Doctor Who - Season 2 (2006)

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russel T. Davies
Main Cast: David Tennant, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke, Camille Codurri, Shaun Dingwall

Although the second season of Doctor Who contains more middling episodes than the first, it manages to successfully build up on the show's success and delivers many very exciting episodes. Season 2 differs significantly in tone as it features the new Tenth Doctor played by Scottish actor David Tennant. Although I did enjoy the Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston, I must admit that Tennant's Doctor is much more charistmatic and light-hearted, despite the fact that sometimes he gets very serious and apologetic. What do I mean by this? One of the new Doctor's favourite expressions is the French phrase "Allons-y", which means "let's go." This brings a lot of energy to the series but at the same time the Doctor compensates for this through one of his other favourite phrases - "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" - which he uses in different versions in tragic moments.

Nevertheless, Season 2 of Doctor Who is an absolute triumph. While it does not have an overarching storyline as Season 1 did with Bad Wolf, it has some excellent episodes that offer engaging storylines and lead to a very exciting conclusion.

Although it is difficult to choose a favourite episode, I would have to say that mine is The Girl in the Fireplace, in which the Doctor meets the famous Madame de Pompadour (Sophia Myles), official mistress of Louis XV. This is the first episode in which we see the Doctor connect with a person other than Rose and it also shows us how lonely he actually is. The emotional core of the story is the attraction between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour and I can't imagine that anyone would be disappointed by this episode.

There are also several other excellent stories in the season. The 2-part story about the Cybermen consists of Rise of the Cyberman and The Age of Steel in which the Doctor, Rose and Mickey travel to a parallel world in which they face the Doctor's old enemies and encounter someone important from Rose's past. Even better is the 2-part story about an impossible planet orbiting a black hole, which consists of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. This is an incredibly well-written episode in which the Doctor, who is usually very confident even in difficult situations, is forced to take a leap of faith. I'll leave you to figure out what this means. The first episode, The Impossible Planet, also features a great scene in which one of the characters quotes the following lines from Thomas Babington Macaulay's poem Horatius:

For how should man die better, 
Than facing fearful odds, 
For the ashes of his father 
And the temples of his gods.

The final 2-parter, consisting of Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, is suitably epic and it builds on events that have occured throughout the season. It features a grand battle in which the Doctor is forced to rely on the help of humans in order to defeat the latest threat to Earth.

Unfortunately, the standlone episodes in the season are not nearly as good as the ones in the previous season. Whereas Season 1 had the excellent The Unquiet Dead and Dalek, the only oustanding standalone episode of Season 2 is Tooth and Claw. However, it offers an exhilarating story taking place in Scotland in the Victorian era, which gives David Tennant a rare chance to use his Scottish accent, and it introduces us to the legendary Queen Victoria. New Earth is also a very good episode which features the return of a previous enemy of the Doctor and Rose and a mysterious character who will play an important role in the Doctor's future - the Face of Boe. The rest of the standalone episodes, The Idiot's Lantern, Love & Monsters and Fear Her are simply okay, although Love & Monsters is excellent in parts as it is the only episode in the season not centred on the Doctor and it features great interactions between a group of seemingly uninteresting characters.

In short, Season 2 takes Doctor Who to new heights and it features many exciting and interesting stories. It gives us the opportunity to learn more about Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and her mother (Camille Codurri). Although the season lacks the magnetic presence of Captain Jack Harkness(John Barrowman), who seemingly died in Season 1's last episode and was then resurrected by Rose, it compensates for this with the new Doctor's charisma. It also explores the deepening relationship between the Doctor and Rose, which had already started to develop in Season 1. However, it becomes much more important in Season 2 and it plays a central part in the season finale. If you would like to find out more, just go ahead and buy, rent or watch the season online. I promise that you won't regret it.

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

"I'd know her head anywhere.
And what's inside it. I think of that, too: her mind. Her brain, all those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast, frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?" (1)

It is the morning of the fifth wedding anniversary of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy Eliott Dunne. Nick has just gone to the bar he owns with his twin sister Go when he receives a phone call from one of his neighbours. After hearing that the front door of his house has been left open, Nick goes back home to check up on Amy. On going inside he finds evidence of a struggle and discovers that his wife has disappeared.

This is how Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl, released to much critical and popular acclaim in 2012, begins. Gone Girl has an interesting narrative structure as the story is told from both Nick's point of view as well as that of his missing wife Amy through her diary entries. Nick's story begins on the day of Amy's disappearance while Amy's starts 7 years earlier when the met Nick at a party in New York. This aspect of the novel is very important as it allows us to examine the story through two very different points of view. Utilizing this Flynn is able to create a fascinating deconstruction of the couple's marriage.

The novel gradually reveals more details about the two protagonists. Amy is the only child of two child psychologist turned authors who used her as the inspiration for their popular book series Amazing Amy. She has had a privileged upbringing, having gone to a private school and afterwards to a top university, Harvard. Despite her beautity and brains, however, Amy is unable to find love until Nick chats her up at a party in New York and this is how their romance begins.

Nick was born in a small town in North Carthage, Missouri. He works as a journalist, he's smart, handsome, charming and he manages to sweep Amy off her feet. However, while their life before their wedding is filled with bliss, their relationship starts to become complicated once they get married. We get to see this through both Nick's and Amy's eyes and it is important to note that they are both unrealiable narrators so the novel offers a lot of scope for interpretation of events.

During the financial crisis both Nick and Amy lose their jobs. An increasingly embittered Nick finds out from his twin sister Go that his mother is suffering from cancer. He makes the decision to go back to North Carthage with Amy without consulting her, which complicates relations between the two even further.

The fact that the action takes place in a small town in the US mid-west makes the novel even more complex as it also examines the impact that the financial crisis has had on the town's community. Amy's diary entries also comment on the differences between the way people interact in North Carthage and the huge metropolis of New York.

The novel takes us on a rollercoaster ride as Nick, who is at first unusually calm about the disappeance of his wife, starts to realise that there is something very disturbing about the whole affair. Gradually we get to learn about the breakdown of Nick and Amy's marriage, Nick's troubled Alzheimer-addled father, his cancer-ridden mother Mo, his twin sister Go and his parents-in-law Rand and Marybeth. Flynn's story thrives on this exploration of the different features of these people and she manages to weave a spellbinding tale in which these characters truly come alive. I have rarely read a story in which I have found the whole cast of characters so utterly convincing.

Another great feature of the book is the way it examines how modern media mass has transformed our lives. Once suspicion arises that Nick might have killed his wife, the story spins out of control as the investigation is discussed not only by the local populace but also on television talk shows. Gone Girl also demonstrates how the Internet, which has often been praised for its democratizing aspect, is destroying traditional media and the livelihood of journalists such as Nick.

The novel features several major plot surprises and it keeps the reader on his or her toes as following the timeline requires a lot of attention. The book is multi-layered, it features a cast of many interesting, well-written characters and it offers many insights into marriage, family relationships, the media, police procedures and various other things. I found it incredibly exhilarating to read although I must admit that despite the fact that I enjoyed the ending, I did find it rather difficult to believe. However, I think that each reader has to decide whether they think the novel has a satisfying conclusion and I strongly recommend that you read this book. I now leave you with a particularly interesting quote from the ending of the book.

"I was told love should be unconditional. That's the rule, everyone says so. But if love has no boundaries, no limits, no conditions, why should anyone try to do the right thing ever? If I know I am loved no matter what, where is the challenge? I am supposed to love Nick despite all his shotcomings. And Nick is supposed to love me despite my quirks. But neither of us does. It makes me think that everyone is very wrong, that love should have many conditions. Love should require both partners to be their very best at all times. Unconditional love is an undisciplined love, and as we all have seen, undisciplined love is disastrous." (2)

References
(1) Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, London: Phoenix, 2013, p. 3
(2) Flynn, Gone Girl, p. 462

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris

Before starting my review of this book, I must admit that I've read very little international poetry, with the exception of a few collections of international love poetry in Bulgarian. Those were excellent but it is difficult to compare them with this collection, which covers not just classic European poems of the 20th century but also includes many other poems from around the world. Ilya Kaminsky has done an excellent job in choosing a variety of poems and the book's co-editor, Susan Harris, editorial director of Worlds Without Borders, has been instrumental in dealing with permissions, copyrights and other such issues. Kaminsky notes the scarcity of quality translations of African and Asian poems as well as poems by women and I think that he is to be commended for his attitude. However, despite the difficulties encountered, I think that he and Harris have managed to create an amazingly diverse collection that has something to offer to all lovers of poetry.

The poems are arranged in chronological order from the beginning to the end of the 20th century. The book includes famous authors such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Constantine P. Cavafy, Anna Akhmatove and Paul Celan but also less well-known poets from around the world such as Anna Kamienska, Henrik Nordbrandt and Dunya Mikhail.

The book includes many excellent pieces so it is difficult to choose which ones to share with you. However, one of my absolute favourites from the collection is Yehuda Amichai's A Man in His Life. I'll include just a few lines to give you some sense of the poem:

A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have season enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
was wrong about that.

A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forigve and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years and years to do.

Translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch (1)

Before reading this book my experience of Jewish poetry was limited to Marc Chagall's works, which are very interesting but also, as far as I can recall, peculiarly Jewish so it takes some effort to fully appreciate them. However, Amichai's poem, which is inspired by the Biblical book Ecclesiastes, expresses something that I think we can all relate to it and the imagery that it uses is very potent.

I also very much enjoyed the poems of Adonis, one of the most famous poets writing in Arabic today, whom I had only heard of before. I include here a few lines from his work The Desert: The Diary of Beirut Under Siege, 1982:

My era tells me bluntly:
You do not belong.
I answer bluntly;
I do not belong,
I try to understand you.
Now I am a shadow
Lost in the desert
And shelter in the tent of a skull.

Translated from the Arabic by Abdullah al-Udhari

As I have already mentioned, one of the most remarkable things about this collection is that it introduced me to some amazing but little known poets from all over the world, as well as to works by famous poets that I'd meant to read for a long time. There are many excellent poems in this collection, some of which I found it easier to relate to, in particular the works by East European poets, as I have greater knowledge of the cultures of the authors. However, I also enjoyed works by authors far removed from my own cultural milieu. 

Kaminsky clearly states that what he seeks to do is to expose people to the varied and rich traditions of 20th century poetry. In this respect the collection is an absolute success as it it manages to represent a multiplicity of international voices from different artistic movements - futurism, surrealism, Acmeism, etc. I heartily recommend that you purchase this book so that you can broaden your cultural horizons and experience at least some of the excellent poetry from all over the world that the 20th century has left us as its legacy.

References 
(1) Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris (editors), The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, Ecco: New York, 2010, pp. 283-4
(2) Kaminsky and Harris (editors), Ecco Anthology, p. 315

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

 

Director: Anton Corbijn

Screenplay: Andrew Bovell

Based on: A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré
Cast: Grigoriy Dobrygin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright

Release year: 2014
Running Time: 122 minutes
Country: United Kingdom

A Most Wanted is based on the eponymous novel by celebrated British writer John le Carré. Le Carré is known for the classic spy novels The Spy Who Came from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the latter of which was adapted into a feature film released in 2011. If you've seen the screen version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy you'll have some idea of what to expect from A Most Wanted Man. This film is a slow-burner that features very little action. It does not have a black and white dichotomy although it presents certain characters as more sympathetic than others. Unlike many contemporary films it has an open ending, which I personally liked very much.

The events in the book and the film are inspired by the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz. I didn't realize this before I decided to do some basic research on the film before writing this review. It made me wonder how much aristic license Le Carré employed and how different the film is from the book. However, it is not the purpose of this review to examine this question as it is concerned solely with Corbijn's film.

The story begins in Hamburg, Germany. German agent Günther Bachmann (Hoffman) and his team are investigating the activities of Muslim philanthropist Dr. Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi), who they believe is funneling money to terrorists. The team becomes aware of Issa Karpov (Dobrygin), a refugee from Chechnya who has illegally entered Germany. According to Russian intelligence he is a dangerous terrorist so they decide to track him. A local Muslim family, which lets Karpov stay in their home, contacts an immigration lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams) on his behalf. Karpov asks her to approach Tommy Brue (Dafoe), a German banker whose father used to launder money for Karpov's Russian father. Günther's team faces increasing scrutiny from German security officer Rainer Bock  (Dieter Mohr) and American diplomatic attache Martha Sullivan (Wright) as it tries to turn Richter and Brue into intelligence assets.

The film's cast includes some stellar actors, most notably Philip Seymour Hoffman who is superb as an espionage agent whose only interest in life seems to be his work. Hoffman's Günther either smokes or drinks throughout much of the film but he is nothing like the suave womanizer James Bond. Günther is a very capable but tortured man who is on a mission to redeem himself after his intelligence assets in Afghanistan were compromised. Dobrygin also gives a great performance as the conflicted Issa Karpov who is ashamed of his Russian heritage because of his father's shady dealings and instead identifies with his mother, who was a Chechen Muslim. The relationship between Karpov and the lawyer Richter is filled with tension as there is clear attraction between the two of them. Rachel McAdams gives a good performance though her goody two-shoes liberal character is overshadowed by the other actors, including Willem Dafoe who is excellent as the rich banker Brue who wishes to have nothing to do with this issue.

Although the film is rather slow, it is very engaging if you pay attention and there are several interesting twists and turns. It includes several excellent performances, including Wright's minor role as Sullivan. A Most Wanted Man does not attempt to glorify the intelligence services. This is not surprising considering the character of le Carré's previous works. The author, who served in the British MI5 and MI6 during the 1950s and 60s, presents espionage as arduous and unglamorous work. This is a subtle and clever film that requires us to consider the various ethical dilemmas that espionage agents are faced with it and does seek to tell is what is right. It is the last film in which Seymour Hoffman played a leading role and for that reason alone it is worth seeing.

Image taken from Wikipedia

Doctor Who - Season 1 (2005)

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russel T. Davies

Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke, John Barrowman

In 2005 the BBC revived Doctor Who, one of the iconic science fiction shows of all time and a staple of British popular culture. Doctor Who originally ran between 1963 and 1989 and in 1996 a television film was released, which unfortunately failed to revive regular production of the shows. The first season of the new TV series attempts to adapt the show for a new season and it is fairly successful in this. I must admit, to my shame, that I've never watched any of the original Doctor Who episodes or the television film but I was very impressed with the first 4 seasons of the new series and I watched them religiously a few years ago.

Season 1 consists of 13 forty-five minute episodes, 6 of which form 3 two-part stories. The first episode, Rose, introduces us to the Ninth Doctor (Eccleston) and his new companion Rose Tyler (Piper), as well as her boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and her mother Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri), both of whom become recurring characters throughout the season. Although the opening episode lacks a memorable villain, it effectively introduces the show's characters and it's funny and clever. The second episode, The End of the World, has some great visuals but its plot is unremarkable and it misses the opportunity to delve deeper into the culture shock that Rose experiences during her first trip to the future. In fact, the episode fails completely at this as the aliens that we see, although they exist in the far future, are very similar to people today. However, the show's third episode The Unquiet Dead, is fortunately much better. The action in this episode takes place in Victorian Cardiff. Simon Callow gives a great performance as one of the Victorian era's most celebrated writers, Charles Dickens. The episode also includes a great performance by Eva Myles as Gwyneth, a clairvoyant servant who in a brilliant scene while looking into Rose's mind foresees The Big Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf is an essential part of the main storyline of this season, which culminates in the two-part ending.

The following story is the show's first two-parter and it consists of the episodes Aliens of London and World War Three. This is the first story to take place in contemporary London since the season opener and it features as villains the rather silly Slitheen. The story is fun and light-hearted, which makes it a romp, but it lacks a genuine sense of menace. However, it shows the repercussions of Rose's decision to run away with the Doctor as she comes back to her home much later than expected. This leads to some interesting interactions between her and her mother and boyfriend, which definitely improve the story. This two-parter also features a great performance by Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The next episode, Dalek, is also excellent and it introduces us to one of the Doctor's greatest enemies. This episode shows a different, more ruthless side of the Doctor as we see that despite his good nature, there are beings that even he despises and is willing to do anything to stop.

The next episode, The Long Game, is rather unimpressive. The Long Game is supposed to take place in the distant future but it is set in a world that is very similar to ours and it makes a rather clumsy attempt to satirise journalism. However, it is followed by the excellent Father's Day, which focuses on Rose's dead father and makes up for the lack of a palpable sense of menace with its strong emotional impact and the excellent acting of Billie Piper and Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler.

The show really picks up with the following story - the two-parter made up of The Empy Child and The Doctor Dances. The setting is London during the Nazi bombing campaign/the Blitz in the Second World War. The Doctor and Rose find the British capital terrorised by a young boy wearing strange mask who is stubborngly looking for his mother. This two-part story includes two excellent guest star performances by Florence Hoath as Nancy, a young woman who seems to be somehow connected to the child, and John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, who ends up joining the Doctor and Rose. The charismatic Captain Harkness is a charismatic rogue Time Agent and his sleek spaceship and professional demeanour represent a stark contrast to the Doctor's TARDIS and his easy-going attitude.

The penultimate story of Season 1 is Boom Town, which takes place in Cardiff and focuses on one of Slitheen who survived the events portrayed in World War Three. The episode presents an interesting moral conundrum for the Doctor but in the end it fails to deliver due to the use of deus ex machina. The main storyline of the season about Bad Wolf culminates in the show's two final episodes - Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. The Doctor, Rose and Captain Harkness find themselves separated on Gamestation/Satellite 5, which they had already visited in The Long Game. Bad Wolf is a parody of reality television programmes and it features an exciting cliffhanger. It is an excellent episode but I feel that once again it suffers from the fact that the world portrayed it too familiar - I find it difficult to believe that thousands of years from now people will watch programmes so similar to what is on television today. Personally I find that Doctor Who's episodes set in the future suffer from a lack of imagination on the part of the writers but Bad Wolf is nevertheless a very strong episode that features excellent acting by the show's main stars. In The Parting of the Ways the Doctor faces his greatest enemy and is once again faced with a moral dilemma. Although the episode is incredibly entertaining and very well-acted, it also resolves the main problem through a deus ex machina. I think that this is the main problem with this, which is otherwise very strong.

In conclusion, I would say that Season 1 of the new Doctor Who is very good and it features some classic episodes. I very much enjoyed Christopher Eccleston's performance as the Doctor and his use of the word 'fantastic.' I was initially ambivalent about Rose Tyler as I found her annoying but I gradually grew to like her. John Barrowman's Captain Jack Harkness is also terrific and his inclusion in the cast from The Doctor Dances definitely makes the rest of the episodes more engaging. I do have one minor gripe, however, and that is the fact that deus ex machina was used in at least 2 episodes. I believe that this was the case because the writers did not what to do otherwise. That is a persistent problem with Doctor Who as the Doctor, his companions or someone else comes up with all sorts of outlanding solutions that somehow manage to resolve the crisis at hand. If you are a fan of hardcore science fiction and enjoy logic, you are unlikely to enjoy Doctor Who unless you are able to disregard the outlandish plot developments throughout the series. Personally I think that it's worth forgiving the series writers for these minor failing as they've managed to create an incredibly entertaining and engaging series that can be viewed by both adults and children. As the Doctor would say, it is 'fantastic, absolutely fantastic.'