When Rip Hunter Becomes A "Turncoat," Legends Of Tomorrow Underwhelms!

The Good: Good character moments, Very strong last third
The Bad: Very basic plot, Forced humor, No truly great performances until the end
The Basics: "Turncoat" makes Rip Hunter into a brainwashed villain as Legends Of Tomorrow plods along with a very basic time aberration plot.


Legends Of Tomorrow has done a fairly good job of picking up the slack left by Arrow and The Flash going into wonky territory and losing some of their original appeal. Despite that, the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow has taken some warming up as the season has introduced new characters and taken a while to get around to actually explaining the season's adversaries. With "Turncoat," Legends Of Tomorrow has the job of refocusing on the heroes of the show, as opposed to the villains.

"The Legion Of Doom" (reviewed here!) climaxed with the Reverse-Flash altering Rip Hunter's mind to have him, apparently, assassinate George Washington, which leads directly into "Turncoat." "Turncoat" continues the quest to find more pieces of the Spear Of Destiny, while having the Legends actually attempt to save Washington's life.

Opening in New Jersey, 1776, with Rip Hunter taking over the British army in the colonies after assassinating General George Washington and then giving the Redcoats automatic weapons. In the Temporal Zone, the shockwave from Hunter's actions reach the Waverider and Gideon quickly diagnoses the problem. Captain Lance quickly recognizes that the assassination of Washington is the bait in the trap, but sees the necessity of going back in time to stop the assassination anyway.

On Christmas Eve, 1776, the mind-altered Rip Hunter sets off an EMP, which disables the Waverider's cloaking field and traps The Atom in his smaller form. Hunter shoots Lance and while she is incapacitated, she puts Jackson in charge. Jackson steps up, tasking Palmer and himself with getting the ship activated again, Amaya and Dr. Heywood with saving Washington and rescuing Mick Rory and Dr. Stein with saving Lance's life. But while the various Legends are attempting to carry out their missions, Rip Hunter attacks the grounded Waverider. While Hunter searches for Jackson and the Spear fragment, Mick Rory gives a rousing speech to inspire Washington and Heywood and Jiwe get sidetracked!

Legends Of Tomorrow tends to work best when its characters find a good balance between humor and action. In "Turncoat," that balance is off. This episode marks the first big confrontation between Rip Hunter and his former crewmates, which is a pretty serious thing. But "Turncoat" opens with Mick Rory delivering his version of the opening monologue (and it is funny), but most of the rest of the humor in the episode is surprisingly forced.

Arguably the most interesting character moments in "Turncoat" are in the Amaya Jiwe/Dr. Heywood subplot. Jiwe and Heywood have good chemistry in "Turncoat" and Maisie Richardson-Sellers and Nick Zano have decent on-screen chemisty when they play off one another. Heywood trying to explain the sexual revolution is one of the few funny moments in the episode and when their relationship turns serious, Jiwe and Heywood play it out in a very satisfying way.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ray Palmer confronting a rat in the Waverider's ventilation system is placed in the episode in an unfortunate position. "Turncoat" features Palmer being chased by a rat during what could have been one of the episode's big emotional moments. While the basic plot does not allow for the important casualty that appears to be a possibility, the emotion of the scene is cheated by the ridiculous rat scene.

Rip Hunter's return reworks the former leader into a sadly generic villain. Ironically, Mick Rory has a more compelling arc in "Turncoat" than Rip Hunter as he finally seems to make peace with being a good guy.

"Turncoat" continues to have some seriously wonky science. Eobard Thawne knows that the Spear Of Destiny he seeks was the one used to pierce the side of Jesus while he was on the cross. Just as in the first season (reviewed here!) where the heroes had a remarkably easy way to defeat the villain - go back to the point after they last killed Vandal Savage and recover his ashes - the second season now has a villain who does not need all of the convoluted methods he takes to achieve his goal. "Turncoat" fails to explore why Eobard Thawne simply does not tun back to the death of Jesus and get the Spear right after it comes out of Jesus's side?!

Similarly, while Jackson is extorted to give up the location of the spear fragment that is on the Waverider, it seems strange that Lance did not account for such a possibility. Jackson tells Hunter the fragment is where he left it; it makes little sense that Lance would not have replaced the fragment there and booby trapped it in order to incapacitate Hunter or any other villain who might have gotten to it.

"Turncoat" has a good last third (rat moments aside), but the rest of the episode - the time spent getting there - is a much tougher sell. The acting moments are cheated by editing that puts incongruent scenes together and having to focus on all of the disparate teammates cheats any one character from shining.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Doctor Who Dud: "Midnight." (My 3000th Movie/Television Review!)

The Good: Lesley Sharp's performance
The Bad: Dull plot, No character development
The Basics: The gimmick of "Midnight" is not to enough to sell the viewer on the episode's execution.


There are very few long-running shows that do not have a few throwaway episodes. Doctor Who - despite the generally high quality of the show during Russell T. Davies's tenure is no exception. Arguably his last real failure for an episode before leaving the franchise was the standalone episode "Midnight." "Midnight" seems to try take a children's game - the repeating game - and make it the framework for a terrifying alien entity.

Sadly, the episode fizzles.

Donna Noble is relaxing at a spa on the planet Midnight when The Doctor calls and tries to convince her to go on a tour of the diamond planet. Donna refuses and The Doctor treks out on his own with an ATV full of strangers to see the Sapphire Waterfalls of Midnight. The Hostess puts on an obtrusive entertainment package, which The Doctor is annoyed by, so he uses his sonic screwdriver to turn it off. This leads the tourists to bond for a couple hundred of kliks. Professor Hobbes teaches the passengers that Midnight is, and always has been, devoid of life.

When the transport breaks down in an area that is off the scheduled route, The Doctor enters the cockpit and one of the pilots sees what he believes to be a shadow out on the blindingly bright surface. Suddenly, there comes a knocking on the hull of the transport and moments later, the driver's cabin is obliterated. Inside the transport, the crewmembers turn on Sky Silvestry when she appears possessed and starts repeating things that others say. When the entity forcing her to repeat lines starts to anticipate what people will say, The Doctor becomes horrified. When the paranoia of the passengers runs high and they want to murder the alien entity, The Doctor tries to defend the new form of life . . . even if it might cost him his life.

"Midnight" fits into the larger narrative of the fourth season through a very minor scene in which one of the passengers, Dee Dee, references the lost moon of Poosh. This continues the quiet motif of missing planets and strange phenomenon that has been threaded through the fourth season. Rose Tyler is kept alive in the season through a reference when The Doctor tries to relate to another passenger, who has been left by her love for another galaxy. She also flashes in a "blink and you miss it" cameo on a screen over The Doctor's shoulder.

All "Midnight" truly has going for it are the performances. While most of the actors are not given much to do, Lesley Sharp's Sky Silvestry does the heavy lifting of the episode. Sharp has an amazing physical presence when Silvestry is taken over and she has to act animalistic. Between speaking in unison with other performers (and thus bearing a ton of lines for the episode) and changing her body language entirely, Sharp does an impressive job of creating two distinctly different characters (or a character and an entity).

"Midnight" tries to establish a mood of paranoia and explore that. It's not terribly complex or insightful, which makes it tougher to go back to watch more than once. It is the low point of the fourth season of Doctor Who.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

1.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Jumping Back To "The Doctor's Daughter" Reveals An Unremarkable Loose End!

The Good: Moments of character, Pacing, Moments of performance from Catherine Tate
The Bad: Acting from David Tennant and Georgia Moffett, Dull use of Martha Jones
The Basics: "The Doctor's Daughter" is a surprisingly blase episode . . . that feels much more interesting than it objectively is.


There's something unsettling about reviewing two different seasons of Doctor Who at a time. As I write this, the 9th Season of Doctor Who is in mid-stride and between new episodes each week, I'm trying to catch up on reviews of prior season's episodes. Jumping from Capaldi back to Tennant is nowhere near as seamless as one might expect! I'm back to "The Doctor's Daughter," an episode that has thus far never been revisited, despite the potential it represents and the occasional allusion to it.

"The Doctor's Daughter" picks up instantly after "The Poison Sky" (reviewed here!). As that episode wrapped up, Martha Jones visited the TARDIS with The Doctor and Donna Noble when the TARDIS decided to abruptly take off. "The Doctor's Daughter" erupts with no fanfare and the novelty of the episode makes it a harder one to return to later on.

The TARDIS lands abruptly on the planet Messaline where The Doctor is eager to get out and explore. The trio finds themselves in an underground compound and human soldiers instantly appear. Seeing no marks on the visitor's hands, the Doctor's hand is stuck in a machine which instantly generates a new human soldier based on his DNA. The young woman who comes out of the progenation machine is armed, but unable to defend Martha Jones from getting captured by the alien Hath. The Doctor and Donna are escorted to the human colony where they learn from Cobb the history of the planet. Cobb tells them that the humans and Hath are competing over the Source. Martha, for her part, sets a Hath's arm and ingratiates herself to the Hath army.

Cobb refuses to trust Jenny, as Donna names the Doctor's cloned daughter, so he locks her up with Donna and The Doctor. Jenny is excited by The Doctor's tactical knowledge, but he is resistant to accepting his new "daughter." As the Hath move off toward the Source, Donna discovers that Jenny is a Time Lady (biologically, anyway) and the trio escapes. Martha makes her way to the surface of the planet with one of the Hath, but discovers it to be a wasteland. While Donna goads The Doctor into accepting Jenny, The Doctor tries to figure out how to end the war between the humans and the Hath.

"The Doctor's Daughter" is a fun episode in many ways, but the concept is somewhat undermined by the performance. Fans might love seeing David Tennant on screen with the woman who would become his wife, but acting alongside Georgia Moffett is actually one of the problems with the episode. Tennant and Moffett have a palpable chemistry between them and in the scene where The Doctor, Jenny, and Donna are imprisoned is undermined by that chemistry. Tennent smirks his way through most of the scene, which does not work given how resistant the Doctor is supposed to be to the idea of Jenny. Indeed, Tennent's lines ring of the character being offended by the violation of his cells being used to generate Jenny and of being around as the humans prepare to wipe out the Hath, but it's hard to take The Doctor seriously when Tennent's eyes are smiling the whole time.

Donna Noble continues to develop well in "The Doctor's Daughter." Throughout the compound are number plaques and Noble works very hard to figure out what the numbers mean. Noble is used better than Martha Jones who is given a story that feels very much like a tangent. The irony is that the entire fourth season is peppered with Rose appearing in the background until the big, final arc: her reappearance comes as part of a very vital, big story. Martha's appearance in "The Doctor's Daughter" is hardly a compelling character journey. In fact, given how she is now a full-fledged medical professional, it seems odd that she lacks any sense of professional detachment to deal with the death of a Hath who sacrifices itself for her.

The Hath are an interestingly-designed alien species and the prosthetic special effect is offset by the low-tech effect of the laser beam grid. When Jenny flips her way through the laser grid, it is filmed in such a way as to cheat the actual incredible feat.

Ultimately, "The Doctor's Daughter" is very much a bottle episode, which is not particularly impressive in any real way, but does not feel bad.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other stories about wars without end, please check out my reviews of:
"Battle Lines" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Angel
"Episode 29" - Twin Peaks

4.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"River Of Time" Revitalizes Legends Of Tomorrow!

The Good: Good character moments, Awesome special effects, Decent performances
The Bad: Painfully predictable plot points
The Basics: Legends Of Tomorrow gives everyone a chance to progress in "River Of Time," which puts the crew in direct conflict with Vandal Savage as the Waverider is adrift on its trip to the vanishing point.


There is a real problem with serialized television series's that are erratic, which hinge on the climax of the season. If a story is only made great by its resolution, it is tough to call it great. Legends Of Tomorrow is, alas, in that boat. As the first season moves towards its zenith, it is placing a lot of pressure on its last few episodes to redeem the erratic nature of the rest of the season. With "River Of Time," the series is hoping to get viewers hooked on the concept to see where Legends Of Tomorrow will go. And it does quite a bit to sell the conflict to raise the stakes for the final two episodes of the first season.

"River Of Time" picks up immediately after the events of "Leviathan" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without references to the climax of the prior one. After all, "Leviathan" saw the return of Carter Hall and put Vandal Savage in the custody of the Waverider's crew. Kendra Saunders spared Vandal's life in order to have the potential to restore Carter Hall from Savage's brainwashing and "River Of Time" takes that last-minute reversal and uses it to build a solid b-plot.

Opening in ancient Egypt (1766 B.C.), Rip Hunter is a captive of Vandal Savage in the days before the meteorites hit, making Savage immortal. Flashing back to 2166, Jax and Palmer reveal that Vandal Savage's giant robot is actually far more advanced than any technology in 2166. Realizing that Savage has been moving through time, Hunter takes the Waverider back to the vanishing point, while Saunders and Palmer interrogate the brainwashed Carter Hall. Unfortunately, pushing the Waverider so hard leaves the ship damaged and adrift in the time stream.

When Jax is wounded while repairing the time drive, Lance turns on Hunter. Palmer learns from Savage that Carter Hall getting his memories back will be the death of Saunders's relationship with him. As Jax ages a result of temporal radiation poisoning, Snart and Rory prepare to abandon ship, fearing that Rip Hunter might turn on them at any moment. Stein turns to Savage for advice on saving Jax's life and in sending Jax off in the drop ship, he potentially sacrifices his own life. When Palmer inadvertently releases Savage, the crew has to work together to stop him.

"River Of Time" fleshes out the villain Vandal Savage surprisingly well. Savage tries to manipulate Lance by telling her the truth, just as he confronts Rip Hunter and is surprisingly forthcoming with information. Casper Crump makes Vandal Savage menacing and smart and "River Of Time" gives him the chance to play the character with more depth than the monolithic comic book villain. As Savage reveals truths to Palmer, Lance, and Hunter, Crump takes what could be simple exposition and delivers the lines as acts of cruelty. It's a pretty remarkable performance skill.

Rip Hunter's moral ambiguity is the focus of much of "River Of Time." His willingness to sacrifice everyone and everything for his family is contentious in the episode and as the crew turns on him, he begins to question all that he has built. Hunter becomes commanding as the episode progresses, but he only seems to come into his own as captain after the moral ambiguities of his character are set aside. Rip Hunter has a very Captain Kirk arc in "River Of Time" and Arthur Darvill makes it work for him.

"River Of Time" features flashback scenes that are used to flesh out the various characters in Legends Of Tomorrow. Lance, Palmer, Stein, and Jackson are all given flashbacks to what they were doing when they were recruited by Hunter. The explicit scenes fill in the gaps well for those who want more depth to the core characters of Legends Of Tomorrow.

Despite the ridiculously predictable aspect of Palmer's confrontation with Savage and the irksome way Saunders and Palmer go off-again with the return of Carter Hall, "River Of Time" moves everything forward in enjoyable and compelling ways.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the premiere season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprintwithout permission.
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Massive Continuity Problems Cannot Mar The Flash's "Flash Back!"

The Good: Wonderful character moments, Great performances, Engaging plot
The Bad: Some severe plot problems for larger continuity issues
The Basics: "Flash Back" returns The Flash to the first season where Barry Allen attempts to learn how to get faster from Eobard Thawne.


As one who loves all sorts of science fiction, comic book and fantasy works, it is hard to completely surprise me. Indeed, when you watch and read enough material, it is easy to find parallels in programs. In the case of The Flash, it's latest episode had many notes that rang similar to the Doctor Who episode "Father's Day" (reviewed here!). And, if you're going to take from something else, at least take the great and The Flash does that. "Flash Back" also manages to surprise me in that, as its plot events spiral out of control, it seemed like the episode would have to - by necessity - undo itself, much like "Out Of Time" (reviewed here!) in the first season.

"Flash Back" follows very loosely on the events of "Trajectory" (reviewed here!), but the divergence in the main plot reaps a number of rewards for fans of The Flash. To get the most out of "Flash Back," one has to be a fan of The Flash (its first season anyway) and it helps to have seen "The Sound And The Fury" (reviewed here!) recently.

Barry Allen is working on calculations for getting faster and trying to figure out how to apply them to himself, when Dr. Snow reveals that physically The Flash, Reverse Flash and Zoom all move their bodies at roughly the same speed. After a dinner with the Wests, Barry is inspired to get mentoring on how to move faster by Eobard Thawne. Ramon and Snow figure out a time period where Barry Allen going back would have little potential to disrupt the overall timeline: the resurgence of Hartley Rathaway. Going back in time - encountering a mysterious entity in the time corridor as he does - Barry Allen once again apprehends Hartley Rathaway and when he returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, he disarms Rathaway to prevent him from exploding the cell he is trapped in.

But the mission quickly goes off the rails. The entity that Barry saw in the wormhole materializes at the Central City Police Department and begins to wreak havoc. Wells realizes that Barry is not who he appears to be and he captures the future version of The Flash and interrogates him. Thawne agrees to help Barry to stop the Time Wraith and get faster. But when the Barry native to that time awakens, things get even more complicated.

"Flash Back" has so much right with it that the things that are wrong actually take a bit of contemplation to recognize. The climax of the episode only works with a specific amount of information that Barry Allen did not give to his comrades at the time (or, even more importantly, Hartley Rathaway). Conceptually, "Flash Back" has the issue that if Eobard Thawne had the information Barry Allen needed, one has to ask why he did not apply it himself sooner. In other words, if Eobard Thawne wanted to get back to his own time as desperately as he did and he was training The Flash, why he would not have incorporated the calculations Barry Allen was working on in the second season to get Allen where he needed him to be faster makes no sense. The shockwaves from "Flash Back" make subsequent episodes like "Out Of Time" and the first season finale where time travel was treated as an absolutely new and audacious concept for The Flash nonsensical.

That said, "Flash Back" is a near-perfect episode and arguably the best episode of The Flash yet. The episode is absolutely ruled by Tom Cavanagh. Cavanagh plays Harry, Wells, and Eobard Thawne as Wells. Cavanagh manages to make each element of the different roles distinct and he is wonderful. Thawne is super-smart and when Cavanagh delivers his lines, we see the wheels in the character's head turning and never feel like we are watching Cavanagh recalling his next lines. The key scene in the middle of the episode is like watching two chess masters play and it is engrossing to watch.

Peppered throughout "Flash Back" is Barry's desire to help Iris move on from Eddie Thawne's death. That core of kindness from Allen leads to a tangent plot by which Barry uses his time travel to give Iris the gift of a message from Eddie. Amid all of the horrible events going on in his life, it is very much a sign of Allen's character and love for Iris that he would take time to get a video from Eddie for Iris.

"Flash Back" is smart enough to cover some of its bases - Barry changing the timeline with Rathaway makes it so he has to course correct Cisco by giving him the information that Rathaway knows where Ronnie Raymond is to allow that aspect of the first season's plot to progress - and it does that within the episode well. The existence of the Time Wraith, though it looked so much like the Black Flash that it was disappointing to not have that added to the mix!, causes huge continuity issues for Legends Of Tomorrow and any of the other time travel adventures within the DC Television Universe.

That said, "Flash Back" is an incredible character study for the Flash and Harrison Wells and is expertly executed to be entertaining, smart, and engaging!

9/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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