Daniel Tessier
Bio
I'm a terrible geek living in sunny Brighton on the Sussex coast in England. I enjoy writing about TV, comics, movies, LGBTQ issues and science.
Stories (62)
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Review: Red Dwarf: The Promised Land
You've got to admire Red Dwarf's ability to continually come back from the brink. The series has appeared to be dead so many times over the years, only to pop up again a few years later. The fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth series all looked like they could easily have been the last, and yet, here we are again, with a thirteenth installment of the long-running show.
By Daniel Tessier6 years ago in Futurism
Review: 'Star Trek Short Treks' 2-4 & 2-5
After three live action vignettes, the second set of Short Treks presents a double bill of animated shorts, the first animated Star Trek episodes for forty-five years. It's surprising that the franchise hasn't explored the animated medium more often. After all, it's much easier to create alien life forms, spectacular ships and strange new worlds in cartoon form than live action. However, while Star Trek: The Animated Series has experienced a reassessment in recent years, it's long had a poor reputation, and this has likely put the blocks on animated Trek for years.
By Daniel Tessier6 years ago in Futurism
Review: 'Star Trek: Short Treks' 2-1 & 2-2
The Short Treks format proved successful in its first run, with four short adventures that tied into Discovery. Of these, three were really very good, with only the opener “Runaway” seeming rather throwaway, and even that turned out to be surprisingly important for the resolution of Discovery's second season. The far future setting of “Calypso” laid hints for the finale of the second season and will doubtless tie in to the third, while “The Brightest Star” acted as a prequel to very important developments for Lt. Saru. Only the Harry Mudd episode “The Escape Artist” seem to be a completely standalone adventure, and even that may turn out to be more important later on.
By Daniel Tessier6 years ago in Futurism
Review: "The Escape Artist" - 'Star Trek: Short Treks' Episode Four
“The Escape Artist” rounds off a very mixed bag of mini-episodes that make up the first set of Short Treks. After a fun but wonky character piece with “Runaway,” an excellent sci-fi short with only tenuous links to the main series in “Calypso,” and a decent but unoriginal flashback in “The Brightest Star,” Short Treks explores one of the best received guest characters of Star Trek: Discovery.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
My All Time Top Five Christmas Movies
Christmas isn't Christmas without a cracking festive film on the TV in the background while you slowly nod off after too much pudding. There are dozens of Christmas movies, many of them saccharine-sweet and cutesie. The best Christmas films, though, mix festive cheer with grim, spooky, melancholic or downright nasty elements to great effect.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Geeks
Review: "The Brightest Star" - 'Star Trek: Short Treks' Episode Three
The third Short Trek is a well-worn but well told story that provides Lt. Saru—perhaps the standout character from the first season of Discovery, and certainly the most mysterious—with an origin story. It's an origin that treads familiar ground for Star Trek, and as such it feels very traditionally Trek, but at the same time, feels a little unoriginal.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
"Xmas Marks the Spot"
Every cartoon series has a Christmas special (well, most of them). They are, mostly, pretty terrible, churned out with little thought to what might make them different to all the others. A few stand out, though, and one has stuck with me from my earliest years. That most special of Christmas specials is “Xmas Marks the Spot,” the last episode of the first season of The Real Ghostbusters.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Geeks
Review: 'Doctor Who' (11.8) "The Witchfinders"
This season's third historical adventure continues to show that the thirteenth Doctor's best episodes are those set in the past. Unlike “Rosa” or “Demons of the Punjab,” though, “The Witchfinders” is an episode that relies heavily on an alien influence. That's not to say that a purely historical episode set during the witch trials wouldn't work, but it would be a very different story to the one we enjoyed on Sunday night. While there's a moral side to the story, “The Witchfinders” is unashamedly in the mould of the theme park history romps of the previous few Doctors, and that's great. As good as the more serious historicals this season have been, it's worth reminding viewers that trips to the past can be a lark as well.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
Review: 'Doctor Who' (11:7) "Kerblam!"
Funny, one this. On the one hand, it's a solid, highly enjoyable episode with a style and premise that would have slotted in quite happily at any point in the series in the last few years—in fact, as a few have pointed out, it's possible to imagine it as a Seventh Doctor story with minimal tweaking. On the other, it's as brazenly political as the year has been so far, but with a muddled message that eventually comes down on very much the wrong side of the debate.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
'Ghostbusters' World
There have been a lot of games based on Ghostbusters over the years, both the movies and the cartoon spin-offs, and in the last 10 years or so there's been a particular surge in computerized ectoplasmic activity. Some have been well received, such as the multi-platform GhostbustersThe Video Game, a truly great game released in 2009 that basically acts as Ghostbusters III. Others haven't been so popular, such as the wonky 2011 sequel Sanctum of Slime and the enjoyable but limited 2013 Ghostbusters mobile game from Beeline. Games based on the 2016 movie have been especially poorly received, with FireForge Games' Ghostbusters being so bad that it bankrupted the company. Ghostbusters World isn't even the first Augmented Reality game, following the 2012 experiment with Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Gamers
REVIEW: 'Doctor Who' (11:6) "Demons of the Punjab"
"Demons of the Punjab," is by far, the strongest episode of the season so far. The only episode to rival it is "Rosa," and there's a clear indication that this new version of Doctor Who is strongest when presenting historical, socially aware stories rather than escapist adventures. More cynically, I might point out that these two episodes are the ones with the least involvement from show-runner Chris Chibnall. "Rosa" was co-written by Malorie Blackman, while this has a sole writing credit for Vinay Patel. On the other hand, the episode feels very much a part of the new Who. While there has been quite a variety of stories in just these six episodes, series 11 still feels consistently part of one vision for the programme. Chibnall has stated he's using the open writing room approach to brainstorm ideas, and while this episode seems very much the work of Patel, others doubtless had influence.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
Review: "Calypso" - 'Star Trek: Short Treks' Episode Two
As much as I found to enjoy with the first Short Treksepisode "Runaway," this is so far beyond in terms of quality and content it scarcely seems to be part of the same series. A two-hander set centuries after Discovery, yet still strongly linked to the primary series, "Calypso" benefits from some excellent acting, stylish direction, and a compact and effective script.
By Daniel Tessier7 years ago in Futurism
