Holy Habitual Viewing, Batman, He'll Have Square Eyes!

With this morning's screening of Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires, I have now watched every episode of the classic Batman serial from '60s in the order they were originally transmitted.

Thanks to the great Talking Pictures TV channel here in the UK, this has been my Saturday morning ritual for the last 28 months or so.

While the idea was to simply ensure I saw all the episodes of this magnificently camp crimefighting show, I can't help but pass comment on the third - and last - season, when the show's makers swapped out Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) for Batgirl/Barbara Gordon (Yvonne Craig).

Clearly, they felt a '60s audience of (mainly) young boys couldn't cope with two lead female characters at once. It's a pity because as much as I welcome Craig's take on Batgirl, I did miss Aunt Harriet's obliviousness to the Bat-centric shenanigans going on under her nose in stately Wayne Manor.

It was also a bit sad - but emblematic of episodic TV at the time - that Dick Grayson/Robin's  (Burt Ward) aunt wasn't even mentioned this season.

Then again, perhaps she left Gotham at just the right time as the storytelling took a massive nosedive, thanks to attempts to mix things up.

The show largely abandoned its winning two-part story formula (thus eliminating the highly entertaining cliffhangers at the end of part one of every tale) as well as bringing in a host of bland new villains instead of relying on the iconic comic book antagonists (Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman etc).

The many, wildly popular, comic book continuations of the show have shown that with the right writers and characters, Batman '66 could have run and run.

Batman '66 #1 from 2013

This isn't to say, however, that the TV show was ever less than perfect Saturday morning entertainment.

No matter what silliness was unfolding onscreen, you could always guarantee that Adam West's Batman would take their circumstances seriously... and always have exactly the right Bat-doohickey in his utility belt to help him, Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred (Alan Napier) out of any sticky situation.

But Batman isn't the only vintage show I've watched from start-to-finish in the last couple of years.

I started with all the available episodes of Dad's Army, being shown on U&Gold.

This has always been a very special show to me (and warranted its own article here), because of its connections to my dad.

Then, thanks to Legend, showing four episodes each weekend, I saw every episode of the original Twilight Zone.

Most recently, thanks to the BBC, I watched the entirely of the sublime I, Claudius from the 1970s. I remember watching some of the episodes when I was a child and some, much later, when I was in hospital recovering from my aneurysm. But I'd never seen the entire show from start-to-finish before.

The thing is I have Blu-Rays of the complete runs of both Batman and the Twilight Zone, but it felt somehow more 'authentic' to watch them weekly as new episodes were released on standard definition channels.

I'm also a great believer in the concept of "appointment television". I've a ton of shows on Netflix (where all the episodes drop at once) that I've started, but then felt no incentive to push on with.

However, knowing I'll have to wait a week for a new episode keeps the flame of enthusiasm lit.

Of course, I do binge shows. I'm not a luddite. But weekly shows are still my preferred form of delivery. Because I'm that old.

It did strike me that there was possibly something a tad morbid about this particular project of mine: ensuring I'd seen every episode of select great shows before I pop my clogs.

But I can assure you my motives are a lot more positive. There's so much great television being made all the time that it's easy to overlook the classics of old in the rush to embrace the new.

This is especially true for shows that - over the years - I've dipped in and out of, rather than watching religiously.

With my increasingly unreliable memory, I want to make sure I'm not missing great television from earlier decades while consuming the current crop of high calibre entertainment.

I'm now contemplating what show I might tackle next.

The original run of Star Trek is definitely a contender, although that will be a binge rather than appointment viewing as it's on Paramount Plus these days.

It's actually being shown on Legend as well, but that channel is in the middle of the second season and I don't want to have to wait for them to get round to the start of season one again if I'm going to go "where no man has gone before" as soon as possible.

Will I be boldly going from start to finish on the Final Frontier next?

Cult Sci-Fi Movies About Unique and Violent Sports

Another fantastic list from Luminism that speaks to the gamer in me.

For years, in my 20s, I was trying to mentally codify the rules of the game in Salute of The Jugger (a truly awesome movie) with the aim of translating it into some useable gaming format. I never realised - until I saw this video - that it had actually become a real sport!

That revelation has inspired me to revisit my old project  at some point (starting again from scratch and studying the rules used by the 'real players').

I also remember that, as a wee kid, I wrote up a lengthy, and bloody, car racing game inspired by a combination of Death Race 2000 (no idea how I'd seen it at that age) and attending stock car racing on a farm near the village where I grew up.

I seem to recall that when I tried playing this game - as written - it was near impossible to complete a single circuit without flipping your car, driving off the track, or just exploding!

Twilight Sword Available For All On Pre-Order

For those who missed out on The Twilight Sword crowdfunding campaign, the game is now available for pre-order from Free League.

Inspired by classic video games including The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Wonder Boy in Monster Land, as well as the animated films of Studio Ghibli, Twilight Sword sends players to the Lands of Radia as Champions chosen to fight an evil Scourge, push back Despair, and bring Hope back to the world.

In promoting the game and their partnership with its designers at Two Little Mice, Free League has produced a great little summary of what Twilight Sword is all about:

In Twilight Sword, players awaken in an unfamiliar world where the Spirits have chosen them to become Champions. To save Radia, they must explore the land, fight the forces of the Scourge, and restore Hope to a world consumed by Despair.

The game uses an original system called CAT (Created at Twilight), built around a simple roll-under d12 mechanic. When faced with a challenge, players choose an Ability and roll a single d12. Rolling equal to or below that Ability succeeds, with 1 always a critical success and 12 always a critical failure.

Champions choose from five Kin and six Ways, which shape their abilities and approach to adventure. Players can combine up to two Ways, mixing different fighting styles and abilities to customize their character.

And yes, one of the playable Kin is a penguin.

Up for pre-order on Free Leagues' site are the core rulebook, Lands of Radia (covering the default setting, with some additional Kin and Ways etc), the starter set (which includes everything needed to start playing, with basic rules, the introductory Twilight Island mini-campaign, dice, pre-made Champions, cards, and tokens), and the card chest (which contains more than 250 cards featuring monsters, bosses, maps, weapons, Kin, feats, and spells).

Twilight Sword starter set

IN FLANAGAN WE TRUST!

If you think you know her story, you’re dead wrong. Carrie, a new series from Mike Flanagan, based on Stephen King’s iconic debut novel arrives October 7 on Prime Video.

Supergirl (2026)

So, Supergirl. It's not as bad as you've probably heard, but it isn't that great either.

Kara Zor-El (House of The Dragon's Milly Alcock) aka Supergirl is celebrating her birthday with a bar crawl on red sun worlds (where her super powers are suppressed so she can get the full benefit of the alcohol she consumes) with her dog, Krypto, tagging along.

However, she finds herself "recruited" by a vengeance-seeking young girl called Ruthye (Eve Ridley) whose parents were brutally slain by Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), the bland leader of a bland bunch of generic ne're-do-wells called The Brigands (I kid you not). 

Initially, Kara wants nothing to do with all this, but then Krem shoots Krypto with a drug that will kill the beloved dog in three days - without the antidote that the leader of The Brigands carries around with him.

With Ruthye following along, Kara then sets out to track Krem and get the medicine that will save Krypto. 

Along the way they run into the immortal bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), who is tracking another member of The Brigands, and he kind of ends up helping Kara and Ruthye more by luck than design.

The plot is essentially True Grit in Space, with Ruthye as Mattie Ross, Supergirl as Rooster Cogburn and Lobo as the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, with an element of Mad Max: Fury Road thrown in at the end as The Brigands are kidnapping female aliens to use as "brides".

One of the major weaknesses of Supergirl is the wretchedly uninteresting generic blandness of the film's antagonists. Krem is just a bloke with facial piercings who could easily have been "alien number 23" in the background of almost any shot of James Gunn's Guardians of The Galaxy trilogy at Marvel.

And that's the odd thing, Gunn produced this movie, but it was written by first-timer Ana Nogueira (seriously, this was her first feature film scripting credit) and directed by Cruella and I, Tonya's Craig Gillespie, loosely based upon a divisive comic book series from Tom King called Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, yet it is desperately trying to look like a Guardians of The Galaxy movie.

Which is dumb as DC Comics - home of the Superman Family - has its own style for space adventures and a rich catalogue of memorable villains that could have brought some life to the central thread of the film.

Again, this is highlighted by some of the delightfully odd supporting alien characters, making you wonder why the creators of Supergirl opted for the "people on the way to Burning Man" look for the movie's main villains.

The film's lack of inspiration also spills over into the multiple planets the story takes place on, with none being particularly memorable or exciting, the only real variable is the planet bathed in the light of a green sun, which has a crippling effect on Kara for unexplained reasons. Is it a Kryptonite sun? Or is she just allergic to the colour green? 

Luckily, though, the planet has two suns... and the other is yellow.

This was supposed to be a clever trap by The Brigands, using the "green sun's rays" to debilitate Kara the Kryptonian, and yet they completely overlooked the fact that the system's second sun would then power her up to full strength again.

The plot - despite being based on one of the greatest Western stories in the canon - is predictable and linear, punctuated with a confusing and messy jumble of fight scenes that aren't really as engaging as good action scenes should be.

Lobo, a tiresome, one-joke character from the comics that I really dislike, adds nothing to the story, except the occasional bit of muscle, but his role is ultimately an extended cameo purely to cement Jason Momoa's role in this new post-Zack Snyder era of the DC movie universe.

Momoa is always good value for money, but I still enjoyed his portrayal of Aquaman in the previous DC movies more than his appearance here.

Conversely, there's some incredibly impressive work done on building Kara's backstory and personality, differentiating it from Superman's and allowing the character of Kara to grow into accepting her role as Supergirl by the final act.

The flashback scenes of Kara's early years on Argo - the protected city blasted away from Krypton when that planet exploded - are truly tragic and give the film heart that the main plot lacks.

Even when she's sharing a scene with David Corenswet's Superman (who pops in for a couple of cameos of his own), Milly Alcock holds her own and gives us an interesting and convincing take on Supergirl, that, I'll confess, going into the film - with all the bigoted baggage it had attracted - I wasn't 100 percent sure we'd see.

I know the film didn't perform as well at the box office as expected (after the great success of Superman), but I really hope we see Alcock's Supergirl again.

Through this film, despite faults elsewhere, she developed into a version of the character that could provide a novel contrast to Superman's Big Blue Boy Scout, without going full-Synderverse grimdark.

Seth Skorkowsky Reviews OUTGUNNED Adventure

Well-known and respected RPG YouTuber Seth Skorkowsky has reviewed OUTGUNNED Adventure, from Two Little Mice, the pulp-emulating system the Tuesday Knights are currently using in Pete's ongoing "weird science" campaign.

In his well-argued, half-hour piece, Seth gives a succinct summary of the game's ambitions, its style, and its mechanics, highlighting what works and what doesn't for his group. 

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Majesty of Dungeness

Visiting an open studio at Dungeness, out front was their 'grave yard' of old tools

Back in 2018, Rachel and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a short getaway to the coast, with Alice, staying at the hotel we'd stayed at for my 50th birthday.

On our actual anniversary, we visited Dungeness... and I fell in love. It's now giving Wales a run for its money as my dream retirement venue. And I hope to get back there as part of my 60th birthday celebrations.

An isolated headland, consisting largely of pebble beaches, adjacent to the iconic Dungeness Nuclear Power Stations, there's a Portmeirion-level quirkiness to the homes that dot the area, an idiosyncratic blend of cutting edge architecture, tumble-down Victorian fishing huts and 1930s chalets.

The whole area has an atmospheric cinematic bleakness, reminiscent of the alien gravel pits of classic era Doctor Who or the weird science of Simon Stålenhag’s Tales From The Loop, that encourages eccentricity in its inhabitants.

It must be haunted, right? A totally round house would be interesting to decorate.
Also, note the wild rabbit resting in the grass in front of the wall.

It's no wonder it has a thriving artistic community and was, famously, the home of visionary director and artist Derek Jarman.

There's no phone signal and no wi-fi, even our satnav went a bit bananas as we were trying to find the car park for the railway station - the end of the line of the world-famous Romney Hythe & Dymchurch small railway.

Some people would say that "bleak" was a negative, pejorative, term to use for the area - but I would say that was all part of its stark, soul-shivering charm.

I took a number of photographs, but not many of the actual houses there as I felt awkward about snapping pictures of private property where people were living. And they don't really go in for many fences around their homes, they're just 'there' among the pebble expanse.

If you like places that give you goosebumps because you feel you're walking on a different planet (or, at least, an inventive facsimile of one from a retro sci-fi movie) then Dungeness is a place you need to visit.

You can read more about the geography of the area here at Wikipedia.

Doubling-down on the atmosphere, the area was shrouded in mist when we arrived.

Oh Florence Pugh, What Can't You Do?

A Steinbeck classic gets a fresh interpretation. East of Eden will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy. The limited series premieres October 1, only on Netflix.

Warriors Of Heaven And Earth (2003)

Warriors of Heaven And Earth (or Tian Di Ying Xiong) is an Eighth Century Chinese adventure story with traces of The Seven Samurai, Zulu and even Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Nakai Kiichi plays Lai Xi, a Japanese samurai sent to the Tang court at the age of 13 who now serves the Chinese Emperor as a special agent, even though - after 25 years - he craves to see Japan and his family again.

He has been dispatched to the west of the country to hunt down criminals, on the understanding that when they are all rounded up he may go home.

Ten years later he is assigned the task of tracking and killing Lieutenant "Butcher" Li (Jiang Wen), as well as escorting the gorgeous Wen Zhu (Wei Zhao) back to the capitol.

Li, however, isn't the great villain he has been made out to be and is actually wanted because he stirred up a mutiny when he defied orders to butcher captured women and children. He now makes a living protecting caravans through the desert.

Xi and Li come to an understanding that they will work together to guard a caravan transporting a young Buddhist monk and some holy scriptures to the capitol before Xi can try and claim Li's head.

The monk's treasure - which is secretly something more valuable than simple scriptures - is being sought by a bang of Turkish bandits led by the sinister Master An (Xueqi Wang), who is in league with warlord who has his eye on the secret treasure as well.

Xi, Li and Li's small cadre of old army colleagues fight a running battle across the desert against An's bandits in a variety of locations before the final stand comes in a rundown fort on the far side of the Gobi desert.

Warriors Of Heaven And Earth is an odd fish, but is not poorer for its strange identity crisis. For the most part it is a straight-forward, sword and sand adventure yarn, with the usual acrobatic and inventive fight scenes we expect from Eastern action movies (although resisting excessive wirework to keep it in the historical rather than fantastical camp).

But then at the movie's mid-point there is a scene of stunning magical effects, when the "secret treasure" the caravan has been transporting is revealed, that is not visited again until the bloody, Wild Bunch-like finale (which, I'll be the first to admit did not go the way I was expecting).

I would have been perfectly happy if Warriors Of Heaven And Earth had turned out to be a straight-forward actioner, but the couple of leftfield twists writer/director Ping He throws in spin the film into the realm of unexpected, cryptic, wackiness that make wuxia films so enjoyable.

Outside of the craziness, the character work is fantastic as well, with the interactions between the various tough, rugged soldiers protecting the caravan - all with different wants and loyalties - being an object lesson in smart writing.

Warriors Of Heaven And Earth took me by surprise. I had seen the name listed for years but ignored it out of ignorance because I thought it sounded like some tacky video game.

In the end it turned out to far exceed my limited expectations of a simple exhibition of slick swordplay and masterful martial arts, by slipping in a well-penned script full of strong characters and a couple of totally off-the-wall twists.