Doctor Who: Series 11, Episodes 1-4 – “The Time Warrior” (1973)

*Premise spoilers*

The start of the Third Doctor’s final season and the first story to feature Sarah Jane, not to mention the debut of one of the series’ most well-known aliens. All that is enough to make it stand out, but it also has a really fun story to boot. All in all, a definite win!

The Brigadier calls in the Third Doctor to investigate the disappearance of several prominent scientists. Of course, the Doctor is on the case, along with the ambitious young journalist Sarah Jane. When Sarah Jane pokes her nose in as the Doctor is following a very particular lead, both end up in the Middle Ages, where a stranded Sontaran warrior named Linx has been abducting people out of time in order to find a way back home.

So much to love here. Despite the presence of only one Sontaran in the whole story, our favorite murderous potato-heads already demonstrate a lot of their chief characteristics. This story introduces the basics of the warmongering clone race, including their baton gun things, their use of hypnotic slaves, their probic vent, and their confusion at a species having two genders. Linx himself is a good baddie, both cunning and callous, and pairing him up with the brutish Irongron is a fine narrative move.

An alien from an advanced species stuck in the past and stealing scientists from the future is a great premise that offers up plenty of possibilities in the story. I like how Linx wins over Irongron and his rabble with the promise of superior weapons, and even if it’s kind of crazy that he can manage time-displacement technology on his own but needs scientists from the ‘70s to get his spaceship working, I like that he’s marooned and is forced to rely on humans to get off Earth—the fact that he has so much contempt for us as a species just makes it better.

Sarah Jane is a lot of fun in her first showing. I’m a fan of stowaway-companion beginnings, intentional or otherwise, and here, I especially like that Sarah Jane spends the first part of her time in the Middle Ages separated from the Doctor, without any idea of where or when she is. Given the limited information she has, she makes a pretty reasonable conjecture about her whereabouts, and she later has an amusing undercover operation in which she tries to introduce feminism to a kitchen wench.

The Doctor’s not too shabby either. It’s a little annoying that the show felt the need to make him a little more overtly paternalistic to contrast with Sarah Jane’s feminism (after Three’s regeneration into Four, Harry had to be the one to take that hit,) but it only comes up sparingly, and the rest of the time, he’s up to his usual Doctory stuff. In this story, he’s particularly on fire with the clever plans—I love his scheme to bolster Edward’s forces, and he’s great fun impersonating a robot suit of armor.

Joel Fry-days: American Sweatshop (2025)

*Premise spoilers*

This is a new-new Joel Fry movie! Okay, so I’m not posting this until I’ve gotten through White Van Man, but I wrote it opening weekend. In between frequently checking my local theater to see if/when it was going to be coming, I was surprised to see a gifset of Fry’s character pop up on my Tumblr—with images beyond what was shown of him in the trailer. That’s how I learned the movie was released digitally at the same time. While I hoped I’d get to see him on the big screen here, there was no telling if that was going to happen, so I decided to opt for the immediately available option.

As an online content moderator, Daisy and her coworkers spend their days watching the absolute worst the internet has to offer: every shift is a litany of violence, graphic sexual content, hate speech, and more. Daisy does her best to watch each ticketed video, approve or delete, and move on, but there’s an intensely violent porn video she can’t get out of her mind. Despite her boss’s insistence that it’s simply staged fetish content, Daisy is convinced that it’s real. Deleting the video isn’t enough for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding the perpetrators.

First of all, I like the choices the film makes with how it depicts the videos Daisy and the other moderators are watching. For the most part, we’re not shown the disturbing content onscreen. Instead, we often see text of the video’s title or the reason it was flagged. We sometimes hear unsettling audio or the characters’ descriptions of what they had to watch. At pivotal moments, we see a hint of the screen reflected in a closeup shot of the moderator’s eye as they view it. I thought it was an effective way to deal with the issue—it avoids having to show so much graphic content in the film, and to an extent, it further emphasizes Daisy’s point that “we watch this shit so no one else has to.” We the viewers literally don’t have to watch this shit. We instead watch the characters’ faces as they watch it for us.

This film isn’t quite what I thought it was going to be, mostly in a good way. The trailer puts a lot of focus on Daisy’s search for the guy who made the video, and the overarching vibe I got was mystery/suspense. But while Daisy’s search is very much an important part of her story, the focus is more on what it says about her. Why is she so determined to find this man? What is she willing to do to achieve that (and how dangerous will it be?) If she does find him, what will she do next? At its core, I’d say this is more of a character story than a mystery, which I like. 

It definitely has some unevenness. In particular, some of the themes are too heavy-handed—I had a “yeah, yeah, we get it,” reaction more than once. The plot also feels kind of slow at times. On the whole, though, I found it interesting and compelling. I’m really intrigued by these characters and how their horrifying job infects their daily lives.

Lili Reinhart came up in the Riverdale school of acting, so she’s been through her hard knocks. Her Daisy can be frustrating to watch, but intentionally so. Like a lot of her fellow moderators, she self-medicates to distance herself from the job, which sometimes leaves her feeling blank and only half-present. And her ill-advised decisions can certainly leave you yelling at the screen for her to stop being so reckless. But she’s a very interesting character too, a young person who’s sunk into this morass and gotten stuck there. Reinhart’s performance is very good, and in the scenes where Daisy is fully present, not dulled to her surroundings, Reinhart brings the emotion so effectively.

While Daisy is clearly the protagonist, the other moderators don’t just exist in relation to her. Their thoughts and reactions are important to the film too, and we get multiple scenes centering on one of the ensemble. This is another aspect of the movie that I appreciate—plus, it means more for Joel Fry than I was necessarily expecting! It’s neat to see Daniela Melchior (Ratcatcher 2 from The Suicide Squad!) as Daisy’s friend/coworker Ava, although she unfortunately has one of the more thankless roles in the film. For the most part, Ava is positioned as a supportive/funny bestie, as well as an example of someone who’s grown more jaded to their work. I’m not familiar with Jeremy Ang Jones, but he does a great job as Paul, a new employee who’s quickly thrown into the deep end. Christiane Paul is effective as Joy, the by-the-book boss, and I like seeing Joplin Sibtain (Brasso!!!) pop up in a small role.

Joel Fry plays Bob, another of the moderators. Something of a loose cannon, we’re introduced to Bob when he throws his headphones at his monitor screen and announces his intention to burn the company to the ground: “All I need is kerosene, a box of matches, and a can-do attitude!” Daisy quickly reassures the bewildered Paul that this kind of stuff is normal for Bob, explaining, “It’s how he copes.” His other coping methods include vodka, having destructive fun with company supplies, and maintaining the betting pool for the next person to lose it (faint, throw up, have a meltdown in the “Tranquility Room,” etc.)

You might consider Bob comic relief, but I think “tension relief” might be the more accurate term. To be sure, some of his antics are funny. As tension builds in the story (and the characters’ work lives,) a bizarre outburst from Bob can help to dissipate that. Really, though, that’s what he’s trying to do in his own life. In a really great scene, Bob is brought in to talk to the on-site counselor about finding healthier outlets for his “frustrations.” After the counselor suggests coloring books or nine-minute cooldowns in the Tranquility Room, Bob can’t hide his amusement at this man’s sheer audacity. He lays out a fraction of the onslaught of traumatic shit he’s had to watch just that day, then flatly states, “You know, the people out there who aren’t yelling, the ones who’re just taking it, that’s who you need to worry about.”

This is where Fry’s honesty as an actor really comes through. I’ve talked about this quality before—he never dampens the serious emotions of his more comedic characters by going too broad. The emotions always feel honest, and he can slip really nimbly between comedy and drama. Here, we get plenty of dark humor from Bob, like when Joy gets exasperated by his questions during a staff meeting (he sincerely wants to know if the phrase “cheese-eating moose-fucker” violates their content policy.) However, these moments are juxtaposed with more earnest scenes, like the answer he gives when the main moderators are sharing the stories of their personal worst videos.

Accent Watch

As soon as I realized Fry was going to be in a movie set in the U.S., I was sooooo curious as to whether he’d be doing an American accent. He only says about two words in the trailer, so that was inconclusive, but let me tell you—he most certainly does, a very generalized one. It’s a bit Uncanny Valley throughout. While I’ve heard far worse fake American accents before, it always feels slightly off. Oh, and I know I caught at least one “idear” in there!

Recommend?

In General – I think I would, if you’re okay with the dark subject matter and a rather slower pace. This is an intriguing film about a fascinating setting.

Joel Fry - Yep! Accent shakiness aside, this is another good role for Fry. Bob is interesting to watch every time he’s onscreen.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements (including references to suicide,) violence (including references to sexual violence against both adults and children,) sexual content, language, drinking/drug use, and gross-out content.

Y tu Luna también: 3Below: Season 2, Episode 12 – “A Glorious End, Part 1” (2019)

*Season arc spoilers.*

And here we are at the start of the two-part finale! Naturally, the stakes have never been higher, and our heroes have to pull together to protect Arcadia Oaks from all manner of nastiness.

It’s all hands on deck to stop Morando. Our heroes have a plan, but at the general’s orders, Col. Kubritz attempts to draw the Akiridions out by staging an attack on the town. Never one to ignore a trap that’s baited with people they care about, Aja, Krel, and their friends fight to protect everyone. It all goes down at the premiere of Toby’s movie.

Briefly, our character of the week is Darci, voiced by Yara Shahidi from Black-ish/Grown-ish. She’s Toby’s girlfriend, a Trollhunters character who pops up every now and then on 3Below. She never gets much to do on this show, but she does have a couple notable scenes in this episode.

Centering the action at the movie premiere was a good choice. It’s a nice backdrop to get the whole town together, filling the crowd with familiar recurring characters that the royals and co. will have to protect. It also provides some entertaining humor before everything kicks off. I love Eli posing on the makeshift red carpet, one of the teachers marveling at Krel’s “costume” in the film (a.k.a. his natural Akiridion form,) and Steve’s sour grapes over not being cast as the lead: “I almost got that part, but they went in a different direction. They wanted someone with four arms. Arm discrimination!”

Morando has never been more self-assured and megalomaniacal—he dramatically intones, “I will be the god the galaxy has lacked”—but Kubritz and the Omen robots take center stage here. Some great moments during the battle, including Varvatos fighting a bunch of Omens in his “senior citizen” human form. We also have Aja attempting to reach the colonel, pushing back at her choice to align herself with Morando in exchange for the tech she needs to maintain “order” (a.k.a. keep all the aliens out.) “You say you’re protecting humans, but look around you.” Aja says, even as they fight. “You call this protecting?”

Normally, in situations like this, Krel would be off engineering a solution to the larger threat while Aja, Varvatos, and the others hold off the baddies on the ground, but this time, the Omens aren’t specifically attacking the Akiridions. They’re attacking Arcadia Oaks, and Krel can’t hang back and let others do the fighting when his friends are in danger. So the tech duties get delegated to Stuart, and he joins the battle.

Not without some of his trademark cynicism, though. In particular, we get some really fun exchanges between Krel and Aja. Here are my favorite line readings from Diego Luna in this episode:

·        When Aja reminds Krel of all they’ve accomplished without their parents there to help them, saying, “We can do this without them,” Krel deadpans in reply, “You do know that ‘this’ is defeating a god, right?”

·        Classic exchange – As they prepare to make their next move, Aja reasons, “Since diplomacy is out of the question, I guess we’ll improvise.” An aggravated Krel shouts back, “Improvise? Improvising is not a plan!”

·        This last one isn’t an exchange with Aja, but I love it because it’s so cute – After hearing some news to their advantage, Krel exclaims, “Finally, some good luck! We have a minnow of opportunity!” Another character confusedly replies, “I think you mean ‘window,’ or I guess a really lucky fish?”