issue 03 | October 2013

volume one
Gothic Ad_DVD The Darkside Mag 210x297 v2.indd 1 12/09/2013 14:29
contents
The CTVT Year in Review
by Hugh David
Legends of Cult TV:
Verity Lambert by John Bull
The Death Slot:
Blade Te Series by Greg Porter
The Vidiots Guide To:
Te Bottle Show by Mark Bowsher
N.
Zoetrope:
Black Lagoon by Hugh David
Z.
F.
Cult TV Times Vol. Issue 3
Cover Art: 2013 Lauren Skaggs. tuxedos
N. news Z. zoetrope F. features R. reviews C. competition
The Whole Story:
Hannibal by Joel Meadows
contents
Breaking Bad:
Te Complete Series
by Jayne Nelson
Castle:
Te Complete Fifth Season
by Jayne Nelson
BFI Gothic Season:
Dead Of Night by Greg Porter
Arrow:
Te Complete First Season
by Greg Porter
BFI Gothic Season:
Robin Redbreast by Greg Porter
R.
N. news Z. zoetrope F. features R. reviews
The X-Files Movies:
Twinpack by Hugh David
Cowboy Bebop:
Complete Collection
by Dr. Rayna Denison
Space Brothers:
Te Complete Series by John Bull
Online
C. competition
Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Special:
Te Day of the Doctor 3D Cinema Screening
by Hugh David
Event
Cult TV Times Vol. Issue 3
Published by Boomstick Media
Publisher: Neville King
Editor: Hugh David (hugh@culttvtimes.com)
Art Director: Tomas Ludewig (virafay@googlemail.com)
Web Guru: Gareth Edwards (gareth@culttvtimes.com)
For advertising queries please contact: advertising@culttvtimes.com
Cult TV Times: November 2013
Last issue I said lets talk about sex on-screen this issue. Theres been a lot of
it around lately, but most of it has either been gratuitous or about pseudo-
characterisation, painfully so. Still, its great to see shows like Lost Girl,
Maison Close and Masters of Sex moving forward in more adult ways, in
classic formats like the fantasy and historical series. Instead, lets talk a little
about endings and beginnings.
I have a serious confession to make, especially as the editor of CTVT: I have
not watched the final seasons of most of my favourite shows over the last 25
years. The list is long: Homicide (although I did watch the final TV movie),
NYPD Blue, Buffy, Angel, Babylon 5 (although I did catch the finale late on
Channel 4 one Thursday night), Star Trek: Voyager, Farscape, Battlestar
Galactica (remake), Lost, Without a Trace, and In Plain Sight are just
some of the shows I have yet to finish. Clearly, I have a problem with closure;
I dont want to say goodbye, but also, British TV airings of several of these
often made it impossible to keep up. Thankfully, DVD, Blu-ray and Netflix
are around to help now, but sets often sit on my shelf or playlist while I move
on to new shows.
This was not a problem when I was younger. I watched the season finales
of The A-Team, Magnum, Cheers, Crime Story, Miami Vice, Star
Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine before
succumbing to what must be some sort of deeply-rooted issue. It is almost
as if some sort of switch was thrown in my head; admittedly the finales
above are hardly the finest episodes of their respective series, so maybe Ive
been avoiding possibly unsatisfying ends? Or is there something more at
work here?
All of this reflection has been prompted by the ridiculous levels of scrutiny
and vitriol heaped upon the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, The
Day of the Doctor, whose 3D cinema screening is reviewed in this issue. So
few shows that arent soaps have lasted this long; what exactly did people
expect or want from this episode, that they should spew forth such hatred?
There are, as there have always been, many people opposed to the
existence of Doctor Who; indeed, since its birth, as Mark Gatiss & co. so
beautifully reminded us in the sublime An Adventure in Space and Time.
They have forced it to change to survive, or killed off, more than once
before. For all the money it has placed in the BBCs coffers, it has been an
embarrassment to many in that venerable institution for much of those
50 years. And yet it is still here with us now. Maybe, in the end, because it
offers more than mere finality, or the status quo; it offers hope of change and
renewal, of future stories still to be told to audiences not yet born. That, at
this time and place, is a very good thing indeed.
Hugh David [ Editor ]
"No endings, only new
beginnings...
On the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, John Bull profles its founding producer
Verity Lambert
Verity Lambert
Image courtesy of
Mirrorpic
n the 30th November 1958 the latest
episode of Armchair Teatre began its
broadcast on ITV. Featuring a diferent
TV play each week, the series had become
a frm fxture of Sunday night television,
particularly since Canadian producer
Sydney Newman took over in 1956.
Newman, a man always looking to push the boundaries
of television, had shifted Armchair away from classical
adaptations towards new works, often by younger
writers. Tat nights broadcast was no exception with
Te Underground, written by James Forsyth and starring
Donald Houston and Gareth Jones, telling the story of a
group of survivors who had found shelter in the London
Underground after a nuclear apocalypse.
As was often the case with TV at the time, Armchair
was not recorded but broadcast live. This could
sometimes prove taxing for both cast and crew but all
seemed to be going to plan that night until about half
way through. Then disaster struck.
During transmission, a little group of us was talking
on camera while awaiting the arrival of Gareth Jones's
character, the actor Peter Bowles, who was also in the
cast, would later recall. We could see him coming up
towards us, but we saw him fall. We had no idea what
had happened, but he certainly wasn't coming our way.
Finding themselves suddenly Jones-less, the cast
improvised their way through the scene whilst
unbeknownst to them off camera, at just 33, Peter Jones
died of a fatal heart attack. Behind the scenes, in the few
precious minutes granted by an advert break, Newman
and his small production team raced to deal with
perhaps the worst crisis a live broadcast could face - the
death of a lead actor mid-show.
Shoot it like a football match! Newman told the
director, fellow Canadian Ted Kotchef, meaning that
the actors should be left to improvise whilst the cameras
on the foor attempted to follow the action. Tis was a
hard format to pull of, as it required quick thinking and
decisions from the gallery. Te trouble was that with
Kotchef frantically rewriting the script to remove Jones
character he had no time to take control himself. Instead,
the responsibility for running the production would have
o
Verity Lambert
Image courtesy of
Mirrorpic
to fall entirely on the shoulders of his inexperienced
twenty-three year old production assistant.
Luckily for both Newman and Kotcheff, that production
assistant was Verity Lambert. As would soon become
her trademark, the responsibility was shouldered, the
challenge risen to, The Underground completed.
Few people can claim to have left as indelible a print on
British television as Verity Lambert. In a career that would
last over forty-fve years she would play a critical role in
bringing a wealth of classic British serials to the screen, and
one truly global phenomenon - Doctor Who.
The daughter of a London accountant, Verity entered
the world of television via one of the few routes available
to women at the time, or at least to those for whom
acting held no interest - secretarial work. Blessed with
a good education and eighteen months of secretarial
school she was able to find work in the press office at
Grenada in 1956 and then shortly after as a shorthand
typist at ABC. Several further secretarial moves soon
followed, as Lambert tried to engineer a move away from
administration towards production. Her break finally
came in 1958 with her appointment as a production
assistant on Armchair Theatre.
It is here that Lamberts story may have ended. British
television at the time was very much an old boys network
and Verity was emphatically not an old boy. Like many
other women hoping to fnd a career in television she
faced signifcant resistance to her quest for advancement,
despite her conspicuous ability. By 1961, despite leaving
and rejoining ABC, she was still working as a production
assistant; her requests to direct were rebufed with the
explanation that there were enough women directors
within television already. Facing what appeared to be an
unbreakable glass ceiling, Verity reluctantly began plans to
abandon the world of television completely.
Veritys luck, however, was finally about to change.
In London the BBC was undergoing something of a
revolution. Prompted by the arrival on the scene of ITV,
the broadcaster was on a mission to find a new balance
between public interest broadcasting and populism. To
help it achieve this it headhunted Sydney Newman from
ABC and made him Head of Drama in December 1962.
Newman arrived with both a willingness to shake up the
established order and a number of ideas, one of which
was for a new childrens programme which would mix
education with adventure. By early 1963 this idea had
been given form: Doctor Who.
Lambert was not Newmans frst choice to produce
Doctor Who. Newman ofered it to several producers
already on the BBCs payroll but to a man they turned it
down. In truth, Newman was one of the few people who
thought the series was a good idea. He soon realised that
he would not only need to bring in some new blood, but
someone who wouldnt be fazed by the task of delivering
Tere are few people who can claim
to have left as indelible a print on
British television as Verity Lambert.
Carole Anne Ford as Susan and William Hartnell as The Doctor
Doctor Who
1963-Present
a new type of programme and would be prepared to fght
to bring it to screen. And then Newman remembered Verity.
I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the
phrase, full of piss and vinegar! he would tell Doctor
Who Magazine in 1993. She was gutsy and she used to
fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a
very high level as a production assistant.
Newman called Verity and asked her what she knew
about children. Absolutely nothing, she replied, with
her usual honesty. He hired her anyway.
Tough she neither wrote nor directed it, Verity Lamberts
role in the creation of Doctor Who is impossible to
understate. Tose frst months of production soon proved
that Newmans instincts were correct; the series found little
backing within the BBC, and Verity was forced to fght to
bring it to screen. Indeed fghting to bring it in on time,
on budget and in line with Newmans vision almost proved
too tough a goal to complete. Newman was famously so
disappointed with the version of An Unearthly Child
presented to him in September 1963 that he ordered
Lambert and director Waris Hussein to reshoot it (Hussein
later recalled that, over dinner, Newman confessed that hed
come very close to fring them both). Luckily, their second
attempt was much more to his liking, and Doctor Who
fnally made its screen debut on 23rd November 1963.
With Doctor Who, Lamberts achievement was not just
in getting the series to screen, but in leading it through
its infancy. Between 1963 and 1965 she produced
eighty-six episodes and shepherded it through a difficult
period in which it struggled to find both its character
and its tone. She played a crucial role in moving it
away from its educational roots into a more solidly
dramatic series, and worked hard to support both the
cast and writers through what was always a difficult and
stressful production. Lambert also worked hard to keep
production values high, despite the low budget, insisting
that the show would be judged as much on quality of
the effects and scenery that it featured as it would on its
scripts (Verity Lambert Syndrome became something
of an in-joke within the BBC, to describe productions
requiring a large number of props and sets). By the time
she produced her last episode (the incredible stand-alone
Mission to the Unknown) Lambert had helped to define
both the Doctor and the universe he inhabited in a way
that is still recognisable fifty years later.
Doctor Who, however, marked the beginning of Veritys
career, not the end. By 1965 she was keen to find a new
challenge, and had her eye on producing a new series at
the BBC. Newman was happy to oblige, offering her the
chance to helm Adam Adamant Lives!, a new comedy
adventure he had been developing with Tony Williamson.
Although all involved - including Lambert - would later
deny it, Adamant, which featured a revived Victorian
adventurer solving crimes in swinging sixties London,
seemed to be an attempt to cash in on the success of The
Avengers. In this it was limitedly successful, running for
29 episodes before cancellation in 1967.
Between 1967 and 1974 Lambert continued to build
a reputation as a successful television producer and,
perhaps more importantly, one who could shepherd
potentially tricky shows through production. Leaving
Auntie in 1969 to go freelance she produced Budgie and
Between the Wars for LWT. She then worked once more
with the BBC to bring their six part suffragette drama
Shoulder to Shoulder to the screen.
In 1974, with her star riding high, she was appointed
Head of Drama at Thames Television. Thames and
the other independents were struggling to emulate
the drama revolution that had been kicked off by her
mentor Sydney Newman ten years earlier at the BBC.
Now they turned to Newmans protg in the hope that
she could help them restore the balance. In her time in
charge at Thames (and later as Chief Executive of their
Euston Films subsidiary), Lambert proved that she was
an inspired choice for the role, demonstrating the same
boldness and talent for commissioning as her mentor.
Popular hits like The Sweeney, Minder and Rumpole
of the Bailey all happened on her watch. Meanwhile
series like Quatermass, Widows, The Naked Civil
Servant, Rock Follies and the now-frequently-over-
looked political masterpiece Bill Brand showed that
Lambert believed you could push the boundaries of
drama and still be successful. The ratings, and flow of
BAFTAs to Thames, seemed to prove she was right.
By the eighties Lambert was looking to move on again,
and a brief period at Torn EMI followed. Television though
was where her real talent lay, and by 1985 she was in charge
of her own independent television company, Cinema
Verity, and looking to return to small screen work. Proving
once more that she could read the desires and trends of
TV audiences May to December and So Haunt Me both
followed for the BBC in the late eighties and early nineties.
Once again though, she also proved she was not afraid to
push bolder projects; Bill Brand may be largely be forgotten
[although now available on DVD from Network Ed.], but
another of Lamberts political dramas most certainly isnt
- Alan Bleasdales GBH, produced for Channel 4. Perhaps
fttingly given the dark and brutal nature of the drama, the
production was suitably fraught. Bleasdale reacted badly
to Lamberts hands-on approach, particularly after she
presented him with an extensive list of script edits.
All week he sat glaring at me, getting redder and redder
in the face, she would later recall in an interview with
the Guardian. Later he rang Peter Ansorge at Channel
4 in the middle of the night, saying, 'I'm going to kill her.'
He told me later he'd really meant it.
The nineties also brought that rarest of televisual
experiences - a Lambert failure in the form of the
infamous soap opera Eldorado. A rare mis-step, it is
perhaps best treated as evidence of just how hard it can
be to produce boundary-pushing television, and thus
something that highlights just how impressive Lamberts
record was overall. Both she and Cinema Verity would
soon bounce back, most notably introducing a whole
new generation of television viewers to her ability to craft
out a quirky prime-time drama with Jonathan Creek.
Verity Lambert passed away from cancer on the 22nd
November 2007, almost exactly 44 years to the day since the
frst ever broadcast of Doctor Who. She will forever remain
a key part of its history, just as it remains an important part
of hers, displaying an afection for both the show and its
characters that endured long after her on tenure as producer
had fnished. In the early nineties she talked briefy with
the BBC about bringing the series back as a Cinema Verity
production, indicating that she hoped to see Peter Cook in
the lead role, but Cooks death and the ongoing negotiations
over the US/BBC partnership that would eventually result
in the 8th Doctors single TV movie outing meant that it was
not to be. When Doctor Who fnally returned to the BBC
under the guidance of Russell T. Davies, however, she was
one of the frst to profess her delight, commenting that she
felt the new series captured perfectly the spirt of the original.
She expressed particular delight at Billie Pipers turn as Rose;
both actress and character, she said, felt real.
In that statement lies a hint at the main reason why
Verity Lambert is a true legend of Cult TV. Heresy
though it may sound to some, Doctor Who was a great
achievement, but it was not her greatest.
She carved out a career based entirely on her talent at
a time when television seemed as if it was actively set up
to prevent women doing exactly that. This meant not
only working in an environment that must have been, at
times, overwhelmingly chauvinistic, but also putting up
with repeated suggestions - sometimes to her face - that,
as a young and successful woman, she must have slept
her way to the top. That she not only endured this, but
conquered it, is an enormous testament to her character.
Verity Lambert broke down boundaries and made over
forty years worth of excellent television in the process,
all without most people spotting she was doing it.
When Verity died, obituaries appeared in all of the
major papers, and almost universally they lamented the
passing of one of televisions greatest producers. Not one
of its greatest female producers, just one of its greatest.
It is this that is her greatest achievement.
She carved out a career based
entirely on her talent at a time
when television seemed as if it was
actively set up to prevent women
doing exactly that.

Region: U.K. ] Format: Blu-ray ] Review by: Jayne Nelson
Breaking Bad:
Te Complete Series
Ocial Synopsis
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment cooks up a full
batch on November 25 when Breaking Bad: The
Complete Series comes to Blu-ray in its entirety.
One of the most explosive series ever to air on
television, the 16-disc set is this years must-have
gift for the holiday season, complete with all 62
episodes and more than 55 hours of special features.
Starring three-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston
(Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series)
alongside two-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul
(Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series),
the critically acclaimed drama from Sony Pictures
Television boasts one of televisions most radical
storylines, giving viewers a glimpse into the life of
how far a man might go in order to take care of the
ones he loves.
Review - Jayne's Release of the Year
Some facts and figures for you to begin with: 47
per cent of inmates in American jails are there for
drug offences. This means that federal prisons
are operating at nearly 40 per cent above capacity.
And astonishingly, almost a quarter of people
imprisoned across the globe are in the U.S.A.,
It's no wonder that television shows
about drugs have made such a huge
impression on the psyche of a country
already reeling from their real-life
impact.
but the country accounts for a mere five per cent
of the world's population.
It's no wonder, then, that television shows
about drugs have made such a huge impression
on the psyche of a country already reeling from
their real-life impact. Breaking Bad, The Wire
and, to a lesser extent, Weeds, have all tackled
the up-sides and down-sides of the illegal drugs
industry and the way they can shape lives,
through different formats. Weeds chose black
comedy. The Wire chose shocking verisimil-
itude. Breaking Bad, meanwhile, decided
a Shakespearean hyper-reality was the best
approach. Perhaps this explains why it's become
the biggest success of the three; The Wire may
well be the better document of our times, but
Breaking Bad is the one that has seeped into
popular culture by flitting so cheekily between
serious drama and theatrical indulgence.
Nobody in their right mind could argue that
the show is realistic far from it. Everything
you see on screen is ludicrous, from the way
everyman chemistry teacher turned meth-maker
Walter White (a chameleonic Bryan Cranston)
rises through the ranks of the criminal classes
to become an almost mythological entity known
as Heisenberg, to the manufacture of the meth
itself, deliberately depicted incorrectly to prevent
people trying to create it at home. The show's
aforementioned hyper-reality is boosted by its
sun-drenched location in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, with gleaming red deserts standing in for
the grimy city street-corners we grew accustomed
to in The Wire. There's something about all the
sunlight that makes Breaking Bad seem like a
fairy tale, but unlike most children's stories it
doesn't ram a moral message down the audience's
throat. You can take whatever you want to take
from each episode.
Some might deduce that life as a drug dealer
looks inviting; after all, the show leaves no room
for doubt that you can grow impossibly rich
in the meth trade. One episode even features
characters rolling around on millions of dollars
that are stacked high in a storage unit, just for the
hell of it (and yes, we'd do the same ourselves).
Others might watch the show and assume that
drugs are for mugs a heart-wrenching overdose
in second-season episode Phoenix puts paid to
the myth that meth is glamorous, as do the two
junkies in Peekaboo who neglect their baby son
while Jesse (Aaron Paul) watches their behaviour
in horror. Other viewers might simply view the
show as a tragedy, feeling empathy with both Walt
and Jesse as they have to deal with unexpected
trials during their journey to the top; episodes
such as Fly, directed by Looper's Rian Johnson,
give them both the chance to soliloquise in true
Shakespeare fashion, baring their souls to the
world. Or you could see the entire series as a
comedy: there are countless chuckles to be had
amid the devastation, including pizzas tossed
onto roofs (a beautiful moment that gets its own
featurette it only took one take!), the hilarity of
a stroke-hit drugs kingpin ringing a bell to tell us
that he's angry, to an unusual use for a tortoise
that we won't ruin here.
However you view it, this show can do it all.
... Te Wire may well be the better
document of our times, but Breaking
Bad is the one that has seeped into
popular culture...
You have to wonder if the AMC network their
slogan is Something More, and they definitely
deliver on that had any idea what they were
commissioning when former X-Files writer-pro-
ducer Vince Gilligan approached them with the
show in 2008. And all this on a channel that gets
edited according to the tastes of each affiliate that
airs it; one episode, Cat's In The Bag, gleefully
showed us in minute detail what happens if you
annihilate a human corpse using hydrofluoric
acid, yet bleeped out the word God from
Goddamn. That's moral consistency for you.
So what is it in the end that makes Breaking Bad
so good? Characters, of course. The admittedly
interesting machinations of the meth trade, with
all the violence, bloodshed and law-breaking
that it entails, are simply the backdrop to the
two main characters and their psychological
(and physical) traumas. Across the course of five
seasons, Bryan Cranston has proved he's one of
the best actors working in the business today,
as he so carefully shaped the mild-mannered,
occasionally homicidal Walter White into one
of the best characters appearing in the business
today. Similarly, Aaron Paul has brilliantly
breathed life into Walt's troubled meth-partner
Jesse Pinkman, a character who would horrify
us in one episode before leaving us desperate to
give him a hug the next. Gilligan and his writing
team have not only managed to weave a complex,
gripping and ultimately satisfying story around
these guys, they've made them icons. Expect
Walt in particular to hit the top ten of numerous
Greatest TV Show Characters Of All Time polls
for the next 20 years.
We could also go on about the rest of the cast,
from Anna Gunn's riveting performance as Walt's
long-suffering, Lady Macbeth-style wife Skyler,
to Dean J. Norris as Walt's brother-in-law Hank
( fittingly, a DEA agent) let alone Bob Odenkirk's
glorious depiction of sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman,
now set for a spin-off show of his own. But we
shouldn't have to explain all this; just watch it.
Across the course of fve seasons
Bryan Cranston has proved he's one
of the best actors working in the
business today...
21
Breaking Bad is a show you can't afford to miss if
you want to understand the American psyche of
today. And boy, is it a ***damn blast.
Video & Audio
Anyone who has seen any of the previous individual
series releases will know what to expect, with the
video quality going from good to great and back
again over the course of the show. Even if it isnt in
the top tier of Sony transfers (and, as expected from
the inventors of Blu-ray, theyve done some stunners
over the years), its not going to be any kind of deal-
breaker. The audio, however, is terrific throughout,
often active, focused, even appropriately enough
intense in places.
Extras
All featurettes on the earlier U.K. releases are
present and correct. Unfortunately, that means
that Sony have just repackaged discs from
earlier releases, so anyone holding out for the
many extras that failed to make their way over
from the U.S. editions for the Season 4 set (and
the odd one here and there elsewhere) to turn
up now will be disappointed. However, there
is still such a plethora of extras across all five,
including commentaries, interviews, cast & crew
discussions, storyboards, behind-the-scenes,
deleted scenes, gag reels, alternate ending, final
season table read, and a 2 hour making-of the
final season documentary, you ll be sat in front of
these for a good few days..
Summary
One of the most important shows in television
history, Breaking Bad is a demonic treatise on
family, greed and power but with drugs, deaths and
explosions thrown in. Few modern drama series are
fit to shine its shoes. Hell, most aren't even fit to be
walked on by them.
Title:
Breaking Bad:
Te Complete Series

Label: Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment
Release date: 25 November 2013
Format: Blu-ray (also available on DVD)
Video format: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Soundtracks: : DTS-HD MA 5.1: English, German
(all) French (S1-3), Spanish (S1,2), Italian (S5).
Subtitle(s): English HOH; various depending
on season release.
Runtime: 2,949 minutes
No. of discs: 16
Packaging: Collectible replica barrel with
commemorative memorabilia or slipcase
Region Coding: Region B
Rating: 18
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On sale NOW! And
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On sale 19/12/13
J
ust in case youve been travelling in time and
missed it, November 2013 marked
the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. With
this in mind the gang at The Dark Side
produced a fabulous one-off special celebrating
this momentous event. 50 Years of Doctor Who
is a 68-page full colour magazine from the Dark
Side team that is now in sale in shops for just
3.99. This publication is a particular treat for
those serious fans of the show who want to know
lots of little-known facts about the earlier years
and so-called lost episodes. Its also an essential
read for Dark Side regulars because we have
some great stuff in there on the popular Peter
Cushing Amicus movies. The magazine is now on
sale at W.H. Smith and other newsagents across the
country, and you can also buy copies direct from us at
the editorial address - 29 Cheyham Way, South Cheam,
Surrey SM2 7HX - for 5 including postage.
T
he latest issue of The Dark Side contains
a feast of festive frights to celebrate the
Christmas season. Were delving in to the
horrifying history of BBCs classic Ghost Stories
For Christmas series as well as looking at other
memorably spooky shows produced especially
to send goosebumps down the spine of yule-
tide viewers. The BFI are releasing some of the
greatest horror flms ever made as part of their
Gothic season and well be looking at them too,
as well as paying tribute to the late Tony Hinds,
who was one of the key players in the Hammer
Films team. Top critic Mark Kermode will be
chatting about The Exorcist and former porn
star Robert Kerman will be recounting his expe-
riences making Cannibal Holocaust, one of the
nastiest of the so-called Video Nasties. Were
in the shops on the 19th of December, so make
a Christmas date with The Dark Side and really
get those slaybells ringing!
CHRISTMAS TREATS FROM
GHOULISH PUBLISHING
thedarksidemagazine.com

Region: U.K. ] Format: DVD/Blu-ray ] Review by: Dr. R.Denison
Cowboy Bebop:
Complete Collection
Ocial Synopsis
The crew of the Bebop is once again ready to clean
up space by bringing bad guys to justice and trying
to make some cash while doing it! Back on DVD at
last and remastered from the same masters as the
high-definition Blu-Ray the complete series is now
bundled together in a limited edition slipcase and
containing bonus content never available outside of
Japan before including the "Ein's Summer Holiday"
short and a 40 page booklet. Join the always-cool
Spike Spiegel, investigative genius Jet Black, the
alluring Faye Valentine, the amazing (but weird) Ed
and the super-smart Welsh Corgi named Ein as they
try to make a buck in the year 2071. How do they do
it? They're bounty hunters.
Review - Rayna's Release of the Year
Sometimes anime isnt just anime. Sometimes it
transcends the medium and the format (in this case
television) to become the best of global entertainment.
Cowboy Bebop is one of those rare anime stars. Even
fifteen years after its initial airing in Japan, Cowboy
Bebop still looks and sounds like the very best of science
fiction (helped in no small part by its remastering
for Blu-Ray and DVD). It is an eclectic mixture of
Fifteen years after its initial airing in
Japan, Cowboy Bebop still looks and
sounds like the very best of science
fction...
cyberpunk science fiction, practically reverberating
with all the stylistic elements that made everything
from Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell cool,
combined with two other genres likewise stylish and
substantial: film noir and parodic comedy. These genres
combine across the twenty-six episodes (or "sessions")
of the series (and its later film) in the production of an
effortlessly cool series about the space-hopping bounty
hunters who call the spaceship Bebop home.
The characters are introduced, and their backgrounds
elucidated, with a pre-planned deliberateness that
seems so lacking in many contemporary anime. Spike
Spiegel, the lead bounty hunter (ex-Syndicate member
and martial arts enthusiast) is on board acting as the
focus for the shows action sequences. Even now those
space battles, martial arts fights and down-and-dirty
shoot-outs are a true pleasure to watch. The best series
of Spike fights, and the most stylish, is to be found in
Session #20, Pierrot le Fou (Dokeshi no Chinkonka
in Japanese) in which Spike is pitted against an
insane, medically enhanced assassin. Glorious uses of
highlighting and lighting are employed throughout the
episodes fights, especially at night, the neon, streetlight
colours and deep, dark shadows creating a beautifully
skewed, off-kilter atmosphere.
For those new to Cowboy Bebop, Spikes fellow
bounty hunters are Jet Black, the owner of the Bebop,
and the predictably unpredictable Faye Valentine, a
gorgeous, outlandish bounty hunter. Along the way
they pick up Ed a young, computer genius weirdo
who talks in third person (and, though you wouldnt
guess it, is a girl) and the universes smartest and
cutest Welsh Corgi, who they name Ein. Even dog
haters will love Eins pogo bouncing after eating
magic mushrooms in Session #17 Mushroom
Samba.
The slow and measured character development
across the series is balanced against a finely-drawn
set of parodies and standalone episodes. Toys in the
Attic (Session #11), for example, offers an extended
(and funny) joke about the things left unattended at
the back of the fridge, filtered through references to
Ridley Scotts Alien. Trucker movie parody Heavy Metal
Queen (Session #12) likewise features great riffs on
the American road movie, alongside some of the best
space-flight sequences ever produced in anime. It is
the attention to detail in the series genre mixing and
the diamond-sharp screenwriting that really differ-
entiates Bebop from its anime and live-action rivals.
There are wonderful uses of animes usual formulaic
repetitions repeated shots of the gate that allows
interplanetary space travel provide an epic scope and
scale to proceedings; the repeated appearance of a
group of three griping retirees is Shakespearean in
comedic effect; but these repeated appearances of props
create a consistency across episodes that unarguably
demonstrates the care and attention to detail that
director ShinichiroWatanabe and his crew lavished on
the show.
Video & Audio
As well as the great remastering on the audio, the
visuals stand up against todays computer shaded
and generated imagery with aplomb. However,
nothing is perfect, and there are some creaky
moments in Cowboy Bebops pans and tilts,
which jerk between frames rather than smoothly
flowing. Likewise, the sound isnt all that flexible
on the DVDs; to change between Japanese and
Te slow and measured character
development across the series is
balanced against a fnely-drawn set of
parodies and standalone episodes.
English, you have to go into the set up menus,
rather than being able to change using your
remote as you watch episodes. The subtitles also
suffer from a little haloing, rather than having
really crisp outlines.
These are, however, minor quibbles in an anime
show more than a decade old, and are nowhere to
be seen on the blu-rays, which are simply sublime.
The HD remastering of audio and video has room
to breathe across the four discs, and if every once
in a while a limitation of the original materials
becomes noticeable, it never affects the overall
quality and enjoyment of seeing & hearing the
show look brand spanking new.
Extras
The extras on this collection are refreshingly plen-
tiful,going far further than the basic opening and
closing credit sequences. The inclusion of voice
actor commentaries from both the Japanese and
American dubs is a particular delight, especially
those chaired by Dai Sato, who fans will know
It is the attention to detail in
the series genre mixing and the
diamond-sharp screenwriting that
really diferentiates Bebop from its
anime and live-action rivals.
21
was one of the key screenwriters for Cowboy
Bebop (plus other popular shows like Ghost
in the Shell: Standalone Complex and East
of Eden). Hes knowledgeable and observant
about the shows production, and encourages the
voice actors to recollect their days on set, getting
funny and insightful anecdotes from his previous
co-workers. The DVD and Blu-ray sets come
beautifully packaged in limited edition slipcases
with 40 page booklets as well, although the DVD
has the bonus of presenting the entire series in a
Betamax-styled case, a superb nod to Session #19:
Speak Like a Child by the bods at Anime Limited.
Summary
Although an aging beauty, Cowboy Bebop remains
one of the best anime shows of all time. It may be
smart, sophisticated and silly by turns, but the Bebop
is never anything less than the most capable craft in
the anime space race.
Title:
Cowboy Bebop :
Complete Collection

Label: Anime Ltd.
Release date: 25/10/2013
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Video format: PAL/1080p
Soundtracks: Japanese,
English DD 5.1 (DVD);
DTS-HD MA 5.1: Japense, English (Blu-ray)
Subtitles: English
No. of discs: 6 x DVD-9/4 x BD-50s
Packaging: Limited Edition Slipcase, postcards,
40 page booklet; DVD has special Betamax casing.
Region Coding: Region 2
Rating: BBFC 15