With projects galore overwhelming my time and leaving this site lacking, I’ve decided to open up a new string of geeky lists. One of the themes of one project has been violence and if we portray violence, do we glorify it? My opinion? Simply, no.

Everyone loves a bit of action and violence. We can all be morally superior, some elitists say wrestling is disgusting for it family friendly contest (more so than boxing, which… is a can of worms in itself) but whether it’s you’re nightly entertainment on the levels of Ian Beale punching Masood or the destruction of Coronation Street to the much loved Die Hard, everyones primal side loves to see the bad guy get a punch in the mouth.

It’s simply the most primal side of justice. So, I’ve decided to look at my favourite action moments and fight scenes. And if you don’t see your favourite, don’t fret. This is only the first of several installments…

It’s a weird collection of scenes, but these… are the most memorable. And hey, I haven’t even made a dent yet! So until part two, tell me what action, fights and general violence you love most.

Heading back to the world of science fiction before returning with the comedy run (mainly because I made a shitload of notes and haven’t went through them yet) my Enterprise mini-rant inspired me to look towards the leaders in sci fi. The men who are often the central focus of the show, the decision makers and the men who sit in the big chair (if they get a chair) making all the tough choices.

Oh yes, the captains. Thinking of Enterprise and how Captain Archer seemed weak, uninspiring and so downplayed that he bored my super-sexy Batman pants of me, I began to think of all those characters which were truly captivating through the writing, the performance and transitioned from being mere characters on a screen, to men of legend.

It’s a tough choice. But much like Marty Michael’s Top Ten Sci Fi Heroes these choices are based on my view (as always really, my site and all that) and oddly, we have two of the same men in the list. Enough babble. Kicking off with number five…

Kicking off at number five, we have…

Most importantly, the reason he’s on a non SW fans list is that he’s portrayed by Indiana Jones himself; Harrison Ford. Unlike Mark Hamil, Ford was cool. so cool that he outshines Luke Skywalker in every way and became the icon for all the young men who wanted to be just like him.

He’s also got a big hairy man slave.

Mal Reynolds is captain of the Serenity, an old cargo ship with a crew desperate enough to work for him as they live out a life of crime, struggling to survive as they live outside the controlling government. Mal once tried to fight that government in civil war and found himself on the losing side in a battle which he’s not overly bitter about, his side lost and he’s keeping out of their way. There’s no great plan, or mission of morals with Mal. Nor is there any malice in any crime he commits. He’s just a man trying to get by.

He’s not all about robbing and shooting people either. He’s somewhat of a nice guy which showed when he defended a brothel against an angry sheriff type for little reward, helped an Alliance captain against Reavers and helped an old war buddy when he found himself in peril. When it comes to the Serenity spin off movie he shows some more kindness when he realises he can’t turn his back on troubled young River, the sister of his ships doctor which again finds him up against the Alliance once again as an Agent tracks River down for knowing too much.

It helps that he’s portrayed by Nathan Fillion, who not only has wonderful comedic timing that works incredibly well with a Joss Whedon project, but he has a wonderful presence that makes him watchable in any role.

Out of all the Next Gen era of Trek captains, Sisko had a lot more going on. From his initial struggles to calm the people of Bajor when he takes command of their only outpost after they were occupied by Cardassia, to his reluctance to accept the role as their Emmisary to the Prophets due to obvious conflicts it causes with his government, to raising Jake in an unsafe enviroment and eventually heading to war with the Dominion, Sisko seemed to have a lot on his plate in comparison to other captains who pretty much had no social life. Yet Sisko carries on, makes friends and enemies and at times, controversial decisions.

Far away from the comfortable bridge of Captain Picards Enterprise and the bizarre calm office of Captain Janeways lost Voyager, Sisko seems to grow and change through the seasons, gaining a more commending presence over his crew through the war, breaking the rules and creating situations to bring in allies and even putting his own girlfriend in prison when she aids a terrorist group.

Lets look at Picards evolution through seven years of the Next Generation; Cup o’ tea, cup o’ tea, almost got shagged, cup o’ tea.

Exactly.

When the colonies were attacked and the fleet collapsed, Adama found himself on the last known Battlestar left and with the forced advice of the new president, did a runner with the remaining civilians before leading them on a quest to find the mythical 13th tribe, colonists who left centuries past for a planet called Earth.

This role couldn’t be played by anyone but the acting powerhouse that is Edward James Olmos. Through the four years of BSG we saw Adama’s highs and lows. Not just the public figure who was a strong leader, but the man who would break down and cry when things got tough, who struggled to maintain a relationship with his only surviving son, protect his dead sons ex fiancee and struggle to do the right thing. Often making bad choices and finding himself on the verge of giving up.

Adama’s faith was tested more than most in sci fi and two of his greatest moments showed a truly loving connection to his command. One is where he free’d the doomed colonists of New Caprica which left his ship in ruins before he accepted the fate that he and his ship were ready to die. Until Lee Adama jumped in for the save…

The other came when his ship finally did pack in. All the abuse from the Cylon attacks in both wars had left the ship in tatters. When it was time to move his flag elsewhere, he snapped. Everything he’d been through piled up hit him hard and we saw the brave, commanding Admiral curled up in a ball crying his eyes out over everything he’d lost.

How many of our heroes had such emotion? And how many of them seemed stronger for it? More importantly, how many of them could pull of that ‘stache?

Through the run of Star Trek, Kirk was bold, dashing, courageous, clever and while his right hand man, Spock, gained more fan mail, Kirk got all the girls on the show. When the movies hit the big screen, we saw this character evolve. At first into a man who had given up his life of adventure for a desk job and hated it. But it wasn’t until the far superior sequel, The Warth of Khan, that we saw this older Kirk become something new when the aging Admiral found himself in a battle against an old adversary and the character was reborn.

Shatner’s legendary Kirk survived another five Star Trek films, getting killed off in Generations, and has remained an icon. Although Shatner’s become a self aware self parody, he’s still awesome.

When Star Trek was brought back to the big screen with a new cast and new direction, it was no surprise that they opted to go back to day one. While Picard, Sisko and Janeway (not so much Archer) had their fanbase, not one of them matched up to Jimmy T.

Honorable mentions go to Commander Sheridon of Babylon 5, Colonel Jack O’Neil and despite hims not really being a captain… The Doctor (hey, he has a ship!)

Disagree? Have someone better in mind? Say something.

It’s been over a month since I started the funnies thread of the geeky list thing, and it’s time I move forward with some of the classic movie funny men. For me, I looked back at those characters which have stayed with me all these years and made a lasting impression in my mind.

Some of them may not give the hardest laughs, some of them might not come from the best actors in the world, but they’ve all stuck with me for more than a few seconds of giggling. So to start of, I have to go back to 1955…

Doc Brown wouldn’t have worked if anyone else was playing the part. Sometimes it’s odd to think of Lloyd as a shy man when performances like there are wonderfully over the top. He could make one single facial expression funny, and he did many times in the movies. Despite Michael J Fox getting a lot of comedy moments, for some reason Christopher Lloyd always steals the show for me.

Anchorman is like a bad wank. You start off well, it’s really good, but when that moment comes it’s so good that you want to keep going, so you slow down, push on… and when it’s finished you realised you went on ten minutes too long and feel ashamed.

But! The comedy moments were worth it. In the movie, I don’t tell jokes while I masturbate, not after that incident in the park. Brick’s one liners are worth the movie alone, but the arrogance and stupidity brought to life by Will Ferrel’s usual tone makes you love the over the top character.

He’s an idiot, but he’s a competent one who gets the job done despite only worrying about the major problems too late in the game. Hes also a wonderful sadist who doesn’t think twice about his actions and just seems to run on instinct. The performance is so… weird as well as wonderful that Otto is the sole reason I watch this movie.

And so should you.

A graduate of Evil Medical School and hailing from the mean streets of Bruges, Dr. Evil traveled from the 60′s to the nineties as part of an evil plan to overtake the world. And then hilarity ensues. He’s the guy that doesn’t quite get things right, has to struggle with his rebellious son and is just not connected to the world at all. He’s the worst villian ever created. And it’s fun.

Murray wasn’t the initial choice for the movie, but in all honesty I don’t think it would have worked well without him. Venkman is a bit of an oddball sleaze and had the potential to fall into the goofy or cringe worthy categories, but Murray seemed to bring a charm that made Venkman a character to connect with in the land of geeks. even though Winston was the teams every man, Murray was far easier to relate to and took the lead in a way that made the movies classics.

His quirky personality covers the hints of arrogance and greed. In the first movie he’s got a few great moments, but in the second his character grows more than the others when the sleaze is put to rest somewhat with his re-taking of Ellen Ripleys heart.

Unfortunately Bill Murray seems to be taking himself too seriously to reprise the role and quite frankly, he’s too old to do the same gimmick in the never-to-happen-but-rumored-lots Ghostbusters 3. But this was Murray in his prime and without him… I doubt this would have ever got to the level of success and cult love it has.

There are hundreds of great comedy characters in movies, not all from the comedy genre either. But out of all the movies I’ve seen – which sadly, is a ridiculous high number – it’s the above characters which have the full package. Whether that be something to relate to or something that’ll make you laugh out loud. These actors and characters are irreplaceable.

But then, everyone’s got a different opinion and a different taste. So, who’s in your list?

A lot of people hate sit-coms as they are often mindless entertainment filled with one note jokes, I can include myself in that list for the majority of what I see, but for all the ways to tell a story there are, nothing tickles our fancy more than a good laugh. So I figured it’s time to have a giggle and look back at the comedy characters that have remained in the recess of my mind.

This is a lot of ground to cover, so I’m splitting it. First up, it’s the TV world of days gone by and to start of the list, we have the oldest show entered…

The shows concept is a really unpleasant and miserable one. The idea of a dysfunctional family unit considering of a bitter old man who verbally abuses his son and won’t let hims escape out of selfishness and spite. The bulk of the episodes revolve around the two having harsh disagreements with one another or Harold’s attempt to find a woman, but with every step forward his father is there to kick him back to the starting point winning almost every debate, proving Harold wrong or just defeating him in is efforts to improve his life.

The struggle could be the core of a gritty drama, and at times that drama was there with Corbett’s portrayal, but with the writing and the verbal battles the show became a British comedy classic and for me, watching Harold’s struggle always kept me entertained.

While Frasier slowly becomes more snobbish throughout the series, having relaxed in his time in Boston throughout Cheers, Niles hasn’t had the time out and is shown to be rude, snobbish and obsessively compulsive from the start.

Like many of my favourite characters, the key to the Crane is to see him build themselves up for a fall. We know it’s coming every time but the wit, charm, writing and performance all came togteher for an exciting ride that didn’t talk down to it’s audience.

With no redeeming qualities whatsoever, he’s possibly one of the most vile men in sit-com history. He spends his life trying to raise the hotel to the highest standards but mistakes, stupidity and accidents bring him down to the worst service imaginable and trapped inside the hotel with his family and staff, who hate him in equal amounts, there’s no where to unleash all his tension and anger but on the guests.

Despite his efforts, he’s a born failure and his passionate anger and stiff upper lip eccentricity through the awkward body of John Cleese, coupled with the characters fear of his wife, has made him an iconic symbol. Well, that and not mentioning the war…

Millions of years after Rimmer died, he was brought online as a hologram to keep Dave Lister, the last human, sane by giving him an adversary to challenge him and keep him company. Rimmer was like Frank Burns in MASH. He was on the receiving end of a lot of jokes but in the end was a product of his environment as a child which in talking about opened up moments of closeness between him and Lister.

Unlike Frank Burns, Rimmer evolved into a rounded and kind of nice person under all his failure and self loathing, eventually taking over the role of his parallel universe alter ego, Ace Rimmer, in a mission to save the universe. But then he returned, his revived body created by nanobots and the spite, and the humour, returned.

Famous for the catchphrase he actually barely said, he’s also known for being a grumpy old git. Which is unfair. The life of Meldrew was essentially one of a normal man who would find himself in insane circumstances caused by mis-communication, overreaction or sheer bad luck. His misfortunes would drive any of us insane!

But even his long suffering wife knew that Meldrew was really the good guy, even walking away from a possible affair arguing in his corner that he was a kind and sensitive man. A wonderful scene where she says if he wasn’t so sensitive he wouldn’t get worked up and thats why she loved him.

She loved him to the end and beyond as she punished the woman responsible for his death in the final episode. An episode that caused fans of the show to leave flowers at the place of his fictional death which goes to show just how loved this character had become. He was a grumpy old git, but we both laughed and sympathised with him simultaniously and eagerly awaited every episode.

In a world of Frabnk Spensers, Frank Drebins, David Brents, Catholisisms finest in Father Ted, all the Blackadders and many many more, Victor comes out top of the list for me.

So… how about you?

You know what I hate? Midgets. But almost as much as those creepy little stalking bastards, I hate TV executives that cancel something because all they want is the next best thing and if the ratings aren’t spanktastic to start with they lose interest. Nothing gets a chance any more and it’s irritating to watch Big Brother continue to thrive beyond it’s due time when Firefly couldn’t even get it’s last episodes aired.

It’s a horrible sign of humanity when something that good gets punted for some idiot, probably called Wayne or Velatorious the Grand Wizard of Cockmunchery, sitting in the Big Brother house acting like a wank while the nation wonders if he can get whatever idiot bimbo type is in there to get her tits out so the men in the audience can have a quick fiddle over three seconds of blurry footage.

So I choose to ignore the waves of absolute shite and look back at shows that never should have been canceled, shows that were written with thoughts and ideas with potential to entertain, enlighten, tell a story and most importantly – not fill out screen with thirteen wankers with the only redeeming quality being that they’re puny human flesh can’t stop bullets.

This makes my list as it used to be part of my Saturday morning routine. Doctor Who, Earth 2, WWF (not the E). It was also intriguing at the time to see a group of flawed characters including thieves, liars, murderers and the guy from Shawshank Redemption and watch the mystery of previously doomed colonists unfold.

Unfortunately it all ended with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger that was never resolved. Fuckers.

This wasn’t the best animated show, but it was one with a lot of heart and geeky humour. Better than what the Simpsons had become, maybe not as laugh out loud as the inconsistent Family Guy, but it was too good to be given the shaft. But fuck it, it’s coming back. So yay.

It was one of the most fun and different shows out there and had a lot of potential to go further. The movie Serenity, made after cancellation, proved it had potential to go somewhere pretty damn good. Especially with Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Allan Tudyk on board.

Alas, Fox disagreed and Whedon seemed to be getting canceled on every show he was working on so.. the chop was foolishly made when ratings bombed after some idiotic scheduling and promotion.

I’ve mentioned this in a recent blog so I don’t want to retread it all again, but it pisses me off that this shows been damned to the irritating modern TV practice of going on a break to fix it if it doesn’t draw as well as you hoped. Putting a show up against established programming with strong fanbases and refusing to give anything a chance doesn’t help – but just like anything in modern society, the networks have no patience anymore.

If one of my favourite TV shows, Deep Space Nine, was aired today it’d go on a break by the sixth episode, come back with some explosions, lose it’s audience and be canceled by episode 18.

As it happened, DS9 was given room to breath and after two shaky seasons and finding their feet in the third, had an outstanding run from their fourth season onwards. Today… that’d never happen.

Arrested Development was the BSG of the comedy world. It was raved about, it was loved, critics – the people who just moan about shit – couldn’t say enough good things. It won awards, it was placed on a pedistal, it was the best thing since we discovered the penis could go in the vagina and make happy time. Yet Fox didn’t like the ratings and it was shitcanned.

Arrested Development was great. It had a good strong cast and always, always, delivered. Yet because it wasn’t on the Friends level of ratings it was given the Firefly treatment. Well, slightly better than Firefly. At least Fox had the courtesy to actually show the finale of Arrested Development.

What upsets me about this list is that these are five shows with the potential to go on to become something brilliant. And these are only five of dozens of good shows that died too soon for one reason or another outwith quality.

And yet… Hollyoaks is still on TV. Seriously, which rabid monkey is Phil Redmond fucking to keep that shit alive?

Bow down and give praise, for the Geeky List Thing’s portion of Star Trek is about to hit it’s main event. This was how it all began, the original Star Trek series running from 1966-1969. A low budget campy show that no one thought would run three seasons, let alone be a cult icon that lived through several spin offs, eleven motion pictures and is about to live even longer with two more movies in the pipeline with a new era of the Franchise growing.

When it came to making a new Star Trek film, JJ & Co went back to the beginning. DS9 was awesome, the Next Gen brought in a new era and Voyager and Enterprise… well, they had their moments. But they knew they had to start at the beginning as nothing had been as iconic as Kirk and his crew. So… let’s take a peek at what we left behind…

Feed them, and they multiply in masses and eventually overrun your ship. Like an evil bunny. But the little critters help Kirk realise there’s a Klingon infiltrator on the station, who eventually goes back in time to kill Kirk in DS9′s Trails and Tribblations.

The ep is one of my first Trek memories. It’s light fluffy fun. And it’s wonderful. The tribbles seem to be surrounded in fun moments, but Kirk’s line at the end “And third… close that hatch.” still makes me smile.

…and that synopses doesn’t do it justice in the slightest. But that doesn’t matter right now… a lot of people look back on Star Trek and see moral messages more than sci fi action adventure. Not every episode was a sermon, but the two things Trek did well were fun and lectures.

In this we see a moment where Kirk struggles to recognise the racial differences between Bele and Lokai – an obvious hatred between them stemming from the colour of their skin. An obvious parallel that spoke to a lot of people back in the day.

Starring the late Mark Lenard, who would go on to portray Spocks father Sarek, he acts as the Romulan Commander who bears a striking resemblance to Spock. In that moment we see that the Romulans and the Vulcans have more in common than the logician would like to admit.

Finding themselves in the depression era of the US, Kirk and Spock befriend Edith Keeler, get enough work to be able to afford a patch job on Spocks tricorder which then tells him that Keeler was supposed to die in an accident. McCoy saved her and it changed everything.

So we have a wonderful moment where Kirk, who’s fallen for Keeler, has to stand by and watch her die to make sure history follows the right path. Which was one of the most heartbreaking, and in general one of the best overall, moments in the land of Trek.

Spock then fights for her with Kirk as T’Pring’s champion and the two fight to the death!

This is not only an epic episode and one of the classic moments of Star Trek which wil be remembered for all time, it’s the one identifying scene everyone knows. Whether it be the action, the setting, the weapons or the music, everyone knows something and whenever it’s parodied – and Jesus, it’s parodied a lot – it’s always a familiar sight.

So there it is. The list. Feel I missed something out? Maybe you think Khan’s takeover or Pike’s last mission count as something to add? Two Kirks? The Gorn? If you’ve got a differing opinion – speak now, or… well… I won’t know about it.

When Doctor Who returned, the geeks of the nation rejoiced. The show that had been sustained by a cult following buying books and audioplays in hoards kept it alive after it’s cancellation in the late eighties and through the disappointing movie starring the magnificent Paul McGann.

In 2005 the Doctor returned through BBC Wales with a geeky showrunner, failed singer and tremendous lead and all of a sudden a show that was dead and forgotten, doomed to be repeated in the early shift of UKTV Gold went from a cult icon to rightfully find it’s place back on Saturday night TV and soon became one of the BBC’s flagship shows, a ratings epic win and captured an American following.

But what were the best bits? Well, I’ve thrown up the usual five moments I pick as overall icons of awesomeness in the new era of Who as classic Who is too filled out for me to even contemplate right now.

Goodbye.
Doomsday (series 2)
Russel Davies is always going to be painted as a hack that almost destroyed a beloved series, but the man had some serious talent. He brought the show back to life and he injected something vital for modern audiences… emotion.

In the finale of series two we had the Doctor trapping armies of both Cybermen and Daleks in a void between two dimensions and he and Rose were at risk of being trapped in there too. As Rose began to fall through the rift, her father from an alternate universe (Peteworld, as it became known) saves her at the last moment and as the two dimensions seal off from each other, the Doctor and Rose find themselves separated.

It was a story of love, the Doctor lost everything and gained Rose. A companion that was just that little more, and perhaps a bit much for an asexual character but in the closing moments of the two’s relationship it was exactly what RTD does best. With a wall representing a closed off dimension, Rose cried as she realises she’s been torn from him, and Tennant plays it cool with very subtle hints of the pain of his loos before walking off.

The writing, direction and acting was all spot on and Murray Golds music hit it perfectly. This was what RTD could do brilliantly and in this moment, he did it perfectly. It’s a shame he wrecked it a few scenes later.

Coward, every time.
Parting of the ways (series 1)
At the end of the first series, Christopher Eccelston goes out with a bang as the Ninth Doctor who finds himself the only man who can stop a Dalek army from enslaving humanity and bringing general Dalek related chaos. Oh noes! With certain death to come, he’s sent Rose away with the TARDIS, Captain Jacks leading some humans into a futile fight where they all die one by one and the only man left standing is the Doctor, and he’s made himself a weapon.

Despite it looking like something out of a road runner cartoon, he has a big switch and if he pushes it the Daleks die. But so does everyone on Earth that stands in their way.

Harking back to the days of Tom Baker one of the last decisions he makes is to become a coward, rather than a killer. In Genesis of the Daleks we saw the Fourth Doctor agonising over his chance to kill the Daleks at their origin, and concludes that as evil as they are, it’s not his right to commit genocide. Here, the Ninth Doctor can’t bring himself to kill the Daleks if it means killing the humans and as such, surrenders.

Why did you say five minutes?!
The Eleventh Hour (series 5).
Although this episode is all new, it was a wonderful one. The nation waited impatiently to see if Matt Smith would live up to the challenge of replacing Tennant, who the nation loved and through the episode we see the birth of the Eleventh Doctor. Not only did Smith prove he had something special, it provided a grand few moments under the watch of writr and new showrunner Stephen Moffat from seeing the Doctor try to figure out his body, retaining a more creepy feel rather than an effects explosion, we have a bizarre rant about a duck pond and more little moments that make me love this episode, but above all one stands out to me.

Newly regenerated, the Doctor lands in a young girls garden, finds a problem and promises to return in five minutes. When he does come back, having been knocked out with a cricket bat, the Doctor finds himself handcuffed to a radiator and talking to a police woman who, moments later, not only tells him that her radio is a fake, but she’s a kiss-o-gram and as they drag each other through the adventure the woman shouts at him for promising to be five minutes, yet taking twelve years and after all this time in nuWho, we find ourselves with a companion that’s… different.

Rose was the girlfriend, Martha was the girl who never stood a chance, Donna was a mate, Amy was a little girl who waited for adventure that never came until she’d stopped believing. Until her imaginary friend returned.

He will knock four times.
The end of Time (New Years Day Special, 2010)
This was another RTD spectacular, spectacular. This was over the top, insane, filled with plot holes and so fast paced you didn’t care. The Doctor had been warned in 2009′s first special that ‘he will knock four times’ and knowing that he was facing his death, he was sure it was the Master who would bring his downfall.

After a huge two parter, the Master stands aside and takes the bullet for his old adversary and after the whole storyline finds itself concluded, we see Ten laying on the floor laughing in the face of death, thinking that he’d beaten it. Then out of nowhere we hear four knocks and find the sweet old man, Wilf, knocking on the glass, trapped in a booth ready to flood with deadly radiation and instead of a huge dramatic regeneration, the Doctor rages agains Wilf, the clumsy old man played by Bernard Cribbons who could make you cry about there being no tea left over. Doing the rght thing, the Doctor takes the pain and lets his lfie begin to slip away to save his friend.

After an over the top classic RTD episode, it was absolutely wonderful to see this all come down to a simple death. Nothing dramatic, nothing courageous. Just doing the right thing.

The Doctors Soul is Revealed.
Journeys End (Series 4).
Yet another RTC extravaganza, with Davros, the Daleks, Torchwood, Sarah Jane, Rose and all the companions in the RTD era, but the moment I love is so small it’s wonderful.

This era of the Doctor was far more focused around how dangerous he was. He’d run around the universe changing things, saving people, being a hero. But every time he’d leave a wake of death and destruction behind him. In a wonderful two parter in a previous series, we saw the Doctor become John Smith, turning himself human to hide from TimeLord seeking aliens. When it’s all over Jessica Hynes character, his human sides love interest, says she can’t be with him as the Doctor. If he didn’t went to her town to hide, no one would have died. We saw a few bits of pieces of that over time, but in this moment… his soul was revealed.

A returning Davros watched as his former companions banded together to fight with the Doctor, but it only fueled Davros’ agenda…

…that era of the Doctor was a wonderful way of showing something underneath the eccentric adventurer. He wasn’t a killer, but he created them. He didn’t kill people, but people died in his name. For all his heroism, all the good he’d done, how much pain had he left behind?

In the good old days, the Doctor was kind of a one dimensional character with the leads being Ian and Barbera – his human companions trapped with him when he ran away form Earth with his daughter Susan once they figured out there was something odd about him. He gained some complexity and the mythology of who he was, and later on his people, the Time Lords and Gallifrey, but despite changes he was always just the hero. The advantage of a new era of Doctor Who was being able to explore more with him, whether that was adding in a greater attachment to his companions, giving him a deeper range of emotion or bring darker elements to the man himself from the time he manically killed the Raknos baby’s to his ‘heel turn’ in Waters of Mars.

I’ve discussed this with many people, including blogger and regular commenter Marty Michaels, not just about Doctor Who but Trek, Battlestar – as well as SWA Promoter and trainer Peter Murphy – and a few other and there are many arguments on both sides whether the new Who is a good thing or not. But to me, the more depth the character has the better the show has potential to be and I hope that with Matt Smith and Stephen Moffat going more old school, we still get some of the darker complexities with the Doctor that has really made all the difference in making this show one to watch again.

A huge honorable mention to the Masters death on Last of the Timelords. Simm’s version was a little more… insane than previous masters but that scene where the Doctor weeps over his body, begging im to regenerate was a wonderful sight to see and a scene only Tennant could pull off.

Have any other great moments? Whether it’s from the old or the new, the best or the worst or anything in between – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The Next Generation offered a new era for Star Trek. Deep Space Nine kicked off before TNG went off the air and then there was Voyager, boldly going further into the 24th century and boldly getting worse as the years went on, becoming a horrible, horrible television show.

With Paramount and Rick Berman all too happy to wank the franchise out, squeezing every last piece of energy out from the tired writing of Bermans top time wasters, they hit out quickly after the end of Voyager and brought us Enterprise.

A prequel, because we all know how well that works, don’t we Mr. Lucas?

Deep Space Nine was good, but it didn’t have the space exploration aspect that some wanted, and while Voyager let us down with what they spewed out, Enterprise promised to show us the birth of the Federation and Starfleet by bringing us the same TNG era exploration but with some of that classic Star Trek feel of a cowboy in space sitting in the captains chair.

Unfortunately the format was epic fail. The captain was played by a man who was so unpassionate about everything, straight laced and just downright dull. His XO Was too obviously a bad replacement for Spok and scenes written for her and love interest Trip Tucker were the anti-sexy. The est of the cast remained under defined and pathetically unused and instead if merging the best of the previous Treks, they seemed to highlight the worst aspects of them just by being dreadful.

There were some good elements, however. Despite the fanboys having a crack at the ship being an obvious rip off Akira class from First Contact, it was very nicely designed both inside and out. The detail was incredible and it looked like a nice primitive ship closer to our own time. Spot on. The uniforms matched that with wardrobe focusing on a step up of our time rather than a distant future and by the fourth season the writers figured out how to make a decent show again. But it was too little too late.

Orions bring the sexy.
Bound (season 4)
There’s nothing I can say here but… sexy green women dancing. Awesome.

In seriousness, this brought back the Orion Slave Girls from the original series and updated them for our time. It was a nice callback to the original stories portrayed in the Trekverse and made the slaves something more by having them being the masters using their sexuality to control men, rather than being used for sexy time.

The origins of Data.
Borderland-Augments (season 4)
Well this was a pleasure just for Brent Spiner. In TNG Data was a machine working as an officer on board the Enteprise designed by Dr Soong. In Enterprise we see an ancestor of Soong working on genetic engineering based on the same work that brought us KHAAAAAAAAAAAN in the 1990′s. Of Trek time anyway.

There was a nice line at the end of it all when Soong gets put in prison after chasing down his genetically engineered mutant men where he decided to move on from supermen to creating something else… which leads into a lifetime of work that would caus his great grandson to complete that research as Data.

The Klingons explained.
Affliction-Divergence (season 4).
In this, the same genetic fiddling as above finds itself in the hands of the Klingons, who play with themselves to make themselves harder. Minds out the gutter, people. Uncle Phil of Fresh Prince fame kidnaps Dr Phlox to come fix them up as the genetic tampering is not only imprinting human qualities, but is deadly. Fatally deadly!

This didn’t need to be done, but in a season where the rest of the Trekverse was being referenced in the right way, the introduction to Augmented Klingons was a nice touch. Until then we’d have Worf brush off the change in Klingon appearance between TOS and the movies, but here we see the reason Klingons had a flat forehead in Kirks early era, but nowhere else.

Hoshi gets hot.
In a Mirror, Darkly (season 4).3
Notice a trend on the season 4-ness here? In this episode we see the Mirror universe, first seen in Kirks Era but mostly seen in DS9. And a very hot Hoshi moves from pumping machine to Empress as we see her take over the evil Captain Archers command and make herself ruler of the world while looking frakable in the process.

Mirror universe Hoshi managed more development in two episodes than real universe Hoshi did in four years.

We also got to see them moving through time to the Kirk dimension, stealing the Constitution class Defiant and replicating classic series sets and even a Gorn. Wonderful tribute.

Enterprise is cancelled.
(NO SEASON 5 FOR YOU!)
This was the best moment for Enterprise, when the plug was finally pulled. After a lackluster four years, it was well overdue. It shouldn’t have gone past two seasons. And thats being nice.

The fourth season, despite having a slap in the face finale, was the best it was going to get and anything else would be a let down. Well, more of a let down that the first three seasons which you’d have to be seriously loyal, or seriously mental, to love.

Any Enterprise fans out there? I’ll leave comments open so all six of you can moan about this.

After the years biggest wrestling event saw some of the top names in American wrestling go nuts on pay per view around the world, an event so passionate it causes riots, I decided to put a twist in the latest geeky list thing and look a little more local.

For several years now I’ve worked for the Scottish Wrestling Alliance doing various things from putting on a pair of tights and fumbling about in the ring to being party host to building an online presence and more in between. From the start I’ve been involved in the company, so why not share my top moments within the premiere source of Scottish Wrestling?

All pics are by David Wilson, most of them are from the Gathering 2009.

A List Rules.
A very selfish choice to enter at number five, but this was without a doubt the night that made the A List a faction to be reckoned with.

Having to live in the shadow of the Sinners, Falcon and I expanded out teamwork to include several other stars such as Wolfgang, Darkside, Johnny Darko and later on we brought in Micken and BT Gunn. We even had our own valet and campaign manager, Alice, better known as Louise Stewart, who’s now making waves on BBC Scotland’s Burnistoun.

After winning Clan Wars, we got the right to grab anything we wanted. So we giggled and asked for our own show. So our next trip to Clydebank Town Hall saw us booking something to amuse ourselves. Putting tag teams against each other in singles competition, placing our adversaries in impossible to win matches and I let the roster I’d pised off get their chance for vengeance with an open challenge that I merrily won.

This was one of the nights that showed the A List as a legitimate threat, even if we were more comedy than fury… it was a hell of a fun ride and this night, we quite literally stole the show.

The Gathering begins.
Where it all begins… for us. The Gathering was part of a five year plan to put on a huge show in a respected venue once we’d built up enough momentum and the five year plan… well, didn’t go to plan. We got there sooner than expected and with a little help getting our foot in the door, the Gathering occurred for the first time.

For fans, talent and staff alike this was a huge moment. We either did well and we’d go on to bgger and better things or we’d crash and burn wishing ourselves luck in our future endeavors.

The night was headlined with Jester winning the NWA Scottish Heavyweight Championship and Conscience walking out as NWA British Champion. More importantly, it was the night that proved SWA was here to stay and has been repeated in success and quality every year since.

Conscience returns
When the Winners turned against their leader, they decimated Conscience. Beating him to a pulp, stuffing him a body bag and making sure we never see him again. With Majik taking control, the Sinners began a new era but at the following Battlezone that era was disrupted.

With a new angelic look (not the one above) and a mask to cover his damaged face, a new era of Conscience began as he returned with the one thing he needed to topple his new enemies; Faith.

Entering towards the closing moments of Battlezone, Conscience took his revenge out on Majik, let Eric Canyon win back his title and the proceeded to eliminate the Sinners from Scottish wrestling one by one.

Retirements.
Having been a part of SWA from day one, Eric Canyon made an announcement to the locker room that he was on his way out to chants of “one more match” in a private ceremony. In the world or wrestling, this final match took place against his protege, RIP who has since gone on to wrestling in the US and Mexico as a champion.

This was a highly emotional match and no one in the crowd believed that Canyon would go, but when that bell rang and the entire locker room spilled out to give him a standing ovation, breaking the barrier between the fans and the locker room, it created a truly emotional moment that couldn’t be matched.

Tied with that is the retirement match featuring Con and Majik where, oddly enough, Canyon announced them both as losers and therefore both retired. Bitter, much?

That match remains strong in my mind for two reasons. One… these two men were the core of SWA both spiritually and physically. They brought more to the table than fans will ever know. Secondly, both men are huge inspirations to me, as well as the whole locker room. Both of them had a hand in making the best components of me, both of them are missed and both of them were, and remain, icons.

Scott Renwick wins the NWA Scottish Heavyweight Championship
This was the third Gathering and the third time the title had been on the line at the event. Jester won the first time, Lionheart stole the win the second time round cashing in his title shot after a huge defense from Wolfgang.

Wolfgangs match brought out something I’d never seen in Scottish wrestling fans when they began singing flower of Scotland and getting into it just as they would a cup final.

I didn’t think anything would top it until Scott Renwick turned the Lionheart and Wolfgang match into a three way dance when he cashed in his title shot. Renwick was scheduled to fight for the title until Lionheart and Wolfgang maneuvered the event to feature themselves. After some promotion, including a slot on STV’s ‘The Hour’, Renwick was able to build himself enough momentum to not only win a title shot, but compete again less than an hour later and win the NWA Scottish Heavyweight Championship.

When Scotty entered SWA’s training camp he was a clumsy boy with two left feet. He really was an underdog story. He worked hard, pushed himself beyond what he thought was possible and main evented the biggest night of wrestling in Scotland and has since went on to become one of the most loved champions in the country.

With all of us watching with the crowd, we all felt a deeply routed pride in seeing someone we loved achieve his dream on such a huge stage for SWA.

That match showed just how good SWA could be, not just for the fans, for those of us who spend so much of our personal time and energy to make it possible. IT was truly magnificent to see it all happen.

For a quick rundown of more personal highlights for me…
…in no particular order…

Wrestling Idol.
Facing Majik in the Best of the Best. I was far from my best, but to get in the ring with a man I’d admired professionally and personally, it was a truly amazing moment. Even if I almost killed his jaw.

The A List.
The whole lot from start to finish. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had and I got paid to be both violent and wear silly clothes. Win for me.

Friendly Fire.
Taking on Falcon in the Battlezone. Not only did this mean locking horns with the almighty Johnny Moss, but a man I love and respect, Falcon. It was great getting that closure from our mini-feud but at the end of the night, I was still hugging him backstage when we won that title.

Validated.
Conscience. In his garden, telling me why I was great at my job. I don’t look for criticism and I trust very few people. His opinion I trust and value and it was great to hear.

Finale.
I got a call asking me if I’d put the T-Div title on the line before a Source show last year and after a quick discussion, I was convinced and had shared and collaborated and come up with a plan. That plan was to put the title on the line… and Ricky Gibson was the man who’d take it from me. My final match and my final moment of realizing I could do something good… this time it was let someone who’d appreciate the title take it home and bring it new life.

And thats that. Fan Access 14 will be up at SWA Online soon enough, I’ll do my usual preview here.

Scottish wrestling has more than one promotion and it has dozens of young stars. All over the UK there are unsung heroes in the wrestling world who go unnoticed. If anyone wants to share great moments form their local promotion or favourite stars, please feel free to make a comment and educate me, and everyone else.

When Next Generation went off the air, DS9 became the writers playground and with that show not having the bold exploration part of the show… Voyager decided to go where no man had gone before and with Captain Janeway in the big seat, the ship was lost far from known space and thrown into chaos.

But chaos never actually happened. The show had them cut off from all their creature comforts and resources, yet the crew seemed to have a jolly time out there with very little causing trouble, constant fuel supplies and despite throwing the word ‘rations’ around every now and then, an unlimited source of resources.

All the trauma of being cut off from civilisation, upgrades and everything else was all too often forgotten and any problem faced was always easily fixed. If half the ship fell off, they’d somehow get it fixed by the next episode and as the show went on, every solution involved Borg Nanoprobes in some way like a magic wand being waved to give the writers an easy way out of everything.

The producers forgetting the very basic plot ruined Voyager for me. Instead of being something new and unique, it was another Next Generation with bland characters doing pretty much nothing. The show to me is seven years of wasted potential with one of the worst finale’s I’ve ever seen, I could go on…

…but despite that, it had it’s moments.

In that book which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you appear the words: Here begins a new life.
Latent Image (season 5)
This is noted as being Robert Picardo’s favourite episode of Voyager, and with good reason. In this, his character simply known as ‘The Doctor’ or ‘EMH’ realises that Harry Kim has gone through a complex medical procedure reasonably recently and as he’s the only person on board who could do such a thing – he’s understandably confused.

Seeing as he’s a hologram and his brain is merely a computer database, he should remmeber something like this. And so he begins to learn of a time when his programming began to collapse. He had two patients, both of them unstable in exactly the same condition and hehad to choose which one to operate on. Being a computer, he should have gone about it logically. But in this instance he chose who he was closest to and saved Harry while the other crew member died.

Designed only to be a medical suppliment to be used in an emergency, he’s not programmed to deal with emotional decisions and over theyears we’ve seen him turn from program to person. This decision tipped him over the edge of reason and his programming began to collapse in the form of a breakdown, so Janeway decided to erase his memory.

When he rediscovers what happened, he begins to fall apart again but he fights against having his memory wiped and in the end we have a wonderful closing scene where the crew take turns looking after him as he tried to wrap his head around what happens and come to terms with it, being treated as a person instead of a machine.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Thaw (season 2)
This was one of the better episodes of Voyager for me. The setting was simple enough. Ish. The crew stumble upon a planet that went through a disaster and find out that a group had put themselves into some kind of artificial hibernation in order to survive it. The crew soon find out their minds are trapped in an artificial world with an insane clown, played nicely by Michael McKean, keeping them hostage.

By this point engineering types Torress and Kim are already trapped inside and find out that the Clown was created by those inside him and if they leave their hibernation, he’ll die. So he’s doing what he can to keep them in and if he kills you inside his little world, you die in the real world.

The closing scene is wonderful when Janeway offers herself in place of all the people he’s keeping hostage and slowly he realises it’s all a trick. His world fades away piece by piece leaving him alone with a fake Janeway as he cowers in fear at his own impending doom.

How it could have been.
Equinox (season 5-6)
While I think this was a wasted opportunity that could have been stretched as more than just a brdge between the two seasons and turned into an arc, I loved this episode for two reasons. The first was just like the moment in BSG when the Pegasus arrived and for that moment, everything seemed a little better.

The second reason… when we get to know the Equinox crew we get a glimpse of what could have happened to the crew if they’d abandoned their morals and really did do what it took to get home. It was also a glimpse of what should have been in Voyager with the desperation and frustration overwhelming them.

The cliffhanger for the first part, the end of season five, was brilliant. Voyager was screwed, the Equinox crew were in control and the lines were drawn. Amazingly, this wasn’t a big technbabble ending in the second part which made it all the better.

I’m a doctor, not a commando!
Message in a Bottle (season 4)
When Voyager finds a communications doohicky, they send the Doctor’s program through to a Starfleet ship back home. Soon enough, the Doctor realises he’s on an experimental ship designed to operate in a war he’s never heard of, there’s a new EMH in the form of comedian Andy Dick and the ship has been taken over by Romulans.

Why do I love this episode? It’s fun.

The interactions between the two EMH’s make the episode brilliant. Robert Picardo and Andy Dick work wonderfully together and the best moment comes when they decide to take over the ship and take control of the bridge from the Romulans. Then of course, they have to fight not only the Romulans but Starfleet ships that have come to reclaim their project, which results in them struggling to figure out how to operate a ship, how to battle their enemies and how to tell their allies their not Romulans.

Not everyone has the ability to truly perceive time, its colors, its moods.
Year of Hell (season 4)
This was, hands down, without a doubt the best episode Voyager ever made. Ever.

In this two parter we meet Annorax, played by Kurtwood Smith of ‘That 70′s Show’, who’s also portrayed various roles in Star Trek including the Federation President in the TOS movie Th Undiscovered Country. In this, he’s a scientist who’s time-related experiment resulted in the end of his home planet and is now killing entire worlds and changing time recklessly trying to bring it all back. But no matter how close he gets, he’s never able to bring back his wife who was lost in the initial experiment and will never give up until he has her back.

So there’s the emotional part of the antagonist locked up with the plot, ad we have Chakotay trapped with him out of time trying to help.

Back on Voyager, that ship is suffering he consequences of Annorax fiddling with the space time continuum and over the course of a year, Voyager goes through a series of disasters losing power, resources, crew and more. The ship is barely habitable, Tuvok’s lost his sight, Neelix is forced to double up as security and with half the crew dead and Janeway on the edge.. things are not going well.

This is another two-part episode that could have been a full on story arc and really did show what Voyager could have been if they kept it all closer to the plot. Keeping to the original story, Voyager could have been this good for a while. Alas, the magic reset button was used at the end. It made sense in the setting – but it was a shame to lose all that drama and good stuff.

But despte all the wonderful pars, the best for me was Janeway’s big plan at the end. She was ready to sacrifice herself and what was left of her ship to take out Annorax and reset time back to normal. Then we had one of the best character moments between her and Tuvok.

They’d been written as a kind of professional friendship we’ve seen with Spock and Kirk. That original Human-Vulcan pairing never really seemed like a friendship to me until Star Trek II when Spock and Kirk were looking at each other threw the glass, Kirk weeping at the death of his friend. Much like that, this was the first moment that the friendship clicked for Janeway and Tuvok.

The ship is going down, Janeways ready for her suicide run and the ever loyal Tuvok refuses to leave and stays by her side. It was so simple, but said a lot more than other scenes with them.

Special mentions go to episodes like the Chute, which I couldn’t really place a moment for it was just a good episode, Timeless and the two-parter Futures End which placed Voyager in 1996. And of course the Meld, which Brad Dourif made all kinds of awesome… and his death later on was pretty good.

Something to add or moan about? Moan away.