BBC's The Musketeers Reviewed!

The BBC's The Musketeers has all the adventure and fun of the original Pirates of the Caribbean, except in series format.

King Louis XIII is guarded by his Musketeers including Athos, Porthos and Arimis. They, along with their fellow comrades often come up against assassination attempts on the King and the Queen, city schemes, thievery and murder. The evil Cardinal, whilst principle advisor to the King, is ever plotting and scheming for his own ends and what he believes to be the ultimate good for the Church. The Musketeers are joined by D'Artagnan, a famer's son who is initially seeking revenge for his father's murder. Although not officially a Musketeer, D'Artagnan quickly becomes close friends with Athos, Porthos and Arimis and joins them on their adventures.

Follow me under the cut for more on the first season of The Musketeers and in particular the Season 1 finale!

Professor Brian Cox: An Evening of Scientific Phenomena

You may have seen Professor Brian Cox on your television in many new BBC documentaries about life and space and awesomeness. You may know him from the days of the building of the Large Hadron Collider, when the media started reporting that it was going to create a massive black hole and we were “all going to die”. Perhaps you’ve seen him commenting on the new Doctor Who (or in Doctor Who itself!) or on QI restraining himself from answering ALL OF THE QUESTIONS.

Regardless of how you know him (and if you don’t you really need to get on this train) you’ll know he loves science and talking so the BBC have sent him on an impressively sold out tour of Australia giving lectures about the wonders of the universe, science and everything.

I was lucky enough to get to go to the opening show of the tour in Perth so if you didn’t get to go, don’t worry; I’ve got your back. Follow me below the cut for a review of Brian Cox and his Evening of Scientific Phenomena.

Let's Talk Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

I can't remember the last time a book grabbed me and immersed me quite the way Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell did. This wasn't a book that I was necessarily in a rush to read until I saw a) that the BBC was making a miniseries out of it and b) so many of my friends immediately began raving about how good it was.

So I dove in. What I thought was going to be a fairly standard fantasy novel ended up being so much more. It's still fantasy, but it has elements of Infinite Jest, The Prestige, all sorts of fairy tales, European history...it's no surprise that the book took nearly a decade to finish.

Come along beyond the jump for more on the book and some guesses as to what good casting might look like for the miniseries!

Doctor Who News: New Companion Announced!

Heads up whoers (wow that looks dirty), there's going to be a bit of a changing of the guard later this year in  the new season. Well, it's more of a changing of the guards friends more than anything. It was announced today that Amy and Rory Pond (as played by Karen Gillian and  Arthur Darvill) will be leaving the show in the fifth episode of season 7 in a heartfelt memorable way, with a new companion arriving just before Christmas in episode 6 , played by Jenna-Louise Coleman   

Nothing is really known about the character shell be playing but from the twitters this 25 year old was giving Matt smith a run for his money, forcing him to keep up with her. I'm not very familiar with Jenna, but if you're a fan of British drama shows with teenage lesbians or saw captain America, then she may seem familiar to you. Personally I will be sad to see the ponds exit the show as I have grown to really enjoy them as companions, especially Rory and know nothing at present about Jenna so that'll always leave you apprehensive about newcomers. But if anything is true about doctor who it's all in the writing. Smith can execute what's given to him brilliantly and can make it his own, but look at what happened with past companion Martha jones (played by Freema Agyeman). Great character butchered because of shitty writing. For the most part Moffat and teams writing had been solid and have done a fantastic job of casting to date. So...time will tell.