A night of science (and fiction)

Sunday night is a bit of a TV treat for me. We had the marvelous Wonders of the Universe first up, presented by the effortlessly cool Brian Cox. He is just such a dude. He also has the amazing capacity to make infinitely complex science ideas easy to understand. Accompanied by ultra-cool CGI visuals and a rather bizarre metaphor comparing an old prison building to a star, Cox led us on a whistle-stop tour through the elements and how they are made.

This kind of show really does just blow your mind wide open. The theories and ideas on offer and as spellbinding as they are majestically large and expansive to grasp. Major kudos to the BBC for giving such faith to a series like this and putting it in a prime-time slot, much like they did with Cox's recent Stargazing Live series. This is space, for the Facebook generation - pure scientific poetry... and all delivered in Cox's charming Northern accent.

As a big science fiction fan, anything to do with space has always fascinated me (especially when there's cool special effects). A particular favourite moment of mine from this episode was when Cox's old prison/star metaphor came to a dramatic end - the prison exploding while Cox himself walked away in slow motion as if that kind of thing happens every day. He's like the James Bond of Astronomy.

And if that wasn't enough, the night of space-based thrills continued in the form of the Outcasts series finale. Anyone's who's read my other blog posts about the show will know how much praise I have for it, and it was with a heavy heart and many emotions that I came to this last episode. And the show most definitely went out with a bang.

Fleur was absolutely amazing this episode. Her and Cass have been the beating heart of this series, but tonight Fleur was every inch the star. With the revelation she is in fact a special breed of AC, we saw her joining Rudi; leaving behind her past life in Forthaven.

Rushing through a hotbed of political drama between Tate, Julius and Jack as well as a deadly outbreak of infection, there was one moment this episode was all building too... the space-ship touching down on the surface of Carpathia. Again, this is the stuff sci-fi is designed for and My God was it amazing. Put simply, the best cliffhanger I have seen in a long, long time.

The BBC NEEDS to make another series of Outcasts. They just can't leave it there. There's so much more to explore on Carpathia...

Outcasts... the penultimate episode

Wasn't Cass a naughty boy this episode, eh? Just when we thought him and Fleur were finally going to get it together, he goes and spoils it all. Running off for a quick drunken shag with a woman caught up in all kinds of domestic marital troubles, he ends up nearly getting buries alive in a container full of sand. Not pleasant at all.

And acting as a counterpoint to all this, we had perhaps one of the most chilling moments of the series so far - Richard Tate coming face to face with his 'alien' twin. The mysterious copy-cats from last episode return, with a few words of warning for the colonists. Apparently they're all going to die. In his desperation Tate goes off to the mountains to try and get the AC leader to help him. Big mistake. All he gets for his efforts are bruises. We also find out that the 'aliens' seem OK with the AC's living on Carpathia and that only the Forthaven residents are 'prey'. According to Tate's mysterious twin, they will soon end up like the fossilised remains on the beach. Spooky.

As we found out more about Cass's shady past, I think we all breathed a collective sigh of dissapointment that he had screwed things up quite so badly with Fleur, prompting her to let loose and shack up with Jack. See what all those human emotions have done? Forthaven could quite easily descend into a hotbed of Eastenders-esque affairs.

And then we have the brilliant twist at the end, Julius calling up his buddies on the space-ship floating in orbit around Carpathia (which still hasn't landed), finding out that Fleur might not be entirely 'normal', or even fully human.

All brilliant stuff. My only worry is how can they possibly wrap all this up in one final episode? I eagerly await next week...

Why the BBC's new sci-fi drama Outcasts is just so good...

In the US, mysterious sci-fi shows are ten-a-penny. We’ve had Lost, and now The Event. So it was about time the UK got its own slice of the action – and show that TV series can be intelligent, adventurous and not spoon-feed its viewers. There’s a need for shows that trust their viewers to stick with them for the long haul, to invite them in, to say ‘Come along for the ride, see through our eyes, hear through our ears. Enjoy the whole process instead of just the big pay-off in the finale.’ And so, filling in to what I like to call the ‘Silent Witness slot’ in BBC1’s schedule, we have Outcasts.

One of the reasons it is so good is because not only is it a brilliant sci-fi, but it is a brilliant drama too. It’s this fundamental element that stands at the heart of the show, driven forward by the excellent cast, ensuring that while there is a whole host of mysterious, futuristic goings on, there is always a core theme of great dialogue and character interplay.

This is a serious show, and as such, probably bears far more in kin to the likes of Star Trek than that holy grail of BBC sci-fi, Doctor Who. Now, I’m a massive Doctor Who fan, but I’m sure as many other fans will testify, there will be days when you want your sci-fi without all the comedy trappings and ‘funkiness’ that are a fundamental part of Doctor Who. And in terms of sci-fi that is ‘serious’, Outcasts has it in bucketloads. It’s not even so much that it’s gritty – that all time favourite word for describing drama’s – because it isn’t. Instead it depicts a world that seems to be hanging on by the finger-tips; the average citizen kept in relative bliss while the inner workings of society revolve around the truth that they still really know so little about the world they’ve chosen to call home.

One of my favourite moments from the first two episodes is when President Tate addresses the captain of the space-ship in orbit around Carpathia. Those high-above the planet, floating in the vast expanse of space have travelled for five years from Earth – and as it slowly dawns on us that most of them are not going to make it... well, it was one of the most deeply moving moments I’ve seen in a TV show in a long time. And as the captain made his Titanic-esque ‘going down with the ship’ speech, you felt like you were there with the President, hoping and praying that at least some of those poor souls would survive.

But what about the cast? President Richard Tate is perfect, encompassing all the gravitas and order needed for such a role, but maintaining those rough edges of unsurity at times that tell the story of a man who has had his role thrust open him.

It’s a delight to see Daniel Mays in the role of Cass. He was absolutely brilliant in Ashes to Ashes, and in many ways plays a similar role here. He’s essentially a police-man again, unpredictable, head-strong and with a biting wit. Some of the shows best one-liners come from him, especially his banter with Jack. He’s got that rogue-ish charm going on, the classic blokey every-man, but with deeper layers of secrets hidden deep, deep down.

And then we have Fleur, playing a brilliant counterpoint to Cass. In many ways she’s very similar to him; strong, intelligent, with an almost tomboyish streak. But whereas Cass has a dark side to him, Fleur has a vulnerability, that softens her and transforms her into perhaps the shows central heroine.

This is the great wild-west, playing out in the future. A lone fortress of sanctuary amidst a barren desert of unknowns. But what a beautiful desert it is though. Filmed in South Africa, the show has pulled a pure winner here, everything is absolutely breathtakingly stunning. The cinematography is simply wonderful, almost painting-like. It feels at once arty, but hyper-futuristic. Earth-like, but also inherently alien. I’m glad the show has decided to keep the CGI shots to a minimum, because quite-frankly it doesn’t need them.  Aside from obvious cases like shots of the space-ship and the wide shots of Forthaven in its entirety, there’s an organic natural-ness to the rest of the visuals that at times is bewitching and enchanting, and at others, highly unsettling.

Two episodes in, the plot is still cloaked in shadows and mystery. But already the characters have more than come into their own. You feel for this ragged band of survivors, these outcasts, you want them to succeed. One of the reasons I’ve always loved sci-fi so much is because of its capacity to conjure up vivid new worlds, provide an escape from the normal rules and confines of our world. And in terms of Outcasts, the show has done this admirably. There’s still a lot for us to learn about Carpathia, and I’m right there with the characters, eager to experience more.