Review: Doctor Who Classic: Arc of Infinity

Commander Maxil investigates Omega's return.

Doctor Who - Season 20, Story One - Arc of Infinity

Time-Lash was a flawed end to a brilliant season, but there was some hope. The 20th Anniversary season promised to be the best yet, and it would start with that great pedigree - a Gallifrey story. The story would also see the return of ancient Time Lord Omega, who was part of the 10th Anniversary celebrations in the Petwee Era. Arc Of Infinity does not live up to expectations, but it has a few perks here or there that make it somewhat fun.
     The Doctor and Nyssa are getting along quite nicely, having completely abandoned Tegan on Earth in the previous serial. However, an anti-matter being is seen to interupt two guards on Gallifrey, and then it enters the TARDIS and binds with The Doctor. The Time Lords bring The Doctor back to his home planet, where he is to be killed to prevent the antimatter being from entering our Universe. This is overseen by the members of the high council, including Borusa (Leonard Sachs), Hedin (Batman's Alfred, Michael Gough), the Castellan (Paul Jerricho) and Commander Maxil (later Doctor, Colin Baker). Meanwhile, Tegan's cousin Colin has been kidnapped in Amsterdam, and so she comes across to investigate his disappearance. Tegan and her friend are abducted by the antimatter creature, who is revealed to be Omega. Omega takes control of Gallifrey's organisation (damn, these guys are pushovers), but The Doctor manages to escape and tracks Omega down in Amsterdam. Omega is expelled back to this Anti-matter dimension and Tegan rejoins the TARDIS crew.
    The story, while very pretty, really didn't require its Amsterdam setting and it does nothing to distract from the rest of the scenario. The Omega costume is ok, but the costume of his servant, the Ergon, is absolutely ridiculous; Colin Baker on the commentary describes him as an "anorexic chicken". The worst special effect in the serial, by far, is this story's interpretation of The Matrix, which is a shimmery picture of The Master's trap from Castrovalva with green-screened images of the actors balancing on barstools. If the effect was brief it could have been ignored, but The Doctor spends almost the entirety of the third episode in this scenario.

This is all The Doctor does for an entire episode.

     Leonard Sachs' Borusa has neither the wit and charm of the previous two incarnations nor the bitter ruthlessness of his successor. Sachs is a great actor, but he doesn't do anything here. Michael Gough, having been in Doctor Who, does bring an impassioned performance. Of interest in particular to me is Colin Baker, who played my second-favourite Doctor. This isn't really his best performance, mainly because he was forced into a Gallifreyan guard's costume and made to work with Paul Jerricho, who he felt always bossed him around. One of the more interesting performances in the story is from Peter Davison, who gets to also play Omega in the last episode.
     Something I do love about Arc of Infinity though is that because writer Johnny Birne was the one who created her, this story is perfect for companion Nyssa, who finally gets time alone with Five. Their scenes together show a natural chemistry absent from Tegan or Adric, and her actions later in the story show naturalistic character development unlike anything this era really had to offer. Plus, Tegan at least wants to travel with The Doctor this time, instead of being constantly wanting to leave. 
     The Arc of Infinity is let down by a lazy script and really, really bad effects. The idea of bringing back an old foe for the 20th Anniversary was a noble one, but it wasn't executed well and it wasn't the best start to what had promised to be a good season. It's not as mercilessly shoddy as Time-Flight, but it didn't live up to any of its expectations. There are, however, a few quirks in characterisation that prevent Arc of Infinity from being a total waste of time, and that's why I have a little bit of fondness for it.

Thanks.

NEXT TIME: Martin Clunes, Martin Clunes.... it's Snakedance.

Review: Being Human 4.3: The Graveyard Shift

Hal and Tom fight alongside one another.
(And Michaela.)

It feels like Being Human has reverted to some form of embryonic stage in its development. The chemistry between the three main leads is getting there, but it still fails to acheive the same manner of comic timing and charm that the original trio got back in the third episode. There's also a sense that the series has stalled rather dramatically. Time will tell whether it's the fault of the driver or whether it's just out of gas. The episode started to get interesting by the end, but it was too little too late.
     Despite his fear that he would be unable to control himself, Annie and Tom forced Hal to get a job in the local greasy spoon where Tom works. They banter, and form a trusting friendship. Vampire honcho Fergus in in awe of Hal's return, and inadvertantly tells him about a raid on the greasy spoon the next day. He tells Hal to step aside and let them kill Tom. Hal, becoming friends with Tom over a strange emo girl called Micheala, instead protects him and they escape with Michaela back to the House.
     Meanwhile, Annie's lack of ability to trust her boys (who she sees as lodgers) saw her visit vampire-recorder Regus (Mark Williams, being a bit more sad and desperate), who had previously arrived at their door concerned to discover that the War Child was still in Barry. He makes Annie share her sexual experiences from memory in exchange for vital information, which didn't really sit right. He informs her of someone coming to take the Child, and says they have to escape. She ignores his request at first, and then invites him back to the House to start packing. When the boys return home, Hal is offered the leadership of the Barry Vampire coven by Fergus, but Hal just stakes him. After a battle, Michaela is resurrected as a vampire and goes off to be Regus' girlfriend, while Annie finally accepts her boys as part of a familial unit.

Oh wow, I hate you. So much.

     Usually I love character work, but this was just boring for the first 45 minutes. The character of Michaela could have been a fun subversion of several stereotypes associated with the genre. Instead, she's an irritating caricature who only serves to make the episode's more boring sequences nigh-unbearable. I think that her jokingly-managed transformation into a vampire took away from the series greatly; in Series One these issues were incredibly severe and treated as the height of drama. Here we get to see an incredibly annoying woman get to live forever.
     This ties into something that's distressing me about Series Four of being human. You can forgive it for not having the same chemistry as before, or the same temperment, but it doesn't know what it's doing. There's no point to anything, it's all just loose scraps picked up off the cutting room floor. The end of the episode saw the arrival of a campy ghost from the Afterlife. The one thing this series does not need right now is more characters. 
     The Graveyeard shift had a few moments of promise, and it seemed wary of its characters issues. But it didn't exercise their gradual reconciliation in an interesting way, and in the end it fell into farce. Being Human better book up its ideas if it hopes to reach the potential promised by the premiere, and it needs to do that before the series collapses under the weight of its own expectations.

Thanks.

News: February Break 2012

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Or, at least, tomorrow. I'm probably going on a break for the week. When I come back, expect more Doctor Who Classic Season 20 and Lost.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 4.2: Being Human 1955

Annie holds a "ceremony".

So we need a Vampire/Werewolf/Ghost dynamic, but we're currently stuck with one incomplete group and a full group half-way across the country. Being Human 1955 was, in short, an exercise in character manoeuvering - moving our characters into the right configuration so that the series can adopt some form of "standard". Unfortunately this meant that unlike last week, the episode was a lot more sedate, and tried to focus its lense on the characters - with various degrees of success.
      In the South, the trio of vampire Hal, aged werewolf Leo and 50s ghost Pearl heard an after-life radio message from The Woman (whom I refered to as "Future Eve" last week) telling them to head up to Bristol and find the Messiah. Despite their concerns, Pearl and Hal bow to Leo's wish to follow the message and they pop up to Annie and Tom. Tom and Hal share immediate animosity, even when they meet a shopkeeper who tries to kill them. Despite Annie's best attempts to "harness" Eve's messiahhood, Leo is still dying. It becomes apparent that Pearl loves Leo and the feeling is mutual, and both are able to pass on when they admit this to one another. Losing Leo and Pearl drives the usually controlled Hal into trying to kill Eve and later the shopkeeper. Tom stops him in time, and the three settle into an uneasy friendship. Meanwhile, Fergus asserts his authority over Cutter and discovers Hal's presence.
     Despite how well these characters are played, these characters and relationships are a little worn for my liking. Legendary Vampire who's fighting personal demons? Check. Animosity between Vampire and Werewolf? Check. The relationship between Leo and Pearl felt excruciatingly contrived - there was no real depth to it, just an attempt to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The fact that very little actually happened didn't make it any easier, and I really expected these characters to be phenomenal. They weren't.

Leo and Pearl love one another.

     I'm getting worried about Eve and this series' overall arc already. The episode didn't touch upon it all, aside from the Woman (who I deeply suspect is not Future Eve, but who knows?) appearing on a TV and on the radio. That was a far more fascinating part of the story, and I would love to have the Woman's character developed properly, and not just have her dip in now and then. But this is Being Human, and that's exactly what she's going to do. I just hope, really deep hope, that this will get better.
     Being Human 1955 tried to be a focussed character piece, but instead of developing the characters from the 1955 trio, it felt like a lazy way of reasserting the usual formula. It felt stagnant at times, and aside from a few decent monologues it didn't cover any ground that Being Human had ever fallen shy of. It wasn't messy or even boring, but it felt like one long retread of everything the show's already done. And that's not good form.

Thanks.

Overview: Doctor Who Classic: Season 19

As part of my Five marathon, at the end of each season in Five's era I'll examine the characterisations of the main TARDIS crew. You could also see these as similar to my Character sheets. Season 19 was a brave new time for Who, as Davison's Doctor had to follow on from the immensely popular Tom Baker, as well as fighting with a Tardis that had far too many companions. Why only the characters? Well, that's all I care about.

The major parts of Davison's cricket-loving
persona are found in this season.

Five (Peter Davison) - Tristan but brave
(All Season)


He was fresh. Energetic. After the bitterness of Tom's final years, Davison was a breath of fresh air for a production team used to working with a lead actor more experienced than themselves. The character itself was a bold change for Doctor Who; a precursor of sorts to the 10th and 11th Doctors. Five was by the far the youngest Doctor that we'd ever seen.
      In Season 19, Davison's portrayl does draw a lot from his previous work on All Creatures Great And Small. In a now-famous interview before the season aired, one young fan asked that Five's personality be "Tristan, but brave." Such is inevitable after Davison's long time on All Creatures, and one of the major changes between Five and Four is that while Baker could command authority instantly, Five is very much the wanderer who has to work diplomatically to gain people's trust.
     Fundamentally speaking, this first season is the one in which Five plays less of an active role in the story's resolution. Instead, his character is given a lot of emotional beef to deal with - Adric's death especially played for tears. If anything can be said, it's that Davison certainly suits it better than any that had come before.

Adric whined incessantly and then died quietly.

Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) - Whine whine
(From Castrovalva to Earthshock)

Adric. Where to begin? The character was introduced in the previous season as part of JNT's preparation for the regeneration. Let's just say that it wasn't the best choice. Adric is characterised by his whiny, arrogant slip of a personality. He assumes authority and superiority in every given situation regardless of tact or convenience.  
     Despite his many list of characterisation crimes, he really hits his irritance peak in Four to Doomsday, in which he is sexist and idiotic enough to believe that the megalomaniac Monarch has benevolent intentions for humanity. Despite the fact that he only has four more stories left, he doesn't really annoy me in any of them, shy of Earthshock itself.
      Earthshock is not one of my favourite stories. It's tacky, and its only real decent writing is on the first episode. However, to its credit, it really is Doctor Who's last surprise. The Cybermen, despite their reintroduction, aren't the most important part of the story - Adric, and his belated demise, is the story's only redeeming feature.

Nyssa never changed out of her regal
gear until the next season.

Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) - "The only one who wants to be there."
(All Season)

Nyssa of Traken was never intended to be here. Created by Johnny Bryne for The Keeper of Traken in the previous season, Nyssa was a bio-mechanist from the planet Traken -  a planet that was destroyed by the Master in Logopolis. She was only written into Logopolis and then the series when JNT was impressed by her performance. Despite this, Peter Davison fought with JNT to prevent him killing her in Earthshock, leading to Adric's demise instead. His reasons are immediately clear.
       Wheras the other two companions can be irritatingly in-your-face, Nyssa is the exact opposite. She's an intellectual, like The Doctor, and the only one of the three actually capable of understanding his technobabble. Because of the fact that she was a brave, intelligent woman, she of course got very little to do. The production team needed companions that could easily get into trouble, and for Nyssa that just wasn't logical. Because of this, she spends a criminally long amount of time in the Tardis, especially so in brilliant stories like Kinda in which she was randomly comatose.
    Unfortunately Nyssa doesn't get a hell of a lot of character development in Season 19, which is reserved for the next season. However, she does get some lovely character work in my favourite story of the season, Black Orchid, where her character is starkly opposed to her doppelganger Ann Talbot. Nyssa wouldn't get this sort of character work again until she leaves.

Tegan (Janet Fielding) - Mouth on Legs
(All Season, supposedly leaves at the end.)

Tegan's character was a twofold creation. She was mainly there to make the show popular with Australian viewers, but a popular tale told by Davison reveals that she was an airline hostess soley to get free flights on Quantus Airlines. Fundamentally speaking, Tegan never wanted to be there, and this entire season is spent trying to get back to Heathrow 1981. In fact, they finally make it in the season's final serial, Time-Flight. The results, if you remember from Monday, weren't all that pleasant.
     Luckily, despite all of her moaning and groaning and being generally all-round useless, Tegan does get a decent story in the form of Kinda. Her best stuff is in the first two episodes, which are a complex philosophical exploration of the self. The Mara stories are the only time that Tegan won't be irritating for the average viewer, and Kinda is certainly the more powerful of the two.
      The one thing you have to notice about Tegan is that she is the Jamie to Davison's Doctor. She is one of the longest running companions in the series' history, and her presence oft defines Five's era. If I'm perfectly honest, I don't know why. Tegan didn't want to be there, and we shared her thoughts exactly.

Thanks.

Review: Lost 5.4: The Little Prince

Carole knows nothing.

The Little Prince is a Kate episode, but despite that it's filled with enough other interesting plotlines to keep it worthy. It helped that because of this series' dynamic we didn't really focus in on her, and half the episode was devoted to the continuing Time-Flashes storyline that I love so much.
      In 2008, Kate tried to investigate into the client that was trying to have Aaron put into care. At the hospital, Sayid is again attacked, this time by an assassin with Kate's address in his pocket. Jack heads to Kate to make sure that she's safe, and they track the lawyer to the house of Carole Littleton, Aaron's biological grandmother. However, Carole knows nothing about Aaron and so Jack takes Kate to Ben, who has also gathered Sayid. Kate is angry when it is revealed that Ben employed lawyer Dan Norton, and Sun descides to exact her revenge on Ben for killing her husband.
     On the Island in 2004, the survivors wait for Charlotte to wake up and head towards the Orchid. They pass through several time-flashes, including the event in Season One where Kate delivered Claire's baby, Aaron. Sawyer, as one part of the love triangle, is shocked to see Kate again. They head towards the beach, and find a set of outriggers. During their trip they are momentarily attacked by unknown people in another outrigger, but a time-flash delivers them to safety. As they land on another beach, they find the wreck of a boat called the Besixdouze. Meanwhile, out in the ocean, a rigger full of French people discovers Jin. As they land, one of the French women reveals herself to be Danielle Rousseau, and that the year is 1988.

Sawyer witnesses Aaron's birth.

      Tom Iriwn gives a deviously slimy performance as Ben's lawyer Dan Norton, even when he doesn't need to be. Rebecca Mader also got to do a bit more with Charlotte's character, although certainly not as much as she will next episode. I also thought that it was a little weird that Sawyer got some development, although it is nice to see and it sets the groundwork for his centric episode in a month's time.
     The Little Prince covered Kate's struggles, but because of this series' intention to rush its early plotlines, we didn't really become too bored with her. It's also good to finally see Jin again, and his side of the storyline will stroke some mythos that's been missing since Series One. Till next week.

Thanks.

IN TWO WEEKS: A Jin and Sun episode! How fabulous.

Review: Doctor Who Classic: Time-Flight

"Khalid"

Doctor Who - Season 19, Story Seven - Time-Flight

Timeflight is simply... a disappointment. The final story of the season promised an adventure utilising the modernistic Concorde, finally returning Tegan to her contempory time. It also saw another visit from The Master, although the reasons why he's here don't really make sense. Time-Flight, in the proud tradition of serials with "Time" in the name, suffers from shoddy production value, a nonsensical and hole-filled script AND from a general sense of Hubris.
     One of the serial's biggest faults is the design on the main set, based in Jurassic England. It looks incredibly fake, even by 1982 standards, and this is so contrasted by the really quite lovely modern filming around Heathrow Airport. The use of concorde itself is so gimmicky and yet never really gets a decent hearing. This is made worse by horriffically bad special effects. One consistant effect used is very clearly a filter of soapy bubbles, which just makes it look like the character is having a nice bath. Another part of the story is The Master's use of illusions, which is applied inconsistantly and is used, as it would later be in The Five Doctors, to provide flashbacks for previous characters - including Adric. 
     At first it appears that the villain is a terribly made-up character called Khalid, who is written as a thin Arabic stereotype. He's then revealed to be The Master, and one has to wonder why the hell he's disguised at all other than to fool the audience. It's a collossal waste of time. The character would go on to use a similarly useless disguise in his next story, The King's Demons. I don't know. Maybe he's a cosplayer? Regardless, the disguise means that the actual Master doesn't get as much time to interact with The Doctor as we'd like, which is sort of the main point of his character. They interact more than they did back in Castrovalva, but it's still not good.

The Xeraphin

     After all of the kerfuffle with Khalid, The Master reveals that he needs a power source for his TARDIS, and over time it is shown that he wants to use the remains of an alien race known as the Xeraphim, whose lone survivor has been split into two morally polar beings. The idea behind these powerful creatures is at least interesting, but it isn't really excercised in any decent way. The characters' background is rushed into an info dump in the third episode, and the full extent of the story isn't explored.
     Time-Flight is a very poor end to what is otherwise an excellent season of the science fiction giant. It used sets that were terrible for the time, a story that made little to no sense and a series of events that directly contradicted each other. Even worse, it wasn't horrifically bad in a way that I can enjoy. It was simply terrible, in the dullest way imaginable.

Thanks.

IN TWO WEEKS: I begin Season 20 with the Arc of Infinity.
P.S. "The Master has finally defeated me" is the worst line of Season 19, even with Adric.
   

Review: Being Human 4.1: Eve of the War

Eve. In 2037. They went there. And it's awesome.

A lot of change happened since Series Three of the rather troubling comedy-drama Being Human. That series took it so far from its original comedy roots that it's often difficult to know how to approach the series. Series Four is now faced with the evacuation of three-quarters of the cast, with vampire Aiden Turner having left at the end of Series Three and werewolves George and Nina tleaving too. The question on everyone's lips is whether Being Human can survive this near-catastophic change, or whether it can stay the course.
     Funnily enough, whereas previous premiers in the series have been quick to establish a new formula, this episode managed to deal with all of the previous themes of the series while setting up this series' arc. Previously it felt like the characters fought against common sense to establish their main character groups, but Eve of the War took a very, very different path that was almost like its cousin The Fades.
     There were a lot of sudden cast changes in between the series, but not of the sort that Being Human is alien to. Nina (Sinead Keenan) is suddenly dead, five-minute character Wyndam (Lee Ingleby) is dead and everyone has been affected as a result. George (Russell Tovey, who's being a bit more sedate) is resigned to sitting in front of his daughter's cot with a stake, and Annie is tired and depressed, despite help from werewolf friend Tom (Michael Socha). The Vampires, waiting for the Old Ones to arrive and begin a mass invasion, kidnap the baby believing that it's the first Organic Werewolf.

Griffin leads the Vampires.

     The full-moon arrives, and the baby doesn't change. Vampire leader Griffin, the one responsible for Nina's assassination, locks up George as a consolation - before the local historian, the Vampire Recorder (Mark Williams), realises that the child is the War Child - a human messiah, born of werewolves, who will kill all of the Vampires. Sacred to his prophecy, he helps Annie and Tom save the baby as George triggers a half-transformation to break out of his cell. He kills Griffin, but they soon realise that the half-transformtion has fucked up George's internal organs. He dies, but not before naming his daughter Eve.
      One part of the episode that was distinctly exciting for me was a side of the plot set in the future of 2037 - a world where Vampires rule and Humanity is a resistance movement serving under Eve.When Eve finds the manuscript to the final part of the Vampire prophecy, she asks to be killed and then she heads into the Afterlife, announcing her intention to kill the War Child. And, finally, in Southhampton, our new Vampire Hal worried with his ghost friend Pearl about his long-time werewolf buddy. He survives his penultimate transformation, but they realise that something has to change.
     When I expected Being Human to have changed, I didn't really expect this complete turnaround of themes and ideas. Since Series One, the series has been about humanity; the original brief had very human character with problems like drug abuse and agoraphobia. Where there the Vampiric prophecies were treated like the doctrines of madmen, Here they are embraced as part of the series' fabric, and that's fine. It really is. But I'm really hoping that the series can still portray human characters like it usually should do.

Eve isn't a werewolf at all.

     Am I sure about the futuristic elements of the premier? Not really. But they were incredibly fun, and I would have loved it if we could have spent more time there. It's not really a logical place for Being Human to go, but any nods towards a more Sci-fi-oriented show is music to my ears. It added to an atmosphere that managed to build upon layers and layers of dark atmosphere that have been increasing since Series Two.
    Eve of the War had the balls not to rush into finding somewhere comfortable for the series to go. It may be claimed that it was just killing off old characters so we could get some frash blood in, but even so it was executed in a way that left me wanting more. The series' new direction may be slightly shakey, but so far I'm confidant that if it can pull this off, it will become one of the most revolutionary shows on TV. If it can't, then at least we have new actors to cushion the blow.

Thanks.

P.S. Playing a particularly dickish recurring character is Dexter from Survivors.

Josh: Music: Submarine

Alex Turner promotes 'Submarine'

Submarine is a beautiful film and part of its beauty comes from it's soundtrack. When it came down to music for this British made film, none other than Alex Turner was acquired for the job. The Arctic Monkeys lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter managed to produce six original songs for Submarine and the following is my opinions on how effective the album was in relation to the film and in general.
     The Submarine soundtrack is a combination of five unique pieces of music with the exclusion of the dreamy introductory theme. All the songs are consistent in style and all share a woozy feel which fits well with the dewy-eyed romantic sequences of Oliver and Jordana's 'lovemaking'. There is a superb focus on knotty, absurd lyrics that are tailor-made as pathetic fallacy for running events on screen.
     With underplayed, soft sounding instrumentation and the quirky magical tone to Turner's voice there isn't much going wrong for the music of this film. The best songs of the bunch have got to 'Piledriver Waltz' and 'Stuck on the Puzzle' which are colourful, swooning pieces which expose the qualities of Turner's guitar skills and the genius of his lyrics. The lyrics themselves cleverly relate to events on screen and are powerful on their own, the emphasis added with Turner's purr in voice is soothing. Also, Stuck on the Puzzle sticks out compared to the other songs with it's catchy rhythmical beat at the beginning and more modern feel. Whereas the rest of the album feels like one suite of music piled together as the four other tunes are very alike in their melody and exposition.
     Though the songs sound similar when listened in one go they do all still have their mark and are special in their own way. Submarine's soundtrack is a mix of folky, romantic-esque songs that dreamily drift to set the scenes and bring another aspect of vibrancy to this already outstanding piece of art. Alex Turner is a very clever man and deserves to be given all the praise available for such a inventive, colourful collection of brilliantly, unique songs. Job well done.

Thanks, Josh.

P.S. You can see my review of 'Submarine' from last week here.

Review: Lost 5.3: Jughead

Ellie holds the Science Team hostage.

Often, I find myself judging Lost based on content rather than quality. Jughead is a perfect example, in that it soley features areas of Lost's plot that I find interesting. No Kate/Jack shenanigans, no Hurley clumsiness. Jughead is a mixture of pure sci-fi and really entertaining mythos. That's probably because it's in part a Desmond episode, a breed of Lost episodes that are always good no matter the subject.
      In 1954, the Science Team were led back to the Others' camp by Ellie, an Other. Daniel talks to Richard, who believes that they are part of a US army exhibition that stored a Hydrogen Bomb on the island. Discovering that the bomb's casing is broken, Daniel offers to secure the bomb in return for their safety. At the bomb, he is forced to reveal to Ellie (who, unbeknownst to him, is his Mother) that they are time-travellers. Juliet's team arrive, and Locke goes bursting into camp, demanding to see Richard Alpert. He explains to Richard what he must do to complete the time-loop, but Richard is unable to tell him how to leave the Island as Ben did. They begin to head to The Orchid, but Charlotte collapses with a bloody nose, due to her becoming displaced in time.
     Daniel and Charlotte didn't get much character work in Season Four, and so this was a welcome addition to their characters; Daniel's understanding of science was shaken and his love for Charlotte confirmed. Charlotte herself showed a more human side, although her character is still on the irritating side. She dies in two episodes though, so that's fine.

Desmond talks to Widmore

     A few months before the present, we saw Desmond help deliver he and Penny's son Charlie. After Desmond has remembered Daniel's temporal message, he heads to Oxford and finds that Faraday's research into temporal mechanics had been rejected by the college after he permenantly left his girlfriend in a displaced state. Desmond goes to Widmore and demands information; reluctantly, Widmore gives him the address of Eloise Hawking.
     Desmond doesn't actually get much done in this episode, but Henry Ian Cusick's charm is inescapable. Yet again the episode shed light on Daniel Faraday, exploring a very different side of his character than the main story. I also love the variety that this part of the storyline sheds on the series; it's a lot more interesting to see these beautiful locations in England (or at least a mock of Enlgand) instead of America and the island.
     The first episode not to feature any of the Oceanic Six, Jughead is a great examination of characters that didn't get enough time, as well as characters that did. It had a lot of fun sci-fi, and the time-flashes concpt is one that has the potential to work beautifully for this type of show. It's unfortunate that we only have three more episodes of flashes left, but it'll have to do for now.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Getting further into things with The Little Prince.