): "Humans, I think you forget how powerful you are. Lives change worlds. People can save planets or wreck them, that's the choice. Be the best of humanity or ..."

Oh dear. After an excellent two part opening adventure featuring the Master, it really felt like this era was finally getting it's groove and then this episode happened. Yes, I know one episode shouldn't undermine potentially good work this series and while every series has it's dud, this really did encapsulate a lot of what is fundamentally wrong with Chris Chibnall's era.

I've seen people complain about the show being political and I've seen people pointing out that the show has always been political. The latter is of course true but we're getting to a point where a commentary on important issues like climate change is overruling the show's ability to tell an entertaining story and that's not a good thing either. Previous eras have been able to balance the need to educate and entertain in equal measures but Chibnall is struggling with this balancing act and this episode is a great example of that struggle.

Anyways the Doctor and her companions are on Tranquility Spa for a bit of a holiday but it soon becomes anything but as the gang get separated in parts and find themselves not only fighting off creatures named Dregs (which do look rather good tbh) but also learning a bit about orphan planets along the way as well as the fate of one particular planet.

Last week we saw Gallifrey in ruins thanks to the Master going apeshit over the Timeless Child arc and this week we learn that Orphan 55 is actually Earth after humanity royally messed the planet up big time. Of course, the Doctor isn't forthcoming with this information straight away and when she does tell her companions, they're a tad peeved that she held that one back.

I could go into the OTT speech at the end but I'd rather ignore even though morally, I agree with it. Instead I'll focus on some of the guest characters, not because they were fantastic but mostly because they were either not great or wasted or both. This was not a great episode for guest characters and there was a lot of them this week.

First of all, there was furry Hyph3n (Amy Booth-Steel) who wouldn't have looked out of place in an 80's serial and the rather annoying couple Vilma (Julia Foster) and Benni (Col Farrell), who are probably some of the worst guests we've had this era so far. There was also a green haired father/son duo Nevi (James Buckley) and Sylas (Lewin Lloyd) who were marginally better and mostly interacted with Graham but still nothing to write home about.

The two guests who did get some focus and not particularly in a positive way were mother and daughter, Kane (Laura Fraser) and Bella (Gia Re). There were some family tension that was poorly resolved, they probably died at the end as the Doctor didn't bother to save them and to be honest, both of them were the cause of the disasters this week. Oh and for a brief moment, Bella had a thing with Ryan but even that wasn't too interesting to bother with.

- The fate of Earth here is a possibility rather than a definite. There was elements of The Mysterious Planet and The Curse Of Fenric with this one.
- No cold opening episode for this one. Seriously, stop ditching the cold openings, Chibnall.
- Graham didn't get to show his speedos, Yasmin seemed in a bad mood over Ryan/Bella and the thumb sucking was a bit cringey when Ryan got a Hopper Virus early in the episode.
- It's been eight years since Ryan's mother died.
- Julia Foster who played Vilma in this episode will play another character called Marcia in an upcoming episode, titled Praxeus.
- Chronology: No specific timeline but a possible future Earth setting of course.

Orphan 55 was our first and hopefully bad apple of the series. Ed Hime is probably a great writer for other things but he definitely is a bad writer for this show. I loathed his previous offering and while this one was marginally better, I really do hope he never gets to write for the show again. Bland guest characters, poorly conveyed message and so on all let this one down. Dregs did look menacing though, so there's that.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x06: "You're A Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon"

Written by Tom Hyndman
Directed by Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton

Harley: "You know what, Bats, now I think about it, we're not so different."
Batman: "We're completely different."
Harley: "We're both bad asses who look good in spandex."

Yeah, maybe Batman and Harley Quinn do have more in common than the former would like to admit as both proved to be rather terrible friends this week with certain people suffering the consequences of their more selfish actions.

First of all, Jim Gordon. This might be the most inappropriate, unprofessional version of the character we've ever seen so maybe Batman did have a point in confiscating the Bat Signal when Gordon was using it more to tell Batman about his crumbling marriage than what it was meant to be. Still though, it did seem a little harsh and it did result in Gordon making a temporary friend in Clayface's hand of all things.

The idea of giving Clayface's hand a character for an episode worked well enough. A little saccharine in parts and I certainly had no problem with Clayface reconnecting with his right arm but mostly, it served to highlight Harley's own selfishness as her desperation to get into the Legion of Doom not only resulted in Clayface losing a part of himself but also King Shark got arrested as well and sent to prison before being rescued in the end.

Just as funny though was Poison Ivy. I love that she's the only one who continues to hold Dr Psycho's misogyny into account and made her feelings for him only too known here (as in, she hates his guts). Still though the unlikely pair did make for an amusing team when an armchair critic mistook them for a couple and Ivy was more than keen to have that corrected.

The critic turned out to be Dr Psycho's son, Herman who we briefly saw a few episodes back. We got a rundown of Herman's daddy issues before both father and son made amends and Harley's gang got a slightly more glowing review on that Cowlheads site. Seriously though, six episodes in, she's gotta stop smashing stuff and leaving members behind.

- Giganta has moved onto a new fella named Brad and of course, Ivy had to ask that question about her and Dr Psycho.
- Remember how I said I wanted an episode that didn't feature the Joker? Well, I got my wish as he was nowhere to be seen in this one.
- Harley got a trip into the Batcave when she stole a device from Wayne Enterprises.
- Chronology: It's been two months since Harley's quest to get into the Legion of Doom.

I'm not sure I agree about the title for this episode. You're A Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon - eh, this version isn't really good at all at his job but he did get some nice scenes with Clayface's hand and that's probably the most interesting he's been so far.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Doctor Who's 12x02: "Spyfall, Part 2"

Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Lee Haven Jones

The Master (to the Doctor, re Gallifrey): "When I said someone did that, obviously I meant I did. I had to make them pay for what I discovered. They lied to us. The Founding Fathers of Gallifrey, everything we were told was a lie. We're not who we think, you or I. The whole existence of our species built on the lie of the Timeless Child."

Ah, yes the Timeless Child. That thing that was briefly mentioned in The Ghost Monument that we thought would be important but then last series seemingly abandoned the idea in favour of basically doing nothing. Well, looks like it actually means something and whatever it is, it's given the Master enough of an identity crisis that he decided to go and destroy Gallifrey.

Chris Chibnall really is a man of two extremes, isn't he? Last series, it seemed to pain him to reference anything from the Doctor's past and in this two parter alone, he's done nothing but throw as many past references as he possible but after a previous series of utter aimlessness, I'm both cautiously optimistic and somewhat nervous here as to where this series is going.

The Master is volatile and destructive at the best of times but even destroying Gallifrey while in character for him (come on, it really is) still came across as a massive shock and even the Doctor looked genuinely floored when she saw her home planet in ruins once again. Can we all thank Sacha Dhawan for making Jodie Whittaker up her game? Well, I'm going to nonetheless.

In two episodes, Dhawan has really owned this role as moving away from the Timeless Child, we saw a Master flitting through two different time zones upon realising the Doctor had survived his latest trap while Daniel Barton and the Kasaavin  mostly sought out the Fam for the majority of this episode.

Separating the Doctor from her companions and giving her substitute companions with Ada Lovelace (Sylvie Briggs) and Noor Inayat Khan (Aurora Marion) really was a masterstroke. If last series felt like the show was preaching too much with certain historical figures/settings, the same could not be said here as both women were utilised pretty well with the Doctor as audiences got a brief rundown on their significance and they played a good part in helping the Doctor deal with the villains of the week as well as reuniting with her companions. It's just a shame that their memories were wiped but other than that, I think both figures worked extremely well in this episode.

As for the companions themselves, they were surprisingly better away from the Doctor as they did their best to stay one step ahead of Daniel Barton/ Kasaavin (even though they were usually one step behind) and just as importantly, they finally started asking questions about the Doctor's past, which to her credit, she mostly answered. Granted she held back on Gallifrey being destroyed again but hopefully they'll learn about that one before the finale airs, where no doubt the Master will return if not before then.

As for Daniel Barton - boy, was he a nasty piece of work. Lenny Henry really can play a cold villain and he did it well, even if Daniel's whole spiel about the invasive nature of technology is hardly anything new (The Bells Of Saint John, anyone?). As for the Kasaavin, I'm glad they were a new threat and definitely a step up from the "threats" we had last series and hopefully that will continue to be a trend as the series goes along. Also yet again, the Master stupidly underestimated his current alliance and somewhat paid the price for it but I doubt he'll be gone for long though.

- Along with Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan, we briefly saw Charles Babbage (Mark Dexter) as well when the Master kept testing out his TCE. I loved that we got another proper look inside the latter's TARDIS too.
- It was hard not to notice the references to events such as Logopolis, The Curse Of Fatal Death and The Sound Of Drums to name a few. Sacha Dhawan also did a video outlining the Master's history for the BBC and implied that his version comes after Missy.
- Like Missy, this version of the Master also seems to like dressing up in purple and doesn't it look bloody gorgeous on him?
- If the Master blowing up Gallifrey wasn't bad enough, on a smaller scale, we had Daniel Barton actually kill his own mother. This show really got dark.
- This is one of the few multi part stories in the revived series with a different director but I think Lee Haven Jones managed to match the style near enough to what Jamie Magnus Stone did in the first part.
- Chronology: Let's see 1834 England, 1943 Paris and of course, 2020.

Spyfall, Part 2 at times almost felt like a different episode but jumping about in history actually did more good than harm for the pacing nonetheless. The guest historical characters worked well, there was definitely something uncomfortable about having the Doctor remove the Master's perception filter at a certain point and the whole Timeless Child arc will either make or completely decimate Chibnall's era. For all our sake, it needs to be the former but as a two parter, this finally felt like Doctor Who and all the better for it.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Dracula's "The Dark Compass"

Written by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat
Directed by Paul McGuigan

Jack Seward (to Dracula/Zoe): "It's going to be a beautiful day."

Well, um, this happened then. After a terrific opening episode and a quieter second episode that led to a bit of a game changer for this miniseries, I hate to admit that in spite of some interesting moments, the third act kind of let things down to be honest.

First of all, let's go back to 1897 where Sister Agatha traded her own life so that Mina Murray could live and largely be inconsequential in this adaptation. Then let's focus on Dracula telling Agatha that she was going to be a part of him for centuries to come because he wasn't being fanciful with words there. He actually raised a point.

Then let's cut to 2020 where Dracula emerged from the sea and the woman who greeted him wasn't Sister Agatha, but her descendant, Zoe Van Helsing (also played by Dolly Wells), who has spent her lifetime work tracking down the Count while helping to run the Jonathan Harker foundation with Bloxham (Lindsay Marshall).

Of course Dracula initially escaped Zoe's clutches but his inability to keep a low profile and Zoe's determination soon resulted him in being a prisoner at the foundation until his lawyer Renfield (Mark Gatiss) showed up to get him out of there, much to Zoe's irritation.

Now a free man, Dracula had fun adapting to 21st century life and getting food one swipe away but he soon found himself drawn to social media party girl, Lucy Westenra (Lydia West) - also the object of Zoe's protege Jack Seward (Matthew Beard). Unfortunately for Jack though, Lucy soon became engaged to a certain Quincey Morris (Phil Dunster) but that didn't stop the Count from pursuing Lucy nonetheless.

I've seen people online being quite vocal about Lucy's fate and while there was certainly a further unpleasant element when they went down the Bloofer Lady route with the character, there's no getting away from the fact that the character usually always suffers an unpleasant fate in most adaptations. Here it did seem like Moffat and Gatiss went somewhat overboard but at least the character had more to do before Jack ended her misery for good. The same certainly couldn't be said about Mina.

As for Zoe, I think Wells did a good job of differentiating between her and Agatha but I preferred the latter as a character and something about Zoe dying felt a little predictable. Still though, her tainted blood did become key into Dracula's own demise after the latter had his own epiphany and that's probably what felt the most unsatisfying as well. Not the character dying as such but the way it happened just didn't work for me.

- Did we lose one of Lucy's other suitors so she could have a gay best friend in this episode? Jack should've copped off with the best mate to be honest.
- I found it funny that Lindsay Marshall effectively played a similar role here to the one she played a decade ago in BBC3's Being Human. I really loved that show. Mark Gatiss also had a Dracula documentary on BBC2 after this episode aired.
- Standout music: This episode has now added another horror element to Robbie Williams Angels. Thanks for that.
- Chronology: 1897 and 2020 of course.

The Dark Compass was somewhat a disappointing way to conclude this series and for the time being, I'm going to assume this is a conclusion. If it gets a second series (and I'd be surprised if it does), I'm not sure where else it can go to be honest but for three nights, we got some excellent performances from Claes Bang and Dolly Wells and that's something good we can definitely take away from this interesting but uneven adaptation.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Dracula's "Blood Vessel"

Written by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat
Directed by Damon Thomas

Sister Agatha: "Welcome to England, Count Dracula. What kept you?"

Yeah, I admit, I should have seen this one coming. I mean, it's the sort of thing that both Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss said they weren't going to do, so of course, it would be the thing they'd end up doing. All I can say is that they've certainly changed the game for the last episode of the series and that should be fun to watch.

As for the bulk of this episode, it was a rather fun and intellectually charged battle of wits between the Count and Sister Agatha over a game of chess as the two of them challenged the other's expectations throughout the 90 minutes of this lighter in action middle installment and this was a very light on action episode in spite of Dracula acting like a pig with truffles.

On the boat named Demeter, we saw the Count charm and mostly snack on the crew while also presenting an undead Agatha as a murder suspect before Captain Sokolov (Jonathan Aris) deduced that the Count himself was a murderer and it was something of a game of the survivors trying to stay one step ahead of the Count while trying to get to England.

For a quiet episode though, it did have fun seeing Dracula go through various members of the ship, playing certain people off one another and exploiting others greed and vulnerabilities but like the previous episode, it's really Van Helsing herself who is driving this series. I've liked Dolly Wells in other things I've seen her in but here, she's been an absolute revelation as Sister Agatha. She's got to appear in more dramatic or horror roles after this series is done with.

As for the last scene - Dracula showing up in present day England, greeted by a detective Agatha. Maybe it did annoy some fans but not me. I loved the twist and given the interplay between the two of them throughout the episode, it's actually satisfying as well. I just hope the pay off works out though as our Count will have to grapple with 21st century habits.

- Our current Master, Sacha Dhawan popped up here as a Doctor Sharma with a child. He didn't make it out of the episode alive.
- Dracula encountered a former conquest Grand Duchess Valeria (Catherine Schell) and we had a closeted gay couple, an actor from Stranger Things and one of the co-writers of this series in here too.
-  There was a reference to a character from John Polidari's The Vampyre, Lord Ruthven who also appeared in this episode. He was in a relationship with manservant, Adisa.
- Chronology: By the end of this episode, I guess the Count can sample life in 2020.

Blood Vessel is a very talky, light on action episode, the kind that Steven Moffat in particular has definitely crafted in some of his past works but it also succeeded with it's twists, interplay between the guest characters and capturing the sense of cabin fever and there was a lovely reference to another BBC series, which I'm sure everyone caught as well. I really hope the last episode doesn't blow the good work set up here.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Dracula's "The Rules Of The Beast"

Written by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat
Directed by Jonny Campbell

Dracula (to Jonathan): "As I've been trying to tell people for centuries, you are what you eat."

It's been three years since Sherlock came to a rather unsatisfying end but that alone was never going to deter Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss from teaming up to give us a rather fresh-ish update on a certain Count and with the first of a three part series, this certainly got the appetite going.

Anyways not to bore too much but the story mostly remains the same with a few classic Moffat/Gatiss writing tropes thrown into the mix. Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) finds sanctuary in a convent with the rather sharp Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells) getting him to recount the events that led to his current predicament.

In flashbacks we see the shy lawyer rock up in Transylvania to stay with Count Dracula (Claes Bang) who as the episode progresses becomes rather younger while the opposite effect happens to Harker. When Jonathan realises what's happened to him, he tries to escape, encounters some brides before becoming one himself and yeah, everything else goes to hell for the poor guy as the episode comes to a face ripping conclusion.

There's always been a homoerotic interplay with Dracula and Harker and this episode leaned heavier into that than other iterations have done in the past. It even got to the point where Sister Agatha even asked if Harker and Dracula had actually had sex with each other but Jonathan unfortunately didn't make it out of the episode alive and Dracula's attentions soon turned to Mina (Morfydd Clark), the latter of whom I found to be quite weak as a character in spite of her attempts to humanise her would be husband before his death.

In terms of highlights, I can definitely see why Moffat and Gatiss went with Claes Bang as he's a revelation in the role but I think Dolly Wells might have upstaged him and that was even before we got to the reveal of her being a gender swapped Van Helsing. I'm not surprised a male character got gender swapped here but it did work for me as did the horror, gore and overall attempts of dark humour to boot.

- I see we got some references to both Sherlock Holmes and Clara Oswald in this episode. am I shocked that we'd get a hint of Mina being bisexual? Of course not, lol.
- Joanna Scanlan was somewhat wasted as Mother Superior, even if she did get a decent death scene when Dracula got into the convent.
- The ratings for this were under four million on BBC1. Again, like Doctor Who, I was expecting more for this.
- Expect the next two episodes Blood Vessel and The Dark Compass over the next two nights.

The Rules Of The Beast kicks this miniseries off to a good start. It's not hard to spot both Moffat and Gatiss's fingerprints all over it and that can be both a good and a bad thing to a point. Still though, the leads were excellent, the humour didn't jar and the horror was excellent. This should bode well for the remaining two episodes.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Doctor Who's 12x01: "Spyfall, Part 1"

Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone

The Master: "Doctor, I did say look for the spymaster or should I say, Spy Master? Hi!"

It's been over a year since the Daleks (well, one of them) made their return in the nice but could've been better special, Resolution and realising that audiences are craving more than that, Chris Chibnall only went and brought back the best enemy the Doctor has ever had for the opening episode of Jodie Whittaker's second series as the 13th Doctor.

In the past we've had the likes of Derek Jacobi, John Simm and Michelle Gomez all redefine and modernise the role of the Master and now it's Sacha Dhawan's turn to give us his own take on the classic role and so far, he's off to a great start. I'll be blunt: everything that works in this episode is solely down to him if we're being honest here.

Spending most of the time as a 'friend' of the Doctor's and former MI6 agent named O, the Master played the waiting game as he sized up the new Doctor and her friends (while also planting some seeds of doubt with the Fam) before the grand reveal at the end of the episode. In terms of reveals, the show has done this excellently three times over, so a fourth go managing to be as great is an achievement in itself.

At this rate, I don't know why the Doctor expresses shock when the Master reveals themselves as the character never, ever stays dead and going by this logic (also until Chibnall confirms otherwise). I'm convinced that Dhawan's Master is straight after Gomez's and that upon regenerating from Missy, the Master abandoned the idea of redemption. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned as the Master works far better as a villain.

In this episode alone we saw the Master working with tech guru Daniel Barton (Lenny Henry), who owns a company named VOR and some mysterious creatures shrouded in light. The Master also had no problem revealing how he came about taking over the original O's life before sending the Doctor to a creepy looking forest (which Yaz also went to for at least one scene earlier in the episode) and leaving the companions to die on a plane for good measure.

Bringing the Master back is something I was hoping that Chibnall would do. I'm still a little surprised he decided to do it right now but having an actor like Sacha Dhawan in the role will hopefully force Jodie Whittaker to up her game as this episode really did highlight a weakness when it comes to her Doctor.

For me, one of the things that has held Whittaker back as the Doctor hasn't just been Chibnall's writing and the appalling lack of stakes, it's been the companions. They simply don't work. Graham works a little but not that much and despite this episode trying to do more with Ryan and Yasmin, there's no getting away from the fact that they're just dull companions. For all of our sake, I really do hope this series will spell the end of the "Fam" once and for all. Maybe the Master can kill them all off, right?

As for the rest of the episode, it ventured into James Bond spoof territory. Some of it was a bit funny, most of it was really wasn't but it did add a bit of flair and character to the episode. Still though, the most talked about event was of course the Master's return and it's not hard to see why to be honest.

- Sacha Dhawan previously played Waris Hussein in An Adventure In Space And Time and has done some work for Big Finish.
- We got to see this Master's TARDIS (disguised as a house) and TCE made a return of sorts, considering how the original O was dealt with. I also liked the tribute to Terrance Dicks as well here.
- Does Ryan actually fancy Yaz's sister or was he asking for her number just to wind her up? I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan and Yaz are paired off towards the end of the series.
- Stephen Fry was wasted as MI6 agent, C but at least we got some references to both UNIT and Torchwood and the show referencing the Doctor being a man in the past.
- The ratings for this episode are so far, 4.88 million, which is somewhat lower than a lot of last series but everything was down last night.
- Chronology: A year since the events of The Woman Who Fell To Earth. This episode had fun going all international with trips to Moscow, London, San Francisco and Australia to name but a few places.

Spyfall, Part 1 was certainly a Masterful return for one particular baddie and while the main plot itself did jumble a bit, this episode does prove that when Chibnall actually puts the effort in, he can deliver a rather compelling version of the series. I hope this is a good indicator as what the rest of the series will be as we finally have an arc in (everything the Doctor knows is a lie) and her best enemy is finally back in the mix.

Rating: 9 out of 10