TV Review: The Sarah-Jane Adventures Pilot Episode "Invasion Of The Bane" [Emz]

So as it was announced that all episodes on The Sarah-Jane Adventures are now on BBC iPlayer, I decided to start watching it.

I decided to start right at the beginning with the Pilot episode, Invasion Of The Bane.

This episode starred Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah-Jane Smith, Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson and Tommy Knight as Luke.

This Pilot and the series that followed were produced off the back of Elisabeth Sladen portraying Sarah-Jane Smith in Doctor Who, School Reunion (series 2, episode 3) 

This first aired on BBC One on the 1st January 2007.

Here is the Synopsis:

Investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith teams up with her new, thirteen-year-old neighbour, Maria Jackson, to face the scheming Mrs Wormwood, the head of a company producing a popular and addictive soft drink called "Bubble Shock!"

Review:

I remember watching this episode when it was first aired on BBC One, New Years Day 2007.

If you weren't already aware this was the second spin-off from Doctor Who, after Torchwood.

So we begin with a new family moving to Bannerman Road, The Jackson Family. The family consists of Alan Jackson and his Daughter Maria.

Maria attempts to introduce herself to Sarah-Jane who lives across the road but with no success.

Her first night in her new home, she is woken by a bright light, she heads over and finds Sarah-Jane communicating with an alien. Maria is quite shocked but at the same time fascinated.

The next day she meet Kelsey Hooper who randomly shows up on her doorstep and they use the Bubbleshock bus to go to the factory. Sarah-Jane follows them in her car after hearing of the plans they made.

Whilst on a tour of the factory Maria refuses to drink Bubble Shock and then Kelsey tries to use her phone to call a friend, this effects the Bane Mother and scares Kelsey.

Sarah-Jane gets caught investigating the factory and meets with Mrs Wormwood, who is very vague with Srash-Janes questions, she tries to force her to drink Bubble Shock and Sarah-Jane keeps saying Mrs Wormwood is from another Planet. After her exit the assisstant is ordered to kill her.

Also in this episode we meet the character that we come to know as Luke. When a power surge from the mobile phones wake up the Archetype who resembles a human boy. Maria befriends him after he escapes and they along with Sarah-Jane and Kelsey leave the building and go back to Sarah-Jane's house. they were followed by another member of staff who happens to be a Bane in disguise.

He chases the kids and Sarah-Jane though the house untill Sarah finds something in her attic to freeze him.

The eventually discover all the artifacts in her attic that are alien in origin and she tells them about her travels with The Doctor.

We meet Mr. Smith who is her supercomputer built into the wall of her Attic and we are greeted to a brief appearence of K-9.

The Archetype (Luke) notices that Sarah-Janes watch that deetects Alien life forms has been beeping and she didn't notice. It is eventually noted that the "organic-ness" of Bubble Shock is actually pieces of Bane, a live Alien. Sarah-Jane uses Mr Smith to hack into Mrs Wormwoods computer to chat with her, she tries to get her to leave or she will stop her. Mrs wordwood just says "Bring it on."

The Bane in the Bubbleshock drinks in then activated and all humans who have drank it are but under some sort of hypnotic spell to try and get other to drink it. This includes Maria's dad and Kelsey

Sarah-Jane, The Arcitype and Maria they go back to the factory and break through the wall using the Bubble Shock Bus after the gates are deadlock sealed. Revealing that the Archetype was created to deal with the "2%", Wormwood declares he is no longer needed as plans have been sped up and disables the Archetype by manipulating her ring. Follwoing Maria temporarily affecting Bane mother with her mobile phone,The Archetype uses the communiations device given to Sarah-Jane by the visiting Alien earlier in the episode, uses the number he memorised from Mr Smith, he calls the universe. This affects all of The Bane and it kills the Bane Mother. Mrs Wormwood escapes vowing revenge.

At the end of the episode, Kelsey is denyinng any knowledge of Aliens and everyone is back to normal. Srah-Jane Offically adopts the Archetype and names him Luke.

I enjoyed this episode, even though this is aimed even more at kids than Doctor Who is, It was great to see what happened to Sarah-Jane after School Reunion. We meet brand new characters and aliens/ monsters.It was interesting to see what The Doctor left Sarah-Jane with after he left, K-9, Sonic Lipstock and tracker for Alien life forms. She also seems to have changed cars since we met her last. She tries to go it alone and make sure that Maria forgets about her, but that doesn't work so she accepts her help.

It is also discovered by the time the first episode of Series 1 airs that we never see or hear from Kelsey again.

Thats all for now.

Till next time.

Emz x

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TV Review: Salvation Season 1 Episode 1 "Pilot" - Series Premiere [Emz]

Finally a new post! So I have been taking a break from here but that doesn't mean I've stopped watching shows.

I have completed watching all episodes of  The Librarians so there will be no more posts on that but I have started watched a new series called Salvation. It aired of CBS in America and all episodes are currently on Netflix UK

I spotted this series on Netflix earlier this month. It stars Santiago Cabrera as Darius Tanz. Santiago is best known for portraying Isaac Mendez in Heroes and Lancelot in Merlin.

Here is the Synopsis from IMDB:

When MIT grad student Liam Cole (Charlie Rowe) discovers an asteroid is set to collide with Earth in 186 days, he joins forces with tech billionaire Darius Tanz (Santiago Cabrera) and the U.S. government to try and stop it - and together they stumble onto the greatest conspiracy never told.

Review:

I enjoyed this episode. So we start with MIT student Liam oversleeping due to him working on his algorithms all night. He is due to attend Darius Tanz's lecture and when he shows up he is barefoot - his shoes are in his backpack (which makes an impression on Darius and other students), this part really made me laugh as it happens again later in the series and it is seemingly memorable. Following this he spots a girl at a bar whilst he is with friends, that he recognizes from Darius lecture, her name is Jillian and it turns out she is not a student but a big fan of Darius.

After spending the night with Jillian,  Liam finds that one of his algorithms has works and learns there is an asteroid on a collision with earth in 186 days. Liam informs his Professor in the early hours of the morning, only to be dismissed as it is so early, he mentions he will talk about it the next day after class. The Professor is seen to be calling someone after he leaves. 

After class the next day Liam goes to find his Professor as he doesn't show up for class, ok... so little unusual, He find his professors house ransacked and notices that he had left his glasses behind, which to Liam screamed trouble. He is then chased by someone and Lima manages to avoid them but ends up in an Elevator with Darius Tanz. 

This is where it gets interesting, Liam informs Daruis of everything from discovering the algorithm to being chased after his professor disappears. Of course Darius recognizes him as the "shoe-less guy" 

The story gets interesting from here and after going to the Pentagon and after they originally play dumb and act like they had no idea about the Asteroid, they cave in and inform Darius that they already knew about the said Asteroid. They have modified one of Darius older rockets and are soon to be testing.

Darius later shares with Liam about his Ark to save the human race if all else fails. It currently will only take 160 people (this gave me a The 100 kind of vibe, only I know it's a bit different) and eventually take them to live on Mars. 

Grace Burrows (Jennifer Finnigan) the PA to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Harris Edwards becomes Darius' "inside man" after a little persuading and an emotional Valedictorian speech from her daughter.

Harris tests the modified rocket, which he informs Grace of it being a huge success, turns out to be a big failure after she asks one of the tech guys to show her the footage, he later ends up dead..

So it's all kicking off! whatever happens next it's bound to get more interesting by the minute.

Thats all for now 

Till next time

Emz 

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TV Review: Designated Survivor Season 1 Episode 1 "Pilot'' [Emz]

I discovered this Series on Netflix last year, I haven't quite finished it so I decided to re-watch from the beginning.

The series stars Keifer Sutherland, Maggie Q, Kal Penn & Italia Ricci.

Here is a synopsis:

A low-level Cabinet member becomes President of the United States after a catastrophic attack kills everyone above him in the Presidential line of succession.

Review:

I found this episode quite gripping. What seem like a normal day in the characters lives, turns around in an instant. The whole change happens in the blink of an eye as the whole cabinet including the President is killing in a bombing at the Capital. 

With Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) being the Designated Survivor, he is suddenly launched into a world he is not used to. It also comes a huge shock for his family.

I like the way no one is sure what to make of him to begin with and at the end of the episode we are not sure that the people behind the attack are finished and everyone seems to be a suspect.

I look forward to remembering how this season progresses and continuing to watch.

Episode 2 coming soon.

Till then

Emz x 

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TV Review: Beyond Season 1 Premiere "Pilot" [Emz]

So I have just started watching this show. I kept seeing it advertised when following Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments.

Here is the Premise for the first episode:

Holden Matthews miraculously wakes up from a devastating coma to the wonderment of his parents Tom and Diane and younger brother Luke. But the world has changed since Holden went to sleep, and he now has to navigate being an adult when all he remembers is being a child. At the same time, Holden is experiencing abilities and memories he can't explain, and a mysterious woman named Willa warns him not to trust those around him. When a sinister stranger attacks Holden and claims he knows about his new powers, Holden is faced with uncovering just what happened to him while he was in a coma.

Review:

Well this was certainly different. Its still sci-fi and fantasy but at least it's not time travel or people would think I was obsessed. 

Anyway, I quite liked this. The fact that he is trying to catch up with what he has missed whilst he was in a coma, but not knowing why everyone seems to be out to get him. It's a little different from your usual coma stories. 

After being given a message on not being able to trust anyone and then a stranger saves him, but doesn't remember them. That makes for an interesting story-line. Having amnesia from a coma is one thing but in this case having amnesia from what happened while he was in the coma is very different.

I look forward to seeing whats to come.

Till next time

Emz x

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TV Review: Timeless Season 1 Premiere "Pilot" [Emz]

So I finally started watching this tonight on Netflix. I have to admit it's not bad. I'll happily watch anything that features time travel (*cough* nothing beats Doctor Who *Cough*) haha!! Anyway, I'm only one episode in and there were alot of faces I recognised but I did have google them to make sure I was correct.

The actors that portray two of the main characters, Abigail Spencer (Cowboys & Aliens, This Mean War) and Matt Lanter (90210, Star-crossed, Vampires Suck) I recognised them but its the actors portraying the recurring and guest characters that  took me by surprise.

So the first is the actress who played the guest character Kate Drummond for this episode, Shantel VanSanten, she has starred in One Tree Hill and The Flash, she is currently starring in Shooter. Also in a recurring are Matt Frewer who I am currently watching in The Librarians (season 1) and Susanna Thompson who for me is best known for playing Moira Queen in Arrow.

Here is the premise from IMDB for this episode:;

An unlikely team must travel through time and stop a criminal mastermind from destroying the past.

Review:

So I've only watched the first episode but, so fat so good. The twists in the story and how they struggle to keep everything as it was in the past, not always with success is very interesting. I am looking forward to seeing how the season progresses. 

That's it for now. I will hopefully review another episode of this in the future,

Till then

Emz x

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