Jago and Litefoot Series 3 - with Leela from Doctor Who.

Jago & Litefoot: Series 3 by Andy Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This third series spreads its wings a little more and each of the four stories draws to a dynamic climax in the fourth tale.

Leela of Doctor Who fame turns up on Professor Litefoot's front door. She has been sent on an important mission by Romana (Another Doctor Who companion)

Leela has a device that measures the fabric of time and there are holes and distortions around Victorian London. She needs the help of Jago and Litefoot to put the anomalies to right. This our intrepid duo agree to do and off we all go on some splendid uncanny adventures.

Great fun and highly recommended to any Big Finish fans or Doctor Who spin-off fans. I know I keep mentioning it, but the dialogue between Jago and Litefoot as complete quality. I love it bits.

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Future Shock - 2000 AD Comic.

I saw a splendid documentary about a well-known British comic last night. I downloaded it from Amazon Prime etc. The documentary was about an hour and forty-five minutes with all these creatives from writing, artwork and editorial of a comic. The comic in question is 2000 AD and I’m sure many of us will remember when it first came out in the late seventies. I certainly do and I remember many of the first Judge Dredd stories along with a host of other characters.

As I recall, it was a time of upheaval in Britain. There were strikes. Wilson and then Callaghan Prime Ministers were going to the IMF for loans and the Punk Rock trend was metamorphosing into a rage of anti-authoritarian discontent. And then Margaret Thatcher came along.

(I'm not having a pop at any of the politicians that I'm mentioning. They were all in this circumstance as we all were.) :D

This documentary is a series of interviews about how the British comic 2000 AD went against the grain and was also disestablishment with many of its stories. The artist and writers were a mishmash bunch who foresee the decline of the average comic in the newsagents. They wanted to go against the grain a produce something edgier and darker.

I got to listen to the views of these 2000 AD founders as various creative people spoke about the survival of the comic through good and bad times. How it is still doing well to this day. The big-name creative comic writers and artist were Pat Mills, Dave Gibbons, John Wagner, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Brian Bollard, Dan Abnett, Alan Grant and Carlos Esquerra. Also, a among guests was Karen Berger of Dark Horse and Vertigo comics.

It was a very interesting look at how so many of the other British comics did not like this new 2000 AD comic and often tried to stop the creation for all manner of reasons. But 2000 AD rode the storm, especially Pat Mills who has stayed the distance. A great listen if you have the time.

1. How many of you people remember reading 2000 AD back in the day?

2. What did you think?

3. Who were your favourite characters? 😃👍

The Watchman Movie - (The Ultimate Cut is Three Hours and Thirty-Five Minutes.)

The Ultimate Cut is Three Hours and Thirty-Five Minutes.

Last night I watched a film called; The Watchmen. This was a second time around. I had enjoyed it some years back even though I did not entirely understand all of it. In parts, it was rather deep and dark but I think much of this aspect is what I liked.

Because it was a directed by Zack Snyder and he was in the Future Shock 2000 AD documentary that I had watched recently, I decided to give the movie a second shot.

I noticed there was an Ultimate cut. This was a mammoth three hours and thirty-five minutes on Amazon prime.

Therefore, I downloaded and did the goggle-box thing yesterday evening. I thought it was very alluring and loved the retro theme of the film. There were parts set back in this retro American 1940s and then on to episodes of 1959 and to the 1970s of an alternative President Nixon and Doctor Kissinger time.

The actual problem for our retired Superheroes is set in the mid-1980s when the former Soviet Union is in Afghanistan and we are moving towards an all-out nuclear war. Our superheroes are rather flawed which gives over to empathy for the viewer to indulge. We have a retired 40 something man whose name is Daniel Dreiberg. He was once Night Owl II, obviously a mark II from one of the retro heroes from the 1940s decade. We also have a woman who is called Silk Spectre II. Her name is Laurie Jupiter. Her older mother was a superhero and I’m presuming she was Silk Spectre I. (The original from the 1940s decade.)

In one scene, from this ultimate cut, Laurie Jupiter and Daniel Dreiberg wander down a side alleyway like Bruce Wayne’s Mother and Father once did. A group of street gang muggers come before them. Obviously, the gang does not know the civilians are retired out of costumed superheroes.

The fight scene was absolutely wicked and ferocious, to say the least. The woman, Laurie Jupiter (Silk Spectre II) it breaking arms and legs while Daniel Dreiberg is punching and slinging these urban villains all over the place. It was fast and brutal. I was sitting there thinking, “Oh my word.” I think they call it choreographing a fight scene? Well, they did it very well.

There are a whole host of other characters like Rorschach. A man that wears a white mummy type mask. There are pitch black stains that move around the front of the mask constantly changing all of the time.

Then there is this man called Doctor Manhattan. He looks like Silver Surfer but is a highly advanced atomic and quantum scientist who has become so advanced that humans are almost becoming irrelevant to him. His condition is because of an accident with a radiation blast back in 1959.

We have an old and blighted superhero called The Comedian. He is from the 1940s group but is still around in the mid-1980s as the story starts. A washed-up and past his sell-by date bloke who does not want to accept it.

Even though they are parading about in these outrageously strange outfits and are full of surreal personal problems I was compelled by it visually. The fight scenes are dynamic and rather violent. I can’t completely understand the entire film but I think most people can immerse themselves in it. I’ll definitely watch it again because I believe it is a story whereby you can learn extra things each time you watch it. Also, the Ultimate Cut version has a number of people and scenes edited out of the original film.

A Dieselpunk Soviet Union.

I was chatting with someone about Steampunk and Dieselpunk. They are often art concepts of people of the past imagining these types of art deco worlds of the future. A future that might have been or a future that never came to be.

Often the artist is of today imagining things from a past perspective point.

I rather like this upbeat image of a prosperous Soviet Union society. The futurist 1930s where there was no Starlin etc. Here is a splendid look of a more perfect Soviet Union than we might expect. A world where the Soviet Union is prosperous on an encouraging panoramic urban level. Better perhaps, than any of the Socialist Rupubilics' actually was.

1. Could such a socialist dream have been realised?

2. What would have needed to happen besides no oncoming World War Two?

3. Perhaps in this world, the democracies became urban decaying crime-ridden areas and the East was prosperous?

4. Could such a thing ever have happened?

Delicious Dialogue with Words that are a Culinary Delight.

Jago & Litefoot: Series 2 by Andy Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The second outing with Jago and Litefoot. The Victorian would-be sleuths of anything strange, paranormal or other extraordinary phenomena. Their paths and friendship brought about by an encounter with Doctor Who and his companion Leela. These dark and humorous stories are developed from The Talons of Weng Chiang.

Jago and Litefoot are a bumbling force to be reckoned with as they endeavour to put the world to right. Very enjoyable and will do the rest of the audiobooks over time. Splendid fun and a delicious dialogue between the two that is akin to a culinary delight. Splendid fun.

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Judge Anderson - The Abyss by Alec Worley (2000 AD comic character)

Judge Anderson of Mega-City One – (2000 AD)

Many of us are Judge Dredd fans from 2000 AD comic strip and we have seen this character bloom into novels, graphic novels, audiobooks and films etc. I’ve now read a number of his stories and will, no doubt, read more and hopefully enjoy future on-screen entertainment too.

What I liked about the second movie called simply, Dredd was the introduction of another character named Judge Anderson. I was intrigued by her psychic ability. I knew of her image in comic strips but had never read much about her. Her image is often on front covers but I was more interested in Dredd’s cold character. Because of the movie, I developed a better interest in the Anderson character and wanted to know more. I thought the actress who played Anderson in the film did look like the comic strip images I have seen.

Anderson, as a character, has an approach that differs from Dredd’s. She can’t help having empathy with some of Mega-City One’s millions of citizens. This is because she sees deep and hears all the inner voices. She can’t help getting caught up in the reason and consequence aspect of things. Though she is still a hard arse when the occasion demands. We always get see t the face of Anderson because the helmet interferes with her psychic ability etc. Therefore she removes it when getting off of her law-master motorbike.

The Dystopian World of the Judges.

This huge metropolis of Mega-City One is surrounded by the poison Earth and people can be arrested and sent to isolation cubes for pro-democracy relays. This overcrowded and claustrophobic society is always on the edge having been through an atomic world war. There is ninety per cent unemployment and huge tower blocks are turf areas controlled by various crazy urban gangs. Large numbers of residents feel loyalty towards the blocks they live in. The Judges are often hated. Yet they are needed. The whole society of the numerous Mega Cities around the world have similar setups with these Judges ruling the areas as a police state. They are undermanned and so the police become Judges as well. Obviously, they have wide-ranging powers. They can catch criminals and pass judgement and sentence on the spot. Including on the spot execution, there and then, if deemed necessary.

It all makes for a disturbing dystopian future where extremist policemen, from our own perspective, are necessary anti-heroes. Democratic well-intentioned believers (who really could not control such an overpopulated and variable decaying urban world) are the villains.

And In Such A World Judge Anderson Must Function.

In this Judge Anderson story audiobook, I enjoyed yesterday, (It is called the Abyss by Alec Worley) the female psychic judge is sent to a prison hospital to evaluate a woman who is the head of a political movement to bring about the end to the harsh rule of the Judges. In effect, she is a terrorist in this dystopian world. Her underground group are called Bedlamists.

The terror leader’s name is Moriah Blake and Judge Anderson do a psychic evaluation of the sedated prisoner in the hospital wing of a huge prison block. Anderson needs other psychic police colleagues to put a strong mind shield around her thoughts to stop the other many prison inmates from breaking into her concentration etc.

A raid of Bedlamists terrorists brings about a consequence whereby Judge Anderson is trapped in the Asylum hospital and is in the corridors when all the hundreds of prison cubes are opened. Spilling out into the corridors are hundreds of the drug-crazed psychopaths, murders, rapists and many other types of criminals of Mega-City One’s finest nut jobs. The building is under siege in a Mexican stand-off between Bedlamists and Judges. The terror group is searching for Judge Anderson via the TV monitors before power is shut down. Judge Anderson must discard her uniform and dress like the mad inmates and mingle. She must also try to find the source of a huge bomb.  

This is a real on the edge of your seat listen as Anderson builds a psychic wall to hold off the disturbed minds she is forced to move amongst. She can also hear some inmates who are incarcerated for not filling out a tax form on time, a young lad who evaded paying a traffic offence and a student nurse who’s been in a prison cube for a year, awaiting an evaluation, because her student boyfriend was arrested at a pro-democracy rally. Such people are among the more extreme criminal elements. We are in a world where society can’t afford democracy and some people are mere collateral damage to the extreme law system. Democratically minded people are terrorists. It’s all total dystopian horror for us, the listeners, who are rooting for the extremist right-wing Judges. This world needs them.

Jago and Litefoot by Andy Lane. (Doctor Who character's Spin-off.)

Jago & Litefoot: Series 1 by Andy Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Does anyone remember two characters form Tom Baker's Doctor Who story - The Talons of Weng Chiang?

The One Fly in the Ointment.

My only beef about these audio delights is the ridiculously high price that is charged for them if you are not a member of Audible. I have the monthly credit membership thing going with Audible. But £52.49 for an audiobook is far too much. I am certain this would put many people off. But my one credit monthly membership secured it and the others will do so on other future credits. Getting that gripe off my chest, I can begin.

Their names are Jago and Litefoot from Doctor Who's Talons of Weng Chiang. I do like to give some spin-offs tales a try. Especially Doctor Who. These first set of stories of Jago and Litefoot are absolute peaches. I've been listening while working. My job is very rural and I can function while listening.

There are four tales in all. Each about an hour and ten minutes. Each one, as said, is very entertaining. The dark humour between the theatre manager Jago and Professor Litefoot is colourful. An amusingly overindulgent use of splendid words makes for gorgeous dialogue. The Victorian characters have become a double act investigating strange phenomena problems after their brief and dangerous adventure with the Doctor and Leela.

What follows in the Jago and Litefoot association is a general all-round romp of sinister and diabolical fun in Victorian London. The spooky tales are wonderful modern-day penny dreadfuls set in the time when penny dreadfuls were two a penny (Well on some stalls perhaps.) SciFi, strange phenomenon pulp stories. Each diabolical tale oozes with atmosphere and is very exciting. I have now listened to all of series one. My favourite being number three (The Spirit Trap).

Has anyone else listened to Jago and Litefoot? Does anyone remember the characters from Doctor Who? If yes to either question, what do you people think?

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