2018 marks the end of a modern festive tradition, as Doctor Who swaps its Christmas special for a New Year’s Day edition instead. Up until now, we’ve only had one Doctor Who story that dealt with the New Year and that was the 1996 TV movie, which premiered on BBC One in May!

On the other hand, there’s an entire season’s worth of Christmas specials to watch and while it’s ridiculous to suggest that the show has simply run out of festive ideas, the change might be friendlier for binge-watching in, say, July, when you don’t have an adventure with killer Santas or wintry vistas every 13 episodes or so.

Even if some of us will miss having new Who to watch on Christmas Day, the new series has given us plenty of specials to revisit. Barring William Hartnell’s iconic, fourth-wall-breaking moment from the end of the accidental Christmas episode The Feast Of Steven, the founder of the feast is Russell T. Davies, who set the tone for these specials as he did for so many others.

From the very first special that was commissioned, they’re never throwaway bits of festive frippery. It’s partly due to most of them resolving direct cliffhangers from the preceding series, but his specials often feature significant story landmarks while still welcoming everyone from the odd casual viewer to the most devoted fans.

In this first part of our look back at Doctor Who’s Christmas specials to date, we’ll revisit each of Davies’ flagship episodes (and a few other seasonal highlights) to see what each one brings to the table, what you should watch out for, and which one you might want to pick to watch on iPlayer on the 25th, instead of Michael McIntyre.

Honourable mention: The Unquiet Dead (2005)

Timey-wimey stuff being what it is, we start with an episode that didn’t actually air on the 25th of December. The first proper Christmas special was commissioned after the first series became a huge hit, which means that Christopher Eccleston never got to star in a festive edition of the revived programme. However, his third trip back in time took him to Cardiff in 1869 for a brush with Charles Dickens and the ghostly Gelth.

Perhaps the best of Mark Gatiss’ new series’ scripts, The Unquiet Dead is a nice bit of phantasmagoria, introducing a spookier and darker element into the series at a crucial early stage in its revival. While famous characters are more central in the later “celebrity historical” episodes, Simon Callow’s Dickens is more of an enjoyable tagalong in what turns out to be the genesis of Torchwood, introducing Eve Myles and a rift in time and space under the Welsh capital.

All ties to later episodes aside, it’s a suitably modern version of a familiar genre from the classic series. As part of the regular run, it follows that this one can be watched at any time of year, but if you like your Christmas specials a little more gothic and violent than others, give this one another look while you’re scoffing mince pies.

Better watch out: The Ninth Doctor is something of a Dickens hipster, citing The Signal-Man as the author’s best Christmas ghost story rather than A Christmas Carol. First published in 1866, the short story was previously adapted for the screen as part of the BBC’s A Ghost Story For Christmas, a series that was also revived in 2005 and continues this Christmas Eve with Gatiss’ The Dead Room.

The Christmas Invasion (2005)

Doctor Who’s first-ever specially produced Christmas special had a lot on its plate. More than just being a festive outing, it also has to introduce David Tennant’s Doctor, as well as the implications of regeneration to an audience that only just got to know Eccleston as the Time Lord. Some more familiar faces ease the transition and Rose’s prominence in the first series really pays off, as she effectively takes the lead while the Doctor sleeps off his time vortex hangover.

What’s impressive is that there’s no sense of it being any lighter than any other Doctor Who episode, especially when the Sycorax’s M.O. is to drive a third of the world’s population to perch themselves on the roofs of tall buildings, apparently ready to kill themselves on command. Despite the jeopardy leading up to the ending, the dark-edged jollity comes from Davies’ typically marvellous script (“Have we heard from the royal family? Oh, they’re on the roof”) rather than the setting.

Right up to Harriet Jones’ Belgrano-esque folly, it’s a proper sci-fi thriller, designed for primetime BBC One on the biggest day, and it’s a brilliant end to Doctor Who’s first year back on the air. It even makes time to start a nice Christmas tradition of Murray Gold writing original songs for the specials, as Tim Phillips warbles Song For Ten over the Doctor’s Christmas evening with the Tylers (which is clearly where he got his “best Christmas Walford’s ever had” reference in The Impossible Planet, by the way).

Better watch out: The highlight of the 2016 anthology book The 12 Doctors Of Christmas is Jacqueline Rayner’s The Christmas Inversion, in which the Third Doctor picks up Harriet Jones’ Christmas Day address and mistakes it for a distress call from the future. Landing on the Powell Estate in 2005, he’s flummoxed when Jackie Tyler barges in with tea and sandwiches. It’s exactly as brilliant as it sounds.

Attack Of The Graske (2005)

The Tenth Doctor’s second episode was released the same night as his first. Written by Gareth Roberts, this 15-minute “interactive episode” debuted on the BBC’s red button service right after The Christmas Invasion was broadcast. Bringing the viewer into the Doctor’s latest pursuit, the story asks you to help track down a body-snatcher who’s meddling in Christmases past, present, and (if they get their way) yet to come.

Played by Jimmy Vee, the Graske have some traits in common with the Zygons, such as replacing other people with duplicates and keeping the real person alive in stasis. After tracking the Graske back to their home planet through a series of puzzles, the choose-your-own-adventure story leaves it up to the viewer to decide how the story ends.

For those who played this on Christmas night, Attack Of The Graske cements Tennant’s charismatic portrayal of the Doctor. The game was previously available to play on the BBC website but seems to have been taken down (possibly because of a certain disgraced recording artist’s Another Rock And Roll Christmas featuring in the happy ending?). If you don’t mind missing out on the interactive element, there are plenty of playthroughs available to watch online.

Better watch out: Roberts brought his monster back in The Sarah Jane Adventures, where a Graske called Krislok serves as the unwilling henchman of the series’ Big Bad, the Trickster. You can also spot a Graske among the assorted alien punters of the bar that Captain Jack Harkness visits in The End Of Time Part 2, which is the only other New Year’s Day special.

The Runaway Bride (2006)

The Doctor first meets Donna Noble as a cliffhanger at the end of Doomsday. Popping into the TARDIS on her wedding day, she arrives at just the right time to stop him getting too mopey about Rose and also, as we later learned in Turn Left, to prevent him from going too far in foiling the monster of the week.

Just like The Christmas Invasion, The Runaway Bride follows the departure of one of the leads but given the emphasis on the companion as a co-lead, it’s a bigger deal this time. Davies handles it deftly, throwing the Doctor into a new action-packed adventure. Happily, the Tracy and Hepburn-like chemistry between Tennant and Catherine Tate is obvious from the beginning and it’s no surprise that Donna was eventually brought back as a full-time companion.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was always planned this way. Donna arrives as fully formed as any of RTD’s characters and brings a screwball comedy element that makes this a lighter story than the Sycorax’s shenanigans. All that and some more robot Santas, a fearsomely made-up Sarah Parish playing a giant spider, and the new series’ first ever mention of Gallifrey.

Better watch out: This year’s original song by Murray Gold features during Donna’s wedding reception, as the Doctor is reminded of Rose while watching Donna dance with Lance. Neil Hannon sings the Al Wilson-alike Love Don’t Roam, which featured on the new series’ first soundtrack release. Fans campaigned to get the song into the UK single download chart after the rules changed in 2007, but it didn’t crack the top 40.

Voyage Of The Damned (2007)

In every sense, Voyage Of The Damned is the Doctor Who Christmas Day blockbuster. From its execution to its audience reception, this extended jaunt with Kylie Minogue on the Starship Titanic is constantly ambitious and adventurous. It’s RTD taking big swings and casting big stars, at a point in time where the BBC’s big terrestrial film premiere was more likely to be a Pixar animation than an Indiana Jones.

In terms of film premieres from times gone by, Davies’ objective here is to make The Poseidon Adventure in space. He clearly has more of a sense of the disaster movie genre than the Doctor, whose repeated promises that no more of the obviously doomed ensemble of alien tourists are going to die become slightly hilarious. All in all, it’s a big part of its charm.

Even if it’s rarely vaunted among the very best seasonal offerings, it’s an absolute blast and there’s a bit more to it than the Hollywood gloss it so successfully mimics. As in the Irwin Allen movies that inspired it, there’d be little point in the spectacle if we weren’t invested in the characters. And frankly, Doctor Who wouldn’t be Doctor Who if at least one of those characters wasn’t a conker-headed cyborg.

Better watch out: The mighty Bernard Cribbins makes his debut as Wilfred Mott in this story. Originally intended as a one-off character, Cribbins had a lovely time and was brought back as Donna’s grandad in Partners In Crime, after the late Howard Attfield retired from his role as Donna’s dad due to illness. A couple of Christmases later, this turns out to be the most important cameo in the universe…

The Next Doctor (2008)

After deciding against a similarly high-concept idea like “Cheryl Cole on the Hindenburg” as a follow-up, Doctor Who’s greatest showman lined up a different sort of attraction. With Tennant having announced his departure live at November’s National Television Awards, the announcement that David Morrissey would star in an episode called The Next Doctor had the desired effect in terms of publicity.

It has some of the blockbuster trappings of the previous instalment, but it’s a darker story than it’s often given credit for. Aside from foreshadowing the specials arc by confronting Tennant’s incarnation with a possible future Doctor, the eventual reveal of Morrissey’s Jackson Lake and his tragic backstory is weighty stuff for Christmas Day.

Mind you, it’s wrapped up in one of the more out-there plots involving the Cybermen and their off-brand Cybermats, the doggo-like shades. It wraps up with a giant Cyber-King stomping all over 19th century London, a detail that was explained away a year and a half later by the incoming showrunner’s cracks in time.

Better watch out: Journey’s End originally ended with a cliffhanger featuring the Cybermen inside the TARDIS, prompting the then-traditional “What? WHAT? … what?” ending. This scene was shot and features in the extras of the Series 4 boxset as a deleted scene. Davies was persuaded to cut the scene by Doctor Who Magazine writer Benjamin Cook, creating some distance between the downer ending of the finale and this special.

The End Of Time (2009-2010)

RTD’s final Christmas special is the one that has had the most influence on the format since. The Tenth Doctor was kind of born on Christmas Day, and he would kind of die around the same time. Notably, Davies pushed for a two-part finale to the specials year, so that they wouldn’t have to do a regeneration episode on Christmas Day. Featuring Part 1 and Part 2 in their titles for the first time since the classic era, The End Of Time two-parter was an epic event.

Set on and around the big day, the first part is festively foreboding, as Cribbins salutes the Queen’s speech, John Simm’s Master tucks into homeless people like they’re roast turkey, and Timothy Dalton issues silky-voiced, spittle-flecked narration about Christmas Day being the final day of planet Earth. If the casual audience wasn’t already a bit lost, then it ends with the ferociously surreal cliffhanger of everyone except a select few people turning into duplicates of the Master.

The Tenth Doctor’s era actually came on New Year’s Day, which must have been nice for parents with hangovers. After a showdown with the Time Lords that closes the entire Time War arc (for the moment), the climax brings the fatal four knocks and then a victory lap for both Davies and Tennant. There are tears, but because it’s Christmas, there are more conker-heads, in the form of the visiting Vinvocci.

Taking in the entire regular cast since 2005, it’s the final bow on a bombastic finale. Just to bring Tennant’s Christmas specials full circle, Gold even sneaks in an instrumental reprise of Song For Ten, shortly before Matt Smith’s Doctor explodes onto the screen.

Better watch out: Echoing the blanket promotion of Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf & Death the previous Christmas, The End Of Time’s status as BBC One’s jewel in the crown was affirmed by Tennant’s place in the channel’s Christmas ident. Coupled with Tennant’s press tour, panel show bookings, and appearances in other comedies and dramas, it felt like he, if not the Doctor, was absolutely everywhere. But more importantly, is the reindeer thing canon?

Come back next week for our look at the rest of Doctor Who’s festive episodes.

This review contains spoilers.

5.9 Elseworlds Part 1

It’s pretty crazy that an episode of The Flash that started with John Wesley Shipp wearing his classic 1990 Flash TV series costume actually managed to get better from there. It’s even crazier that it wasn’t the most extreme piece of me-specific fan service that the episode pulled off. And the craziest thing of all is just how damn good Elseworlds Part 1 is. 

Okay, maybe it’s not that crazy.

These DC TV Arrowverse crossovers are somehow always pretty great. Sometimes they’re a little messy, and sometimes they get a pass because of how utterly joyful they are. But for the most part, these have always managed to be season highlights. Why is that? It’s because of how well defined our heroes and their supporting casts are, and there’s endless fun to be had by bouncing them off each other.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t immediately fond of the way Elseworlds was being sold. The Barry/Oliver Freaky Friday body swap seemed a little too gimmicky. I’ve been here waiting for more Superman, dying to see how they would pull off The Monitor, and more. Why risk it with such an “obvious” hook?

Well, whoops. Because this was tremendous fun. The joke sustained itself for exactly as long as it had to, and it led to multiple genuine laughs, especially the “don’t touch her” (real) Barry to (real) Oliver moment, which felt natural, even ad-libbed.

What I found even more impressive about the early acts was how effectively they played that concept with The Flash supporting cast. The scene where Barry and Oliver are trying to explain things to Team Flash was genuinely confusing, but in a good way. Just as Cisco, Ralph, and Caitlin were having trouble figuring things out, it’s a little disorienting to the audience, too. Both Arrow and The Flash have been running for so long now that a disturbance this great makes you realise just how used to the flow of these shows you are. For a few seconds, I was as confused as Team Flash, even though I had been watching from the opening seconds. It’s a neat trick, and they genuinely pulled it off.

It’s also kind of a statement of intent for how these are going to go. Both Invasion and Crisis On Earth-X, while great, were traditional ‘maximum amount of superheroes team up to inflict damage on an enemy we can understand’ stories. But Elseworlds Part 1 puts the focus on (and celebrates) why Oliver and Barry are so different. Considering that it’s just over five years to the day that Barry was first introduced on Arrow, this was a great way to show just how far both of these characters have come. I’ll be curious to see if the next two Elseworlds chapters can say as much about their respective spotlight characters as this one did, even with everything else going on.

And really, the fact that at the heart of it, this still managed to feel like an episode of The Flash despite featuring Supergirl, Superman, and a villain from (and other nods to) Crisis On Infinite Earths is a tremendous feat of its own.

In fact… I need to talk about Lois and Clark. It took about ten seconds for Elizabeth Tulloch to establish herself as Lois Lane, and I’m immediately sold. I’m a fan of a wide variety of Lois interpretations, but Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Noel Neill, and Dana Delaney always loom the largest in my mind (I think Amy Adams was on pace for a terrific modern Lois in Man Of Steel, but she wasn’t given enough to do in Batman V Superman or Justice League, but that’s an issue for another time). Tulloch, in less than 10 minutes of screen time establishes a voice and personality of her own, one that owes a little to those that came before (especially Kidder and Delaney) but one that also feels very much of this particular universe. I can’t wait to spend more time with this version of the character, and I really hope that the CW obliges well beyond these Elseworlds episodes.

Tyler Hoechlin continues to impress as Superman and Clark Kent, too. What I found really interesting here was how they decided to introduce Lois and Clark while in Smallville. There’s a school of thought (one that I subscribe to) that the most ‘true’ aspect of Superman’s character is who he is when he’s in Smallville, around friends and family from whom he has nothing to hide. There’s Superman the hero, Clark Kent ‘the disguise,’ but then there’s also the Clark Kent who lets his guard down, who is the man raised by his Earth parents. It also happens to be the side of the character that has been the least explored on screen, by a considerable margin. We’ve seen those other two sides from Hoechlin in his other Supergirl appearances, but this is his first time as ‘the complete Clark.’ If you weren’t already sold on his take on the character, I don’t know how this episode wouldn’t put him over the top.

I also have to appreciate that while these shows have always managed to make the Arrowverse Superman an absolute powerhouse, and just a cut above the rest of the heroes, he’s never over-powered, and never shows up at the expense of Kara or anyone else he shares the screen with. That’s a remarkable feat with this character, and something that even the brilliant Justice League animated series struggled with from time to time. They really need to find a way to let Hoechlin and Tulloch headline a Superman show of their own.

It really would have been easy to let the novelty of having Clark, Kara, and Lois around derail the whole hour, but once again, this managed to be primarily an episode of The Flash, albeit one with plenty of jokes at the expense of Oliver Queen. But Ollie got his jabs in, too. It always does my heart good when I see other characters calling out the ridiculous ‘secret prison’ in the bowels of STAR Labs, and Ollie in particular is sensitive to that these days. And while Oliver is the butt of many a joke for being a humourless dick in the episode, he’s still the most capable, natural leader of any hero on any of these shows. And he’s not the kind of boring hyper-competent jackass that Batman is in most team situations you find him in. Instead, Oliver is simply the guy who knows how to get shit done, and knows how to motivate people to do it (usually via getting them angry, but never underestimate the power of anger to motivate people to deliver solid work under pressure).

All of these shows have terrific ensembles, and while Legends Of Tomorrow is technically the only ‘team of superheroes’ show of the bunch, they all showcase team dynamics to some extent or another. Seeing Barry, Oliver, Kara, Vibe, and Superman teaming up to fight Amazo, and working out some other stuff on the side is a big deal. If the CW or Warner Bros. TV ever decide that they can’t support all of these superhero shows anymore, I have absolutely no doubt that they could just turn out a Justice League TV series and it would work just fine. In fact… please make this happen.

I suppose if I was being cynical, I could say that this episode relies too much on Barry/Oliver in-jokes, or the novelty of seeing them swap costumes to truly deliver on the weightiness of a reality warping, multiversal threat. But when it’s so well executed, when you can see Grant Gustin and Stephen Amell practically reading each other’s minds in each scene, when Melissa Benoist’s Kara appears to break the tension at exactly the right moments (the looks that Oliver gives Kara are priceless, perhaps matched only by his immediate instinct to blame Barry for the body switch), and you get the bonus of a note-perfect Lois and Clark, well… like I said, I would have to be pretty cynical. We don’t get a lot of time with The Monitor and Dr Destiny (wait… oops… did I just call John Deegan by his comic book villain name? Is that a spoiler?) but I have little doubt that we’ll get to see them reach their potential in the next two chapters.

Am I grading this episode on a curve because my expectations for crossover chapters are perhaps a little different from what I expect from a regulary weekly instalment? Yeah, probably. Do I care when I’m having this much fun? Not at all. All of this and we still haven’t even had our proper first meeting with Batwoman. See you in Gotham City!

Read Mike’s review of the previous episode, What’s Past Is Prologue, here.

This review contains spoilers.

2.1 Inside Out

Given the amount of chaos in the Counterpart season one finale, the season two premiere is admirably easy to follow, even given the new characters, altered circumstances, and enigmatic ending. Although we’ll apparently have to wait a little longer to revisit with Howard Alpha (and Baldwin for that matter), watching J.K. Simmons portray Howard Prime trying to imitate his meeker counterpart is incredibly impressive and entertaining. Between his barely restrained impatience with Emily and the keen perception both of Emily and former FBI Agent Naya Temple, it’s going to be fun to see Howard Prime squirm a bit at the start.

Temple’s recruitment is the first step towards broadening the scope of Counterpart, and her qualifications as a spy hunter whose unique skills are required by Alpha’s Management make her an interesting new character from the very start. Although her interview with Howard proceeds without too much scrutiny, the Section 2 agent’s discomfort is quite evident with Quayle. Betty Gabriel’s performance as Temple exudes quiet confidence, which has been a quality lacking under Quayle’s leadership, and her religious devotion adds a unique element to her character which may come into play as well.

And who knows what to make of Fancher? On the one hand, his trust in diplomacy may have been short-sighted last season, but now he seems to be the only one expressing reservations about imprisoning all known agents from the other side when the Crossing closed. Obviously, Fancher is incorrect about Aldrich being Shadow and about the threat being eliminated, but his moral objections combined with the mysterious motives of Management make it hard not to be in his corner somewhat.

Not that Clare is operating with impunity. Sure, she took out the two Alices (and her own henchmen for good measure) who were the first to use the term “Shadow” last season, but her tense detente with Peter shows she’s far from out of the woods herself. The fact that she gives into her husband’s demand for a bone to throw to his new partner is a clear indication of the difficult position she’s in, especially with Lambert pressuring her to activate the last sleeper cell as well. Somehow the marital manipulation, from Clare’s attempt at seduction to taking turns with the baby, is just as compelling as the spy games.

The question is: who killed Brandt, the scapegoat Clare and Lambert came up with? There’s still a lot we don’t know about Indigo’s operations in their enemies’ world, and the emergence of Management as a shadowy circle of names like Avalon, Keilberg, and Weza, hints at the larger iceberg under the tip we’ve been exposed to thus far. “We all know who’s behind this,” they say, but we sure don’t! The promise of learning more about this presumably older generation of people who were around when the Crossing opened is an intriguing prospect to say the least.

We also have the unfolding of an Emily we didn’t get to meet last season, and Olivia Williams is making this incarnation admirably distinct from her counterpart, although just as sharp. Despite having aphasia, she can sense that her imposter husband wants her to get better quicker, and it probably doesn’t help that he’s not cooking wonderful meals like real Howard Alpha used to. But the real message lies in Howard telling Emily about their first date and her saying, “I don’t remember that woman,” with Howard responding, “Then forget about her — and him.” There’s the sense that he wants more than just information from Emily; he wants a second chance with the woman he lost in his reality.

But of course, Clare has other designs on Emily as well, suggesting they could be friends — to what purpose we’ll have to wait and see, but as Peter points out to her this all can’t end well for any of them. Quayle may have caught a lucky break on the roulette wheel, but he’s right to give the winnings to the homeless man. His gambling success is an apt metaphor for the luck he had in dodging suspicion with no way to capitalise on his good fortune. His daughter, for whom he seeks protection in the end, is really all he has left to hope for.

And so the table is set for a faster-paced but significantly deeper conspiracy tale in this season of Counterpart. With continued excellent performances from the cast and a top notch entrance for new character, Temple, the show should easily grab its audience and pull them right back into the intrigue. The question remains: can Counterpart build its audience with this complex story in place even as it tweaks its narrative formula? As the season progresses, the revisiting of story arcs for Howard Alpha and Baldwin should give us a better idea of whether season two has truly upped the previous season’s game as this premiere seems to indicate. 

Read our Counterpart season one recap here.

This review contains spoilers.

4.6 Blood Of My Blood

Though Outlander gets rightly lauded for its successes as one of the only true romantic dramas on TV, it doesn’t get nearly enough credit for its family drama. Anyone who is familiar with either genre shouldn’t be too surprised that, if a story is good at and interested in one, then it is probably good at and interested in the other. After all, romantic and family dramas are cut from the same narrative cloth: the exploration of and prioritisation of the interpersonal.

Outlander rocks at all of it, which is why Blood Of My Blood—an examination of the complicated yet caring dynamic between Jamie, Claire, Lord John Grey, and William Ransom, the illegitimate child of Jamie and Geneva Dunsany—is so damn good.

If you need a refresher on how William showed up on the scene, Geneva Dunsany forced Jamie to have sex with her back in season three ahead of a marriage with a gross older man. Instead, Geneva became the gross person, blackmailing Jamie into taking her maidenhead by threatening to tell her parents about his true identity as a wanted man. Willie was the result of that non-consensual rendez-vous. When Geneva and William’s supposed father died, Lord John Grey, who was married to Geneva’s sister, Isobel, took responsibility of William and has been raising him ever since. Now we’re all caught up!

When we meet William again, now at the tender age of 10, he still does not know the truth of his parentage. This dramatic irony makes the nuanced emotional drama of Blood Of My Blood that much more effective, as Jamie spends time with the boy who means so much to him, unable to properly explain to young William.

For Jamie, it is a painful joy that he wouldn’t give up for anything to see Willie again. At first, the boy doesn’t remember the groom he affectionately called “Mac.” Slowly, though, he recalls how much the man meant to him. This is a missed blessing for Jamie. On the one hand, it is a relief to know his son still remembers him in some capacity, to know that he made a positive mark on his life thus far.

On the other hand, it makes William reticent to let Jamie back into his heart, given the betrayal young Willie felt when Mac left Dunsany Estate when Willie, who had just lost the only two parents he’d ever known, probably felt like he needed Mac the most. At age 10, William is an adorable brat. He is trying so hard to be good, but he is quite clearly learning how to be an aristocrat, which is to say: how to wield and hold onto power.

Murtagh, the Frasers’ other house guest, is understandably not impressed with the arrival of the English lord who was once his prison governor and his lord-in-training. When the discussion of local dissent and protest against unfair taxation comes up over the dinner table, Murtagh and Lord John only barely contain their disagreement. William is fascinated. Frankly, it makes for great television.

Poor Murtagh, who has only just reunited with his godson after being torn apart due to British imperialism, is unable to understand how Jamie could willingly be friends with Lord John, could welcome him into his home. The reveal that William is his son is maybe the only explanation Jamie could give to silence Murtagh, who still leaves, unable to be under the same roof as his former and current antagonist.

Of course, Jamie’s affection for Lord John goes beyond their mutual love for William. When John comes down with the measles that have been killing colonists, Claire is given the chance to properly interrogate a feverish John on the subject as she works to keep him alive. I like that Outlander makes Claire somewhat unlikeable here. She is not very empathetic towards John—not because he is with the king (though, that would be a bit hypocritical, too, given where she and Jamie got their land), but because he desires the man she desires.

Claire is jealous, even though Jamie is not only straight, but also madly in love/lust with her, as we’ve established over three plus seasons. Giving an 18th century closeted gay single father who may or may not be on his deathbed the cold shoulder is not a good look. But, hey, we can’t always find the empathy we’d like to in moments like these (#relatable), and John hits a lot of Claire’s buttons: He was able to spend time with Jamie during their 20 years of separation and, now, he is raising Jamie’s child. Lord John is super self-aware and observant and points these things out to Claire through his measles-y fever.

Eventually, the two find a bit of common ground bonding over their respective experiences in passion-less marriages. For Claire, it was her relationship with Frank, post-Jamie. For John, it was his time with Isobel, during which time it is implied he had sex with his wife, even though he wasn’t sexually attracted to her.

John admits to Claire that, when Isobel died, he didn’t feel anything, which is quite a statement to make. He may not have been in love with Isobel, but he did know her from when they were both small—the two were raising a child together. I judged Lord John a bit for this reveal, but it does nicely sets up his next emotion-bomb: That he came to Fraser’s Ridge not only so Jamie could see William, but so that he could see Jamie… in order to determine if he was still capable of feeling anything anymore. The verdict? He totally can. Jamie’s sexual magnetism is strong.

John ends up surviving the measles, and surviving Claire’s judginess. Before he leaves Fraser’s Ridge with William, she tells him he deserves his own passionate happiness. Agreed.

While Claire and John are working through their awkward issues, Jamie gets some proper one-on-one time with William. To keep William safe from the measles, the two basically go on a tour of Fraser’s ridge: camping, fishing, hunting, etc. Jamie has a chance to teach Willie in the way he once did, imparting as much knowledge and skill to him as he can in their six days together.

Of course, it will never be enough, which is why it’s so important for Jamie to see that Lord John is doing what Jamie is able to judge as an acceptable job. When William kills a fish on Cherokee land, the Cherokee demand a blood sacrifice. Jamie tries to take the punishment for his son, but William won’t let him, stepping in to spare Jamie the pain he feels should be his own. The Cherokee simply nick William (I kind of love this subversion of “savage” expectations), but it scares the bejesus out of father and son. The two embrace, and this show has rarely been better.

The moment may just be surpassed by Jamie and William’s final moment together (for now). When Lord John and William ride away, Jamie must wait to see if William will look back… to determine if he is in the boy’s heart or not. To determine if he should have hope for seeing him again or he should pack away hopes that he will ever see his son again to the same place he did his hopes he would ever see his daughter.

William looks back, perhaps hinting that he feels the connection between himself and Jamie, even if he is yet to fully understand it.

Read Kayti’s review of the previous episode, Savages, here.

Some of the very best science fiction books out there aren’t just available in print form. Listening to an audiobook means you can devour the best sci-fi out there while driving, commuting, hoovering or soaking up rays on the beach. Here then are our pick of eight of the best SF audiobooks available to listen to on Audible right now…

Solaris

If you ever find yourself arguing with someone who thinks that science fiction is simply a genre for kids, then Solaris really is Exhibit A for the defence. Stanisław Lem’s elegiac, haunting examination of grief and loss was made into two critically adored movies, in 1972 and 2002, but until Audible’s audiobook, fans were never able to sample Lem’s original text. The only previous English edition dated from 1970, and was translated itself from a French version. Narrated by Battlestar Galactica actor Alessandro Juliani, this is the first ever unabridged release of the Polish classic, and is a powerful and provocative slice of grown-up science fiction.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Expanded from his short story The Sentinel, Arthur C. Clarke’s literary version of his and Stanley Kubrick’s ambitious space epic is one of the giants of the genre. Clarke’s book, like the movie, follows man’s voyage to Jupiter after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith on the moon and explores themes of human evolution, artificial intelligence and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Narrated by three-time Audie Awards winner Dick Hill, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a profound and intellectually vibrant meditation on humankind’s place in the universe.

Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama

Audible has assembled an impressive cast for this spanking new dramatisation of Jeff Wayne’s 1970s adaptation of HG Wells’s classic. Michael Sheen (The Queen), Taron Egerton (Kingsman), Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones), Theo James (Divergent) and Anna-Marie Wayne (actor and daughter of Jeff Wayne) headline this dramatic and chilling production which retains the story’s original Victorian setting.

World War Z

There’s no greater expert on the zombie apocalypse than author Max Brooks (son, fact fans, of comic giant Mel Brooks). He began his obsession with the undead with 2003’s The Zombie Survival Guide and then 2009’s The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, but his greatest opus remains World War Z, a gripping thriller about the war between the human race and zombies. Made up of individual accounts of the conflict narrated by an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, Audible’s audio version of World War Z offers up the most realistic depiction yet of the zombie apocalypse.

Alien: Out Of The Shadows

With the big screen Alien franchise apparently in hibernation after Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, maybe it’s time to get our Xenomorph fix elsewhere? Alien: Out Of The Shadows is a full-cast adaptation of Tim Lebbon’s critically acclaimed 2014 novel, and fits neatly in between the first and second Alien films. Headlining is Laurel Lefkow as Ellen Ripley, as well as the great Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), this is a powerfully atmospheric and spine-chilling addition to the Alien series. And the extra good news is that, once you’ve finished this one, there are even more full-cast Alien audiobooks out there, including Alien: River Of Pain and Alien: Sea of Sorrows.

Cowboys & Aliens

In this fantastically inventive genre mashup, a stranger with no memory of his past finds himself in the desert town of Absolution in the Old West, the only hint to his history being a mysterious shackle on his wrist. Little does he know though that he’s the answer to saving this town from, yes, invading aliens! Narrated by Fred Berman, this adaptation of the big screen version of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s cult comic book is a perfect buy for fans of science fiction and Westerns.

Doctor Who: The Alien Worlds Collection

There are five cracking novelisations of classic-era Doctor Who stories included in this must-listen collection. In Doctor Who And The Zarbi (read by William Russell), the First Doctor encounters a race of giant insect-like creatures on the planet Vortis, while in The Curse Of Peladon (read by David “son of Patrick” Troughton) the Third Doctor and Jo Grant are mistaken for delegates of the Galactic Federation on a primitive and superstitious world. The Brain Of Morbius (read by Tom Baker) has the Fourth Doctor encountering the remains of a Time Lord war criminal, and The Leisure Hive (read by Lalla Ward) finds the Doctor and Romana caught up with a criminal organisation on the pleasure planet of Argolis. Finally, in The Greatest Show In The Galaxy (read by Sophie Aldred), the Seventh Doctor and Ace are, after arriving at a sinister circus, forced to fight for their lives.

The Power

From the pen of British writer Naomi Alderman, The Power tells a provocative, powerful story of a world where women, after developing the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers, become the dominant gender. Released in 2016 to rave reviews, the novel went on to win the win the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and was even named by Barack Obama as one of his favourite books of 2017.

Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds: The Musical Drama is available now – order it here.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is out this week, which means we can finally share this interview with Shameik Moore! The actor from Atlanta voices Miles Morales, the hero in Marvel and Sony’s dimension-hopping animated movie, which has already spawned talk of sequels and spinoffs.

It’s worth mentioning that this interview took place before the film had been screened in full. We’ve since seen the movie and written a five-star review of it, but at the time of this conversation, we only had the first 40 minutes (and the scene from the Venom post-credits) to go on. Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed chatting to Moore in a swanky London hotel room…

Let’s go back to when you were a kid. Were you a big fan of superheroes growing up?

Oh yeah, everybody likes superheroes. Yeah! I saw cartoons with my older cousin growing up, and, you know, I always liked superheroes. And when they started making live-action films, it definitely, like, I was like…woah! You know? I think everybody wanted to go see the first Spider-Man movie that came out.

Do you have a favourite Spider-Man movie from the ones that have come before?

It would probably be the first one, or the second one. Tobey Maguire, James Franco. Totally.

At London Comic-Con, you mentioned that you discovered Miles Morales for the first time when you were watching cartoons with your cousin. Can you remember what cartoon was or what the story was?

I know Bob [Persichetti], one of our directors, told me that it was a Disney show…and Miles just made an appearance. I actually thought I was younger when I saw Miles, but Miles was created in 2011, so I had to be about 16 when I saw this. Originally, I thought I was more like 13.

But when I saw this character, definitely, it touched me. I used to watch cartoons with my older cousin, and when I saw Miles I felt like I was looking at myself. You know? I can’t say that any other way. He looked like me in the mirror, not just him being black, you know? They could’ve made him look a whole different way, and then I don’t feel like I’m looking at myself. I literally felt like they took my face and put it in and animated it. So I was like, “Yo, I am Miles Morales! I’m Spider-Man.” And I wrote it down in my journal, while I was working on the movie Dope. And a few years later, the directors from this movie and the writers from this movie, saw the movie Dope and said “Hey, we want Shameik to be in this movie. We want Shameik to play Miles Morales.” And I wrote it in my journal while making that movie, which they saw, to hire me! It’s like… you know what I’m saying? It’s like wow! The circle of life.

And then they reach out to you, after seeing Dope. What was your reaction to that first conversation?

Well, they didn’t just offer it. They wanted me to audition. And they were like, “We’re really interested in you. Can you record something on your phone and send it to us?” And so I did. I texted it to Bob, one of the directors, and he was like, “This is perfect, thank you,” and they made a rough edit – with rough drafts – of my voice with, like, some sketches they probably had or something. And, honestly, I was hoping to get a response way quicker. It was like six months before I really knew, and they did a countrywide search – a nationwide search – and yeah, I guess they wanted to verify that I was Miles. And then they came back to me and they were like, “Yep, you’re the one.” And then we started working on it.

Were they a nail-biting few months waiting to hear?

Dude…I had to let go of that. And that happens so many times: you audition for something and you don’t really hear back and you just have to move on, and hope that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. If not, keep pushing, keep living. And that was that situation. I thought, “Ah they’re probably playing around. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.” And then they called! I was like oh, yes!

Was there a long pre-production period then, after you signed on, or did they get you quite quickly into the studio?

It was probably like a month or so, after I got confirmed. And I went to LA. Yeah they handled all of the business side of things, and then about a month later I was in LA and I was working. I went in, in person, and we got to work. You know, my biggest thing was sounding like I was 13, because I think I was 21. Or 20.

I was thinking about that… did you try to do a more high-pitched voice?

I did. I was like [affects a high, almost squeaky, sort of voice] “Hi, I’m Miles Morales!” And they were like, “Nope. Nope. We like your voice, Shameik. You know? Let’s keep that!” I was like, [back to normal voice] “Okay!” I was nervous the first day, but we found it and we’ve been working on it for like two years. So, sometimes we’re doing a scene three or four times…and there are minor differences in the writing, you know… but they want me to attack it a different way, or whatnot. It was a process. So, finding Miles was cool. I just trusted my directors and got into character.

What do you think are the core things driving Miles? It seems like that trifecta of Miles and his dad and his uncle is going to be like a big kind of emotional heart to the film.

Dude…that’s the process, man. I got to work with Brian Tyree Henry [who plays Miles’ dad] in person in the booth together, and we were just riffing off of each other and going back and forth. He was like, “Shameik, I’m gonna reach back there and choke you for real!” And I was like, “Come on man, we’re acting!”

And yeah, Uncle Aaron, the Prowler, that’s a…dude, that’s my favourite villain in the movie, honestly. He kills it. Mahershala Ali is amazing.

Did you get to have time with everyone in the booth, or was it a lot of stuff on your own?

Ah yeah, a lot of stuff on my own. I’ve worked a lot with Jake Johnson, who plays Peter Parker. And Brian, who plays my dad. I know a few of the cast members: like Mahershala Ali, I’ve met him a few times. Zoe Kravitz [who voices Mary Jane], we did Dope together. Hailee [Steinfeld], who plays Gwen [Stacy/Spider-Woman], I met her at Comic-Con and she was really cool, and she kills it in this movie by the way. Everybody did a great job, yeah.

What was it like being in the booth with Jake Johnson? I imagine he must be a million-ideas-a-minute kind of guy.

He is, he is. He’s very witty. Very witty. He’s great to do interviews with because he’s energetic 24/7 and he keeps it funny. Like I’m not the type of dude who can just tell jokes off the top of my head. I’m the type of guy you could laugh at because I did something funny that I didn’t realise was funny. You know? But Jake will like, off the top, keep going. He’s one of those guys, just witty.

With animation, do the directors try and pull you back onto the script, ecause if you’re going off on tangents they have to animate more stuff?

I don’t really go off on tangents, to be honest. I’m in there, and they’re usually pretty stretched on time, honestly. Because they’re moving. They’re doing a thousand things. And there’s always a rush. You know what I mean? But in a good way: a staying-on-schedule kind of a rush. We have 142 more lines, and I’m like [mimes wiping sweat off brow] spending five hours in here. And I’m not giving them stuff that’s [off on tangents] you know?

But when Jake is in there, and when Brian is in there, we’re like, going back and forth. It’s different. You know? And they might want it sometimes, like, okay, here’s the scene and Jake might try something and I’ll go back and forth with him. But never by myself. I’ll just… once I’ve done what they asked, I’m waiting for them to tell me the next thing. You know? Not wasting any time, I wanna execute it. I don’t wanna go looking for another Miles. You know?

Working with three directors, are they kind of all in charge of different things? How does that work for you?

I mean, dude, I have no idea. You know what? Everybody’s the same to me. You know what I’m saying? There was one point where everybody was in the room. Chris [Miller, producer] was rarely in the room, but Phil [Lord, producer and co-writer] was always there and Rodney [Rothman, director and writer], Bob [Persichetti, director], Peter [Ramsey, director], and then you got the camera dude holding the camera over you… and then you got the sound engineer in there. Then you’ve got the script supervisors, the two of them. And yeah, it’s a room full of people, and they’re like, “How about this, how about this, how about that…”

But, then, the next time I could be in Atlanta and Bob flies to Atlanta and it’s me and Brian Tyree Henry. Or the next time I could be in Atlanta by myself and Rodney’s on Skype, looking, Skyping through the whole situation. And then maybe I’m in LA and Peter is there with me and we’re in a different studio. I really don’t know what their day-to-day is like, but with me, I just go and I follow directions with whoever’s in the room.

I imagine it’s all out of sequence when you record it all. Is it difficult getting the emotional levels of it right, if they’re pulling you immediately into a scene where Miles is really stressed out? Are you flitting between things more quickly than you normally would?

It’s only difficult when I’m the complete opposite 10 seconds before. When I’m like walking down the street like, [super casual delivery] “Oh hey, yeah, what’s up? Oh good to see you!” So easy. “Miles, we miss you!’ ‘You miss me? I’m still here!” You know what I’m saying? You just saw that scene. And then, you know, there’s a scene you didn’t see yet and I’m really sad, in an alleyway, and things get really complicated.

But we did those scenes back to back. Like, okay, we finished this one, okay cool, Shameik, now you’ve got to be really sad. They’ll break down the whole scene to me and they’ll turn the lights down and get it real moody and then, boom! Now I’ve got to do this. [Starts acting out heavy breathing and some sobbing] I’m crying, you know? Right after smiling and laughing.

Was that a new skill for you to learn?

You know, it’s kind of scary to be in control of your emotions like that. Being an actor. You could be a psychopath. It’s kind of cynical to me.

Did you have a chance to go and see Venom, with the Spider-Verse tag on the end credits?

Oh yeah, I did! I went to the premiere in LA. It was very cool. I was happy that that happened. I was only mad that it took so long to see the end credits. [Laughs] I actually missed it the first time, at the premiere, I felt like I was in the theatre for like 10 minutes. And I was like, “Oh I must have heard wrong, they don’t have me at the end of this.” I walk outside and then people come out after like, “Woah, your movie looks amazing!” And I’m like, “What? I just walked out!” And so I went to the theatre when it came out, and then I checked it out and I was like, “Oh snap! This is cool.”

What do you think about the potential of folding Venom into a larger Spider-Verse? Like the way that this film does but with the live-action side of it.

Well, I’m curious what you think. If you saw a movie with our Spider-Man right now and our Venom right now, you know, who do you think would win?

I feel like Venom would take him down.

Oh really?

Yeah! What do you think?

Well, our Spider-Man is currently taken from us.

Oh yeah, he’s a pile of dust.

Yeah! Currently, so maybe Miles is still around, but if I’m Miles and I’m fighting Venom… [Laughs] You know what I mean? It might be a little different! But nah, I think Venom can definitely continue. I think Spider-Man would have to adjust to fighting Venom in order to take him down. They can’t come out and he’s just beating Venom up at the beginning of the movie. You know what I’m saying? He’d have to figure out sound is the weakness and outwit him!

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is in UK cinemas from 12 December 2018

“A plan is just a list of things that go wrong,” quips Rico Rodriguez, Just Cause 4’s thrill-seeking protagonist, in a cutscene that plays out mere moments before he sets off on yet another explosion spree. He’ll claim that it’s all in aid of helping the poor people of Solis fight back against a notorious dictatorship occupying their country, but really, deep down, we can’t help but feel that it’s due to some deeply hidden desire to fulfil a perverse appetite for destruction. Those with similar taste in Rico’s high-octane thrills will find it in this fourth entry of Square Enix’s physics-defying series, even if the ensuing chaos does collapse at times.

Just as players familiar with the franchise might expect, Just Cause 4 continues the previous game’s fetish for letting you wreak havoc within an exotic open world paradise. Your primary methods of doing so consist of the typical tool selection found in other games of its ilk: military vehicles, heavy artillery, gadgets… But it’s really through freedom of movement where Just Cause 4 stands apart, and where the fun taking down baddies is most found. This is all made possible by Rico’s returning grapple hook, which lets you approach hostile situations however you choose thanks to its long range, varied function and creative use to tie objects together.

Let’s say you’re tasked with destroying a series of generators key to decreasing the occupying enemy force’s influence. You could set an objective marker, drive up to the facility, and go in all guns blazing sure, but only in Just Cause 4 can you dive off one of the island’s many high peaks, pop your parachute before gliding down to the compound using your wingsuit, zipping your way around the compound via grapple hook while also using it to manipulate the environment around you before turning it on bad guys. Realistic? No. Outlandish? Yes. But boy does is allow you to realise your ‘80s action movie fantasies – all in a manner of your choosing.

Just Cause 4 has you consistently engaged in improvisational scenarios such as this, tethered together by the faintest of plots. This is to say that, in this area, the game suffers from a very distinct sense of ‘been there done that’ – even by open world game standards. Much like how Just Cause 3 saw you liberate town after town in the effort to overthrow an evil dictator, the plot here is unnervingly similar. The only real difference is that Rico Rodriguez has slightly more personal investment in his actions this time, after finding evidence that his late father was working with The Black Hand, Just Cause 4’s flavour of foe.

Thankfully, there are a few new elements introduced that help shake up the Just Cause formula ever so slightly. Chief among them are the added customisation options available for the grappling hook. Whereas before using it to your advantage would be a simple case of connecting objects together to create an all-to addictive chain of action and reaction, here it’s increased ten-fold by an enhanced booster rocket and what’s called an air lifter. You’re able to select which one to prioritise and how it functions from a loadout menu, rendering said loadouts interchangeable on the fly.

Booster rockets have appeared previously in Just Cause, but now you’re able to attach as many as you’d like to any object you’d like. Trust us, there can be something quite therapeutic about blasting a ship across the river and into an enemy radio dish. Air lifters equally let control your environment in stylish and inventive ways, having you tethering balloons to anything in sight until it’s raining cars and satellite dishes. Pulling off a lot of these manoeuvres in Just Cause 4 can initially feel cumbersome, but there can be nothing more rewarding than orchestrating them in such a way that you’re able to unleash a Rube Goldberg machine of anarchy.

Speaking of anarchy, while the core tenets of what Just Cause 4 has you doing often suffers from a general feeling of overfamiliarity and repetition, it is at least offset somewhat by a handful of missions centred around intense weather. You see, at multiple times in the ‘story’ the usual cycle of shooting, grappling, and mayhem-unleashing is broken up by missions that force you to contend with bouts of lightning, whirlwinds, and sandstorms – all of which show up to the party to help keep Rico on his toes, even if these sequences are a tad fleeting.

With explosions, weather effects, and skydiving a common sight in Just Cause 4, perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn than the game often struggles to cope. Frame rate dips, slow down, and the occasional freeze all contribute to make Rico’s adventures a technical mess at times. It’s a shame as these instances pull you right out of the action, along with character models that also don’t look particularly great. Don’t get us wrong the game is ultimately playable, but it does lack the polish most players will likely expect from most Triple-A games released today.

Just Cause 4 is the perfect open world adventure for those looking to cut loose and just scratch that adrenaline junkie itch. It neatly slots into a small category of games that’s core objective is to offer players an unrelenting sense of fun by turning everything up to an 11. Despite the slight monotony that comes from some repetitive mission design and a few slips on the technical side, Just Cause 4 delivers the same thrills found in prior entries with the odd mechanical upgrade thrown in.

Just Cause 4 is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4