Robin of Sherwood: "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Part II"

It's one hour later on 28 April 1984, and time for part 2 of "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer". The first two episodes of Robin of Sherwood were originally broadcast as a made-for-television film, whereas internationally and on the official DVD releases it's been split out into two 50-minute episodes. That's how I've recently rewatched them, and correspondingly how I've elected to review them.

Sir Robert de Rainault, the Sheriff of Nottingham, uses the stolen silver arrow of Herne the Hunter as bait to lure Robin Hood into a trap. When that attempt fails, with Robin winning an archery tournament and reclaiming the arrow, the devil-worshipping Simon de Belleme comes to the Sheriff with an offer to kill Robin for him, taking Maid Marian as his captive in return.

This second part falls broadly into two halves. The first sees Robin infiltrate Nottingham to compete for and win Herne's arrow. The second sees Robin travel to Belleme's coastal keep to rescue Marian. It's testament to the strength of the episode that each half is fairly different in tone - one fairly light and adventure-based, and the other quite dark and foreboding - yet both fit together remarkably well as a single episode.

The Princess Blade (2001)

It is several centuries into the future. Yuki, the most talented young member of the Takemikazuchi assassin clan, discovers that the clan's current leader murdered her mother. On the run from her fellow ninjas, she hides in the home of a reluctant former resistance leader. While they share a bond, and tentatively moves towards a romance, neither of their pasts is willing to let them go so easily.

The Princess Blade is an odd little Japanese movie. It was clearly made on a very small budget, and it spends its money judiciously on elaborate sword fights in forests for each of the film's three acts. In between there's a hell of a lot of talking but very little showing.

It's set centuries into Japan's future, however there's one shot in the entire movie that actually reflects that future society. There's a rebellion against the totalitarian government, although we never see any acts of rebellion and don't ever see the government. The film focuses in part on a clan of katana-wielding assassins, however they spend most of their time trying to assassinate each other.

The Pull List: 29 April 2015, Part I

Last month Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grabbed a lot of attention with its cliffhanger ending that appeared to show Donatello beaten to death by Bebop and Rocksteady. It's probably not a huge spoiler to reveal that, like most readers suspected, Donatello isn't quite dead yet, but whether he survives or slips away is still something open to question. Which way his spirits goes is one of the core elements of issue #45, out this week from IDW.

I've always been a huge fan of the Ninja Turtles, yet it's been a weird sort of love that's encompassed multiple television cartoons and the Steve Barron feature film yet never really extended to the original comic book. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you why: this issue is a lot of fun, with distinctive art styles to separate the real world and Donnie's near-death experience, and a wide variety of appealing animal-martial artist hybrids.

The storyline is, of course, in full flight, and that makes entirely following the plot a little tricky. On the other hand this is issue #45, so a little disorientation with starting here is to be expected. All up, it was a really enjoyable read. It does reek a little bit of pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown's about to kick it ("Donatello's dead!! Haha, no he's not!"), but there's enough else here to paper over any faults. (3/5)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #45. IDW. Script by Tom Waltz. Story bu Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow and Tom Waltz. Art by Mateus Santalouco and Charles Paul Wilson III. Colours by Randa Pattinson.

Under the cut: reviews of Brides of Helheim, Hellbreak, Jem and the Holograms, Judge Dredd, Quantum and Woody Must Die, TMNT: New Animated Adventures and Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.

Blake's 7: "Deliverance"

It's 20 March 1978, and time for episode 12 of Blake's 7.

The Liberator observes a spacecraft break up in the atmosphere of the planet Cephlon. While on the surface trying to rescue the ship's sole survivor, Jenna is kidnapped by the local primitives. When the survivor wakes up on the Liberator he holds Blake and Cally hostage. Meanwhile Avon, Gan and Vila's hunt for Jenna is sidetracked when Avon meets a woman who thinks he's a good.

Once again we have a story of two halves, but at least this time they're interwoven throughout the episode so it isn't quite so weird to sit through. The only problem left is that one of the halves - Avon becoming the salvation for a long-dead civilization - is actually pretty terrible television. I sense the influence of script editor Chris Boucher here. While it's an awful storyline (a young woman who is the latest in generations of people left to wait for someone to activate a rocket containing the genetic banks of a dying race mistakenly believes Avon is a god) it does have a remarkable number of funny lines. Blake's 7 is always at its best when Avon and Vila engage in banter, and this episode has a truckload of it.

Lucy (2014)

In Luc Besson's film Lucy, an unwilling drug mule (Scarlett Johanssen) develops extraordinary mental powers after she overdoses on the experimental drug she is supposed to be carrying.

It's possibly one of the stupidest science fiction films I have seen in quite a while, and it appears to very proudly wear that stupidity on its sleeve. It even hires Morgan Freeman to explain to the audience its faulty, wrong-headed ideas of how brains work. I'm being literal with that, by the way: the film actually requires Morgan Freeman to deliver a lecture to the audience explaining at length the sorts of weird telekinetic effects the title character is going to generate later in the film. With the science being complete bullshit, the term "info-dump" has never been more appropriate. Why the film didn't simply hand-wave what happens to Lucy I don't know - certainly it would have made for a much better movie.

Once you jump over this enormous hurdle, however, there's actually a lot of fun to be had. It's a ridiculous movie, but that means ridiculous chase scenes and action sequences, mean Korean gangsters and violent shoot-outs. It's just critical to your enjoyment that you never think, since it's not just the science underpinning the plot that frustrates but the plot itself.

Robin of Sherwood: "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Part I"

It's 28 April 1984 and time for Robin of Sherwood.

Years after his father was killed in an attempted rebellion, Robin of Loxley (Michael Praed) and his best friend Much are captured by soldiers for poaching the king's deer. After escaping from Nottingham Castle with a group of outlaws, Robin is confronted by the god-like figure Herne the Hunter and discovers his destiny to defend England and its people from those who seek to oppress them.

Robin of Sherwood is, for me, a high water mark for Robin Hood adaptations. It was an iconic series of 1980s British television, for a number of reasons, and for me it's one of the most distinctive and effective tellings of the Robin Hood myth I've ever seen. It works because it treats the myth with an uncharacteristic seriousness, and because it blends medieval adventure with outright fantasy. This isn't just a story of a bunch of forest-dwelling outlaws robbing from the rich: it involves pre-Christian British mythology, demon-worship and witchcraft, magic, illusion and golems. It's pretty much exactly how one should approach this kind of well-worn story: bold ideas, a fresh angle and a well-honed, high-class production.

NES30 #26: Battletoads

In 2015, Nintendo's hugely successful Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) turns 30 years old. The NES, an adaptation of Nintendo's already successful Famicom console, re-invigorated console gaming internationally after the collapse of Atari and went on to sell 43 million units worldwide. NES30 celebrates this anniversary by counting down my favourite 30 games for the system.

Let's take a break from platform games for a moment to appreciate another fabulous genre of the 1980s and early 1990s: the side-scrolling beat'em'up. It's a pretty simple concept: the player controls a character as they walk from left or right across a scrolling environment while beating up waves of enemy fighters, whether with bare fists and feet or with swords, knifes, what-have-you. The most famous example of the genre is likely Double Dragon. One of the most enjoyable examples on the NES was Battletoads, a 1991 beat'em'up produced by English developer Rare.

Judging the New 52: March 2015

March 2015 marked, for all intents and purposes, the end of DC's New 52 initiative. The line-wide reboot commenced all the way back in September 2011 with the launch of 52 all-new monthly titles, and has continued over the past three-and-a-half years. In April and May DC is going through a massive cross-over storyline titled Convergence, and when regular service resumes in June there will be a whole new raft of new titles launched and the New 52 masthead is being abandoned (although the fictional universe is thankfully not being rebooted again).

Of the 52 monthly titles launched in September 2011, 11 of them have survived to continue in June. An additional 14 books that were launched subsequent to 2011 are continuing as well. In the meantime there are a total of 67 monthly books that started between September 2011 and late 2014 that didn't survive to the end of the initiative. As far as comic book publishing goes, that's not a bad hit rate: 92 books all told, with about 27 per cent making it through to the post-New 52 line-up.