Falling Skies S05E01: "Finding the Warrior"

Rating: 5

In A Nutshell

Much like Extant, I wasn't looking forward to this show's return, but I was inspired by the knowledge that it's the final series. The struggle to get through last season without vomiting or dieing of laughter from the ridiculous plots was painful, but I think the break made things all the more bearable.

In a nutshell, you'd be hard pressed to say very much about this episode that you haven't said before over the long 5 seasons that this programme has been on. Tom is back ... naturally ... Mr Indestructible ... starts the episode in another one of those virtual visions back in his home where he's having a conversation with his wife. "Not another one of those is it real or not moments", I hear you ask. Seems Tom worked that out quite quickly, which he should by now, but then proceeded to have a conversation with his wife as if it was real. I don't see why he bothered to interact that much, but alas he did. Water then came through all the windows in the room before he's then coming up for air at the edge of a lake/river/sea and crawling onto the beach. Yup, he's back on Earth again. Everyone at camp thinks he's dead and died a hero along with his daughter (you remember they went to the moon and blew up the power station that the aliens use), but then alas he strolls back into camp with only the one person questioning this continuing illogical luck he has. Seems he feels compelled to be a warrior now and take out every trace of the enemy. Something I'm not sure he needed given he's pretty much been that way for years. Anyhow, three separate missions take place to take out nearby alien cells, with Tom's group having a little spot of bother, before the usual method of being helped out by another team occurs. There's a little more grit as Tom uses one of their dead colleague's bodies to plant bombs on and be used as bait, which gets largely overlooked by everyone. I know they've been through a lot, but still ...

They are then all off to the nearby school, where Tom is convinced that an overlord is hanging out, like the school bully. Indeed he is, and he's harnessed Ben as his conversation device, but Tom couldn't give a monkeys and just shoots the overlord, many times. Back to the camp and everyone is doing a little 'Return of the Jedi' party around one of their fallen colleagues burning bodies when Tom feels a fly on his neck, swats it, and sees it's no ordinary fly.

What I liked

Definitely the break has helped me be able to watch this rubbish as there was absolutely nothing remarkably new about what's going on. Usual random unexplainable emotional dialogues between people and behaviour you can't fathom for love or money. It's always dark or cloudy, or raining on this show, so the backdrop is always the same dull stuff. However, there were a few "WOAH" moments when aliens jumped out of shadows.

It's the last season. That's got to be good, right?

What I Didn't Like

The CGI is appalling on this show. The depth and perspective is so wrong on too many occasions.

One of the minor recurring characters suffered a rather quick death and send-off. She should've been wearing a red shirt.

It's just the same old thing on this show rehashed every episode. You could watch any episode and see exactly the same thing; people creeping around, dark surroundings, ridiculous behaviour and dialogue and bad CGI.

Huh?

Despite plenty of previous experience, and knowing that this is highly likely a "vision", Tom proceeds to have some conversation with someone who isn't there.

Planet of the Apes this isn't

John Pope; the only person to question the ludicrous implausibility of Tom once again coming out of disaster without a scratch. Mind you, why is John the only person on guard duty?

Tom goes all warrior on us this episode, and shows off an alien head to get everyone on his side.

We've all played a game like this back in the 80s, right?

Now going through their umptrenth ridicolous relationship "are they, aren't they" moment.

If only Tom had been this forward in previous seasons by just shooting without worrying about consequences, we might have wrapped this show up years ago.

Didn't I see something like this before in "Revolution" TV show?

And Finally

Time is a healer, and it helped me get through what is essentially the same old material rehashed time and time again. It's watchable if you've got some food and drink to get you through it, but there's little if any genuine quality in this episode.

At A Glance Review of ... Britain Beneath Your Feet E01: "Building Britain"

Rating: 6

If you don't like Dallas Campbell then I highly suggest not watching this because he's literally everywhere, as this first episode of a two part series takes us around underneath parts of Britain.

What's good in this show is very good and captivating, but it's not all plain sailing ...

You can find the whole episode on the BBC iplayer; check availability here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0619k4f

Dallas starts off my explaining why skyscrapers were slow to take off in London, and it's down to the clay beneath. This completely unnecessary explanation, by way of him throbbing his leg on the clay machine to keep it turning whilst making a rudimentary cup, was a little unsettling.

Mostly this focuses on The Shard building, with the computer graphics actually proving useful to show just how deep those foundations need to be to keep the building upright.

One of the highlights of the programme for me, was Dallas's time (all rather too short) at Gaping Gill in North Yorkshire, which he descends into rather spectacularly.

The view from below is even more impressive than on the way down, with a huge open space of magnificence and awe.

If the way down wasn't scary enough, the way back up is via a rather narrow tunnel!

We're then off to Bristol for a trip down the river that runs through the centre of the city largely unseen by anyone for many miles. The fact that this journey took 6 hours, but is condensed into mere minutes in this programme, gives an idea of how long it really is.

At places the river's tunnel walls get very low!

Dallas then rather unnecessarily catwalks down the high street onto his next assignment. What a poser!

He's in London, and once again he's going down ...

Certainly a masterpiece of construction are the victorian sewers.

What's not so good is the rubbish that collects down there! Dallas genuinely can't stand the very potent smell. I'm not sure many of us could, except for the workers doing the job of cleaning up "fatbergs" that clog up the sewers. If you ever need reminding why you shouldn't pour fat or anything else down the toilet or sink, this is it.

Then we're off to the outskirts of Bath, to explain what happens to some of the water heading to the city

It goes down this hole says Dallas, although I do wonder if this is the actual hole or if there are numerous holes? Is it just the one? No idea, because this programme really does rush over everything sadly.

Completely unnecessary, we then have Dallas in an airplane to show us the short distance the water takes, although it's also a VERY long journey; somewhat 10,000 years, down into the earth and back up into those famous roman baths.

If there are any ladies who fancy Dallas, you'll appreciate the scenes of him in the spa pool, and views of his hairy chest/armpits :/

We then head off to Edinburgh where he explains how the castle is essentially on a very old volcano.

Some fancy graphics merely confuse everything, which is much better explained in other zoomed out aerial shots.

Then it's down a coal mine for Dallas, starting off with an interesting fossil of a fir tree, although no idea if that was actually found down the same mine.

Dallas then tries becoming a miner, complaining of the lack of room to get a full swing into motion. The fact that a camera crew managed to get down there isn't really mentioned.

An almost two minute segment then takes place down a slate mine, purely to tell us that a cricket team uses it to play some extreme cricket. Dallas is useless at the sport and so is this whole segment really.

If you thought the cricket was dull, we then get a lady going around in circles, mapping the root system of a tree. Interesting technology, and she's rather passionate and nice, but the end result ...

... tells us nothing we didn't already know about roots. There's lots of them and they keep the tree upright. Revolutionary this information isn't.

Dallas then explores a tree root system that has a convenient entrance on a slope, to show us roots up close and explain the function of fungi in keeping the trees and nature going. Very useful to know and understand.

Several long minutes are spent with a treasure hunter and his metal detectors, explaining nothing much in particular, expect for his very big haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure he unearthed in recent years. The man on the left that is, not Dallas.

Finally, Dallas goes down a mine in North Yorkshire, whose sheer scale and size will astound you. He does all this to show us the tons of asphalt mined from the deepest location in Britain, so that our crops get fertilizer.

I'd seen this on another programme recently, but there's also a lab down this mine looking for Dark Matter.

   

Extant: S02E01: "Change Scenario"

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

I was seriously not expecting too much from this season two opener. I barely managed to get myself through the first season after it opened with a very promising debut episode before descending into boredom, farcical character behaviour, and tension that you could have broken with a sneeze. It spent much of last season like a poor budget B-movie with actors who couldn't convince their own mother that they were their offspring. Like most, knowing this show got a renewal, I was amazed. Having heard about the reboot, even I couldn't believe they could make this show work, but ... they did ... for now.

Season two started on a bad footing; we have an opening scene of Molly having sex with a man and then finding out it was a VR session. That's not something that goes down well with any viewer to be slapped in the mouth so quickly. They followed that up with another plotline sin; the "6 months earlier" text, and showing Molly in a mental institution. You could hear the groans all around the world. This was not shaping up very nicely in the first 5 minutes. What followed though for the next 30 minutes was mostly acceptable; we discovered that 6 months ago Molly discovered her husband John was having an affair with his assistant Julie before she had returned from space over a year ago. This seemed very convenient but not too far fetched after last season's OTT far-fetched stuff. Given I knew the character of John wasn't in this season, I was surprised to see him at all. Molly had given evidence to the government just before he turned up to say that she's sure no aliens were on earth. Complete lie, as we know. However, her alien love-child is killed off in the opening 10 minutes! He was about to feed off a baby belonging to the couple who found him in the street and instead his head blows up! Wowzers. Neither I nor him saw that coming, but at least they got rid of one of the least interesting characters of last season very quickly! Who was next? Turns out it's Molly's husband John. Yes, he doesn't get consigned to obscurity, but helps Ethan be "reborn" in a new body (yes, he is still alive. Seems he uploaded his consciousness via government computers at the end of last season. Yes, I know. Daft but hey). Molly confronts John over the affair. Things turn into a really daft but brief argument as government soldiers arrive and seize Ethan, declaring him a national security risk. He's certainly a national annoyance risk, that's for sure. Annoying to me! Anyhow, as Molly and John meet their chum at head of national security, Ethan escapes custody, but finds Julie is in with the government. yup, she's helping them develop the Ethan like bots into soldiers. John finds this out and is not happy, but on his way to somewhere (no idea where. It's not explained) his car is in an accident and it's assumed he's dead, what with the funeral being talked about in subsequent scenes.

Molly's stay in the mental institution is wholly plastic and cheese fest, but watchable. She conveniently overhears about a news story where a lady's stomach explodes and sees the similarities to last season and the aliens. So, based on just a photo, she takes it upon herself to break out of the institution, which she does with great ease. At the crime scene of this recent stomach explosion victim, she meets an investigator with more personality, charm and conviction than everyone who was in season one, called JD. After hearing bizarre claims by Molly at the crime scene, he initially doesn't believe her about aliens and conspiracies, but when he follows up on a throw away line that Molly mentioned before heading back to the mental institution, he then gets a court order to release her from this institute and into his custody. We end the episode at what seems to be speed dating, where a guy hooks up with a lady before his eyes glow just like the alien child from last season.

What I liked

Not too much Ethan. I know most critics seem to think he's the best part of the show, and sure he had more character than most, but ultimately everything he did last season didn't really fully engage me. It should of, and it was interesting, but it seemed far too CGI false, far too often. However, this season, thus far, he's on a back burner and in Julie's care/prison.

JD, the crime investigator. Easily the most interesting person of this series, and possibly this show's existence.

Nice fast paced, helping us clear out the rubbish from last season quicker than the quality of the show descended that season. Molly's husband John; dead. Alien love child; dead. Good decisions thus far, although John was actually more interesting in this episode than all of last season.

What I Didn't Like

Sure, everything moved pretty fast this episode, but that's no bad thing, as we cleared out a lot of the rubbish of last season quickly. However, starting with a fake sex scene, "x months earlier" and the classic "they put me in a mental institution, help me" was not good.

Plastic plot and cheese fest in the mental institution, but at least that's over now ... hopefully.

Aliens seem still very one-dimensional. That's ok in some ways. Maybe they only think simply, but the way they all move and speak like robots and have the awful glowing eyes, it's not scary or befitting at all.

Mental Institutions get bad stigma in this episode; abusive employees who use violence and sexual behaviour on patients, plus the institutes are not too hard to escape.

Huh?

No sign of any of the space agency. Not a bad thing I guess because almost everyone who worked there was boring, plastic and changed their behaviour every time they blinked.

Dragon's Den, Extant style. Maybe someone is pitching them a decent plot?

Don't call me the governor.

Just call the show 'JD' and lets have something interesting

Didn't just grow some stubble. He grew some balls this season. And then got killed.

And Finally

A good start to season two. I enjoyed this. Everything I didn't like about most of season one was cast aside quickly, and much more interesting characters introduced. However, I'm very concerned about how this season goes, because last season the quality went downhill after 2 episodes quicker than a canon ball down a steep hill. I fear that Ethan will become critical to the plot once again and the aliens will continue to be uninteresting, despite world domination plans. Can they keep this season interesting and edgy? I hope so, but I doubt it. Almost made a 7 rating, based on clearing out the loose ends and every scene JD was in, but that wasn't quite enough.

Dark Matter: S01E02

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

Leading straight on from last week's ending, the crew are debating if they help the miners on the planet or not, now that they know that they were supposed to be the nasty people coming to exterminate the colony. Going for the middle ground, the consensus from "Two", who has assumed leadership role, is that they give them weapons and then clear off as the miners can't win the battle against the overall big boys who paid for the crew to do the job. How they really know anything about the intentions of their employees and anything else though, is massively overlooked throughout the show. Memories wiped, but only their past, but yet, not all their past? They know nothing, yet they know quite a lot despite no plotline to explain them learning half of what they seem to figure out. I'm not talking about flying ships or sword fighting, but actual knowledge of FTL and figuring out politics quicker than any of us could ever do.

Anyhow, whilst some of the crew are on the planet saying goodbye, the big bad people arrive. Well, those who are wanting to claim the planet as theirs; Ferrous Corp. They send a crew of their own down to the surface, leading to an altercation with our crew of the Raza (that's the "good" guy's ship btw). Looks like the Ferrous Corp are from the 1990s, as they arrive in the futuristic equivalent of OTT body armour, literally hanging off them. Goodness knows how they run or fight with all that clobber. As it turns out, it's also highly useless armour. Ineffective against knives and swords. Useless against bullets. Which gives you the impressions they'd probably do a lot better without the armour, but I guess they'd then not look so military. Anyhow, our Ferrous Corp boys are taken down quite quickly by the Raza and now armed miners, although it was just a group of six or so Corp boys.

Back on the Raza ship, lady leader, Two, is greeted by the captain of the Ferrous Corp ship, who looks so smug, you'd think he was an android too. Having heard what has happened on the planet, the Corp leader offers lady captain extra money to leave now without her crew on the planet. She accepts right away, of which you just know that's not going to last.

On the planet, sword wielding asian guy member of the Raza interrogates one of the captured corp soldiers, who despite saying interrogation is ineffective, gives up information easily, and without too much torture, given later on he's up and running about quite nicely. Curious ...

So, the Raza crew on planet help train up the miners against another bigger attack from the Corp, which all kicks off very nicely as the DJ ramps up the background music and we see some decent action sequence as they 99% win the battle against the corp, before that classic double cross as a few of the miners release one of the captured Corp soldiers in the hope of trying to save themselves from what they think is a lost cause. Yes, the corp guy they release looks like the one who was horribly tortured by the looks of it, but I might be wrong.

Up on the Raza, they return to orbit with two ships from a rival Corp, leading the Ferrous Corp to have to admit defeat and leave with their tails between their legs. The Raza crew say their goodbyes, whilst Han Solo Raza crew guy, "One", gets to snog one of the miners before he goes; the cute young lady one of course. Awww.

Things on the ship at the end take a little twist when the kid of the crew reveals to leader lady, Two, that she can read the mind of one of the crew, who she knows deliberately deleted their memories, but she's not sure who. I'm predicting that when we find out, it'll be quite interesting to know why, but that everything will end happily and all is forgiven because they are now nicer people. Too obvious? We'll see if this show plays procedurally or surprisingly.

What I liked

Nice action sequence within the confines of a reactor. Should they be firing guns down there? The DJ background music actually works as this is a cheese fest of eye candy action, and thus really plays up to the hamness of the show.

All the characters are likeable and now playing nice so it's easy to forgive multiple oversights in plot and memory inconsistencies.

Decent opening story, and a natural feel good factor, as the Raza help out those less fortunate, although sort of make enemies along the way.

What I Didn't Like

Although it's easy to like the crew, that's mostly because they are all so nice to each other, which given they've lost their memories of who they are, you'd think there would be more tension and less buddy like if they don't know each other. However, if you ignore this fact, it's easy to forgive them because, well, it's just easier for us viewers, although less realistic. Anyhow, it is spaceships in space. How realistic can it be?

What the Raza crew remember and don't remember really doesn't add up. They are quick to highlight what they don't know (like we need reminding!) and then gloss over the lots of other facts like how they so readily accept each other's company, and can figure out general basics of language, walking, eating etc as well as global politics after little in the way of information that we've seen. As said before, if we ignore this oversight, then it just makes the show more likeable ;)

Huh?

Raza kid member of the crew is worried about not being on the list of crew last episode, but, umm, neither was the android that she was discussing it with, was she?

Ineffective against swords, knives, bullets, blast weapons and close combat. So, why drag all that bulk armour about?

And Finally

Essentially part two of the pilot episode, this episode keeps up the enjoyment by being reasonably fast paced, witty dialogues, and popcorn action sequences. It's easy to ignore the inconsistencies in the crew's memories and general simplified costumes/ships when everyone is too darn likeable!

Food: Marks and Spencer: British Elderflower Cordial

Food Rating: 9
Value for Money: 8
Overall: 9

In A Nutshell

"A refreshing fragrant cordial made with handpicked british elderflowers from gloucestershire's seven springs plantation."

So, there I was waltzing through the aisles of my local M&S when the non-alcoholic drinks selection of goodies caught my eye. Right up there at the forefront of my attention was a cordial of elderflower. It's Southern Comfort, light yellow soothing colour inside the bottle, combined with it's pleasant looking front label, lured me into its midst. Being a lover of the countryside and wishing to immerse myself within its bountiful beauty, slurping on some elderflower seemed just the tonic, although it's a cordial of course. Anyhow ...

I have to admit I didn't know what a cordial was. Being a bloke, I was going to not even bother reading the instructions, but I luckily did, because cordials are not to be drunk neat. That's not to say you have to dress up in a suit to have these. One refers to the need to mix 4 parts water with 1 part cordial. This sounds like a perfect way to take ages to get through the bottle, but I started off quite liberal with my own slightly altered ratio mix or "That looks enough" combined with "I'll just add some of this. Oh too much!". You really don't need a lot of the cordial, even with a cup full almost of water, because the taste is gentle, but pleasant and oozes through the water in a light, refreshing way.

The cordial is sparkly, which isn't my usual choice of drinks, but given you add so much water, the actual overall fizz is extremely mild. Unless you're highly sensitive to fizz, you'll hardly notice but a little ripple. The lightest of elderflower fragrance captivates your drink from first slurp until last gozzle. Oh a mildly warm sunny day, there's little else of a refreshing way to hydrate yourself.

What I liked

Well, I got more cups of drink out of it than I thought was possible. Probably about 6 or 7, although I was quite generous with the cordial initially. I reckon that's just about value for money given it's £1.50 price tag.

Gentlest of fizz. Mild elderflower taste. Great refreshing drink, especially when you use chilled water.

What I Didn't Like

The fizz was a surprise, given the label doesn't really shout out that it's sparkly, although there is Citric Acid in the ingredients of course. Usually though drinks do highlight fizz. Given it's such a low sparkle once you add water, it's negligible I guess, but not zero.

Huh?

Spring Water, Sugar, Lemon Juice ... and then you get to the elderflower. Guess it has to be that way or you'd be munching on petals if it was the otherway around!

If you're one for calories there's not a lot to each cup really. ~26kcal, depending on how generous you are with the cordial.

And Finally

As good as it looks. If you are a non-alcoholic and looking for a new drink to sooth you whilst every once else boozes around you in your garden, then you can't really do much better than this.

Dark Matter: S01E01

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

Made by those who brought us StarGate, what could go wrong? Well, it's on the Syfy Channel for starters, which in recent years has felt about as Science-Fiction as a car's wheel. The trailer for the opening episode had more cheese than a supermarket, but the premise itself was enough for me to give it a go. Was it worth my time?

Overall, yes. It crossed the watchable line and a little more, although showed some signs of concern along the way. We open with more openings, in the form of people being let out of what we can assume are stasis chambers. One by one, six of them are let out and they all suffer from the same problem. Yes, they are all far too good looking. However that's not the actual issue. It's that they have no idea who they are and what's going on. They've lost their memories and us viewers feel the same during the opening section. What follows for the next 20 minutes is very questionable at times in the ways the people are working out more about who they are and saying some of the most corny lines in doing so. This wasn't the most captivating part at all. I really couldn't care at this point who they were or if I'd ever find out. It was when they awoke the android on the ship that things really kicked up a notch. After she bashed everyone in sight, before being shut down again, my interest was restarted, just like she was moments later. Seems she has a mind link to the ship, and is able to literally control and communicate with it. She's got the personality of the very early Star Trek Data, with a hint of a look of another Star Trek character, Seven of Nine about her. In fact, this show seems to resemble collections of every sci-fi show you've probably seen before, although thankfully they manage to still make everything more or less work.

After finding the ship's original course and going down to the destination planet's surface, their interaction with the people of a mining facility really brings some more genuine and human qualities to things. It gives us an environment for these memory-less people to interact, and immediately the inhabitant's predicament pulls at our crew's heartstrings. Well, not all of them, but mostly. Seems the small mining colony are expecting an attack very soon from some aliens who do other people's dirty work. These alien's masters want to get rid of the mining colony so they can take over the planet's resources. The crew are mixed on what to do; help or not? Most of them seem to be pretty nifty with weapons so you'd think they'd be useful. On their return to their mothership though, the android has managed to conveniently (if I don't say so, for plot reasons) restore some of the data that was wiped from the ship's computers when they all woke up. The bit she has restored contains the crew's details, which she almost seems to read out to them all in a rather boasting manner, revealing them all to be criminals of mostly the murderous kind. So, by now we're all thinking that maybe these people will turn over a new leaf, but then comes the final twist about who they are, when it's revealed that the name of the aliens that the mining colony told them about, is actually the name of their ship. The crew are the people who were coming to kill everyone at the mining colony!

What I liked

Well, the majority of the characters are instantly quite likeable! That helps a lot. On the other side of the coin, most of that is down to the fact that they all seem to resemble characters we've loved and met before. Straight out of firefly seems most of these characters, with the gun loving angry one, the female ship's captain with the hips, and a young female who can "see things". There's little originality in these characters, but it helps that they look good, and they all come across as likeable.

I get the feeling this show is going to be in the style of Firefly, crossed with Stargate: Universe, rather than any hard-hitting serious sci-fi. We all need some popcorn sci-fi because there's very little of it about, and even less that's been decent recently.

What I Didn't Like

The ship's interior and the CGI is of a reasonable quality standard but almost pretty simplistic. You'd think the set came straight out of Star Trek Voyager or StarGate SG-1 at times, or some budget B-movie. There were "classic" sparks and flashing lights for a "crippled" spaceship. This is certainly no hard-graft sci-fi show, but all about the space action and anything sci-fi. Not a bad thing, because lots of us liked that stuff. Just don't expect too much to be realistic sci-fi like in "Gravity" or "2001: A Space Odyssey" movies.

Leading on from above, there's a lot of sci-fi mumble jumble, that any Star Trek fan will lap up as there's talk of FTL drives, shields, weapons, manifolds etc. It also almost felt like I should be ticking off a list of 101 classic TV sci-fi words and terms.

Bit picky here, but when will TV shows bring back classic intro opening sequences? There's too little of them these days, and this show has the standard quick 5 second one. No chance of that building up any atmosphere then.

Huh?

I'm nothing like Jayne from Firefly, honest ...

What's behind that big impregnable door then?

Hmm, this ship looks familiar ...

Android only has one facial expression; smug.

And Finally

A decent opener, after the cheese fest of the first quarter we had to drag ourselves through. The introduction to the outside world and the revelation about the crew at the end really did catch my attention and make me want to hang around for what I hope will be an enjoyable ride.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (Enjoyable popcorn sci-fi adventure stuff, in space. Something there's not enough of these days).

Star Wars Rebels: S02E01: "The Siege of Lothal"

Rating: 8

In A Nutshell

The Rebels are lured back to Lothal to help rescue the president of the world (I assume she is) who has had enough of the Empire control and is willing to trade secrets for safe passage. Things go really wrong though when she's blown up along with the escape shuttle. Vader has the rebels on the run on Lothal, leading to them having to resort stealing another shuttle, which leads to showdown with Vader for Kanan and Ezra. Vader kicks some serious butt, almost decapitating Ezra, before Kanan gets in to save him. Sigh. Cheese moment. Barely escaping with their lives, the Rebels call in a favour from Lando Calrissian and use some of his transponders to trick their way past the Empire blockade. This is still part of Vader's plan though as their shuttle was being tracked. In comes Vader in his T-fighter to take out the Ghost Ship and the Rebel fleet they just met up with. He causes serious destruction as the Ghost Ship just about holds him off for the Rebel Fleet to escape. As Vader chases the Ghost Ship, they just about managed to escape by having Vader trapped in the empire destroyer's tractor beam by accident instead of them. Kanan and crew want to hang around more with the Rebel Fleet and help, whilst Vader informs the Emperor of Ashoka being with the Rebels. The Emperor tells him to be patience so they can use it to their advantage and to send in the dogs, I mean another Inquisitor, to pursue the Rebels.

What I liked

Vader with lightsaber! Vader walking about. Vader giving orders. Vader hatching a very brilliant plan. Vader in his T-Fighter. Vader talking to emperor. Literally everything to do with Vader is gold dust in this show!

A very well written and creative plot in this episode. From start to finish it was solid, captivating and keeping us on our toes!

What I Didn't Like

Vader's lightsaber battle was quite an old school fight with Kanan rather than the gymnastics samurai stuff we've got used to in recent years. Sort of fits with the time perhaps but I'd like a little more freedom and creativity with that fight.

Vader's walking motion is a bit camp isn't it? Looks like a doll on wire, blowing to side to side in the breeze. Quite odd.

As much as I love Zeb, he didn't have much to do this week, plus he doesn't fit in with everyone else in the show in terms of how they are drawn. He looks like a cartoon toy, whereas the rest look more genuine. He is funny though.

Huh?

Pretty sure Ashoka knew it was Anakin, but why not tell the others? Presumably because she's not 100% how or why it could be Anakin. I expect we'll have to see her meet up with Yoda or Obi-Wan to get the confirmation and inside on what went down at end of Clone Wars.

Aren't you a little thin for a lightsabre?

And Finally

A fantastic episode. So good in fact that you get the idea it might be a while until it reaches that level again as we might return to run of the mill plots next episode? A new inquisitor will obviously be the main foe for a while until Vader returns to the fold?

Rating: 8 out of 10 (Lots of Vader everywhere, doing real Vader evil stuff! Gripping as he chased down the rebels).