The obligatory Broadchurch post

Six weeks ago, the first part of Broadchurch aired - a slow, Dorset-set drama about a crime that shocks a small village. Since then it has slowly and surely built up to what some people are tipping the telly drama event of the year (well, so far at any rate). Certainly it's a big hit ratings-wise.

It's amazingly well made, which is odd because it's an ITV drama - great cast, lovely stylish direction and music, and even the writing's up to scratch. One of its strengths is in its sincerity. Not only is there realism in the local police's investigation, but you've also got Olivia Colman in it, and she's amazing, which adds some warmth and humour and truthfulness to the subject material. Given the slow pace - seven or eight weeks is a long time in this digital age - and that it's dealing with heightened events, it's the characters and the humanity that stops the whole thing getting silly.

Many people have compared it to Danish drama The Killing and you can see why: a (relatively) long, drawn out investigation isn't the norm on crime dramas these days - usually it's wrapped up in two hours. It takes its time with the potential suspects (an isolated community, with huge murder mystery style potential suspicions), and we see the story, mainly, from the point of view of the police, the victim's family, and the press. Like The Killing, it's quietly stylish (although this has much more slow-mo), but also it's very gripping, with a new development and twist seemingly every week. The cliffhangers might not match The Killing's - though Episode 6's nighttime chase could have been lifted from the other - but it's proving to be unmissable.

Final episode's next week, and we still don't really know who's done it, and a whole heap of forgotten clues and soon-to-be-answered questions.

So - who killed Danny Latimer?

Seeing as everyone's got a pet theory - which everyone then has to change week on week - I thought I might post mine.

First off - the death. It's a bit hazy at the moment - first we see Danny on the cliffs at the dead of night (which nobody's mentioned!), then there's a hut, a boat which was later burned, and the body put on plain view on the beach... So, he was killed on the boat then. Why all the trouble - lack of evidence? Seemingly Danny went to meet his killer secretly that night... willingly? And did they want the body to be found straight away, because they had an alibi that night?

Susan Wright says she saw a man in a boat, dragging the body onto the beach - did she really? She lies easily, as we've seen. And though she recognised the man as Nige - who is now a credible suspect - can we trust her? Could she be the murderer herself? (unlikely)

Danny's friend Tom can't have done it - that would be silly, even if he's acting strangely. Even more silly would be his father, and Ellie's husband, Joe Miller. I know people are speculating it, but he's the least likely person who could have done it, and the only evidence against him would be the stuff with his son. So no - but Tom definitely knows something important, perhaps who Danny was going to meet.

In your standard murder mystery, often it's the most likely person who did it. Here, the most likely person was the first person arrested, Mark Latimer. He got off, as he had an alibi (though it was the first time he'd ever slept around...) and not much of a motive-  but could later evidence change things around? It's not the most likely, but he's still in the picture, and it would bring the story round full circle if it was a big main character like that.

Otherwise, my (figurative) money's probably on the dark horse, psychic Steve. It's a bit of a ludicrous character, but played perfectly down-to-earth. I can see why he's in the show - it ties in with the themes of grief and the public and adds a layer of mystery. But, presuming he isn't a psychic then - how did he know about the boat? He hasn't been in it much, but he's still a suspect too... Don't get me started on motive though!

And then you've also got the nice young vicar with a shady past (who was more trusted than the newspaper seller with a shady past!), and the thing with Danny's sister's boyfriend...

Regardless of what the end result might be, it's still been one of the best things on TV this year. Now we just have to wait until Monday...

Cold War

This is beginning to be a regular occurence!

This week, Doctor Who's action movie, and a rather fine one at that. It's packed to the gills (and definitely merits a future rewatch). The TARDIS lands on a submarine - and a Russian one, in the middle of the cold war! Back in the day, that would be enough in itself - but here, it's a colourful backdrop for an alien menace which happens to be on board. They thought it was a mammoth... it's not!

Ultimately the setting of this story is uncontroversially spot on - you can't argue with confined spaces, water gushing in, the works. It's beautifully made - and shown off in a particularly beautiful episode. Warriors of the Deep this ain't - there's well controlled lighting, a dark spooky atmosphere, lots of steam and water.

And add into the mix a very cleverly redesigned version of an old enemy - the Ice Warrior! Some people have compared this episode to Dalek (I guess because it reboots a monster by putting it on its own in an confined space, and making it a killing machine) - but as the episode goes on, it reminded me more (certainly visually) of the stalking-on-a-spaceship action of 42. The Doctor's reaction is great - and establishes that this alien is not only dangerous, but also has a personality - something absent from the mysterious, parasitic monsters last week - and a history.

Perhaps its greatest moment was that twist, which I didn't see coming at all - that Skaldak the Ice Warrior had escaped his suit! (There I was thinking - they could have shown more shots of its mouth saying the lines!) From there on, it turns into a real monster movie, Alien style. The bony, green alien hands look excellently creepy - that'll be why they redesigned it, although they don't quite fit in with what we recognise already as Ice Warriors - but I was expecting to see the whole thing. I know there's a budget, but it returning to its suit out of shot felt slightly clumsy - there's keeping a monster in shadow, and then there's hardly showing anything at all. Nonetheless, it gave the suit (now a design classic) a tiny bit more screentime - something that perhaps this episode suffered from.

The atmosphere was tense - especially when it came to Clara, realising nicely that things might not work out so well this time. But I felt a feeling of unease, and not wholly intentionally I expect. There's a disorientating (but stylish) bit early on where Clara loses consciousness, and then wakes up to find everything happening. Okay, it's a pacy episode, and so it cuts out some of the real-time explaining, but it puts you on the back foot.
Similarly, as ever with twists, if you don't know where the thing's going, or think you do and something else entirely happens - like Skaldak escaping - you feel slightly out of the action. That's not to say it doesn't make sense - just that, when you build up a monster, for him to mostly skulk about in the shadows halfway through, it feels a bit mystifying.

The cast is strong, stronger than most - I love Tobias Menzies already, and then you've got Liam Cunningham and David Warner too, playing three very different characters
They aren't especially nuanced, though - see also Victory of the Daleks (except Churchill), although editing may have something to do with it in both - but then it's an action movie. It's still a nice set-up - and the Cold War provides not only weapons (nuclear - huge threat there, well explained) but imagery that contrasts with the big old Martian, a character in itself, separated by culture and suspicion. Red planet, red army, perhaps.

Does it provide a satisfying ending though? It's a happy one - not least because there's no armageddon - but I couldn't help feeling a little cheated. Dare I use a certain latin phrase describing godlike denouments? The giant (if pretty, and almost Nekross-like) spaceship wasn't the only problem though - the Mutually Assured Destruction threat felt slightly forced, and it was a shame that we never glimpsed the Ice Warrior after he had teleported away - a shot of him in the spaceship hesistating would have made the situation clearer. (And can submarines do trips from pole to pole?)

And we get a reference to Ultravox - hooray!

The Rings of Akhaten

Odd title, that one.

I thought I'd write something longer about this week's Doctor Who, given the general split in people's initial opinion. So:

It's always going to be an uphill struggle, doing an alien story like this. Building a culture, making it look the part, finding something to connect to - and I thought it worked. Having a bunch of random aliens in the marketplace may be a bit Star Wars, but it draws you in (even if I was playing 'spot the reused bits of alien'). It even makes you forget most of the episode is done in a studio. As to the culture - the idea behind the religion not only felt original and emotional, but also gave the story a plot (and a monster) that was a twist on the usual.

There's a lot of green-screen, which works to various degrees - the lowest one being the very ambitious hover moped chase across an asteroid field. But they were trying very hard with that one. But the lovely vistas and alien suns are just pretty distractions - for the acting! It's lovely to finally see Jenna Louise-Coleman in the companion role - the getting-into-trouble role, and actually apart from the Doctor for once. Yes, I know she did similar things with ice monsters and Spoonheads, but it feels right, here. Almost traditional - in a story that tries very hard to be different. And Matt Smith, well - I was thinking he was being marvellous even before he made his speech at the end.

But maybe it's the sign of a dull episode that - when you notice how good the regulars are (which invariably they are, every week!). And for a story that seemed very 'Episode 2', it's like somebody smudged together lots of different Doctor Who tales together - you've got exploding planets and weird freaky aliens (Episode 2 in 2005), mysterious religious cults with alien gods (Episode 2 in 2008), a lost girl that the companion finds (that'll be Episode 2 in 2010), a CGI menace that was held back by reciting in a theatre (well, a bit of a stretch, but it reminded me of the Shakespeare one - though the singing was quite new, if a little out of place).

That's not to say the episode didn't work in its own right, or that it wasn't an exotic slice of adventure. Although I'm not sure where they're going with Clara - whilst it's lovely to see her past, are they trying to make us warm to her, or be fearful of who she might really be...?