The War Between the Land and the Sea

Back in 2009 James Cameron gave us a huge hit Avatar telling the story of an Everyman who finds himself encountering an exotic new species and acting as the go between in a story with obvious themes of environmentalism, militarism and displacement. There of course was even a little romance too between our male human hero and our female alien.

Fast forward to 2025 and Russell T Davies has dreamed up this highly highly original series which of course bares not the slightest relation to the James Cameron hit film franchise!

What this show has:

• good premise that isn't utilized well
• a highly compressed super rushed story that should have been at least 8 episodes long
• love story sideplot which eventually takes over the central spot in the narrative for whatever reason
• moral lesson about how polluting sea is bad with absolutely no subtlety at all
• decent acting, budget and visual effects

What this show doesn't have:

• war (it was actually a series of meetings, and also some garbage was thrown)
• nuance (who would have guessed it, humans are the bad guys)
• authenticity (there was nothing unique or unpredictable about this show)

Skip, unless you are a hard-core sci-fi fan or you have a fantasy about dating a fish.

I'm really surprised by the negative reviews. Science Fiction has always been a commentary on the modern day. Some interesting ideas here and it feels like Torchwood. The question in the background seems to be "Can humans be better even when the doctor isn't around?" It'll be interesting to see how the story unfolds.

After watching only two episodes so far I'm really enjoying it. Those who knock it are only thinking about their required standards of entertainment in my view. I think that the environmental message is far more important and this is a very good way of getting it across. OK, so nothing's probably going to change, but it certainly highlights how pathetic we humans are at managing our planet. I won't be missing a minute of the remaining episodes.

Yes it's cheesy, yes it's obvious, IT'S Dr Who!!

Dr who essentially is and always has been a kids TV show Russell Tovey does a fairly decent job, his supporting cast are so with the special effects being a step up from the usual, I thought I'd give it 10 minutes and ended up watching 2 episodes Pure escapism early evening TV that the whole family can watch Give it a go.