PENNY DREADFUL: GOTHIC SUPER-TEAM-UP

 Along with my older brother, I recently re-watched episodes 1 and 2 of Penny Dreadful, a TV horror series from 2014.

Rated 18, its quite gory, hence the age limit.

Its the story and in particular the characters that have me intrigued. Its like a Universal Studio monster reunion!

There's Mina, a werewolf, vampires, Frankenstein and his monster and a baronial fellow rather like Van Helsing. There's a sharpshooter too.

Set in foggy 19th Century London, the monster action takes place whilst Jack the Ripper is about and a demonical quest is afoot with Eva Green's sensational Mina and one-time James Bond Timothy Dalton's superb aristocrat at the helm. Josh Hartnet is the gunslinger and Billy Piper the tavern moll. Dorian Gray adds further weirdness.

The séance scene alone was astonishing.

This literary mashup reminds me greatly of the 2003 adventure movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

Described as a steampunk rendition of a well-known comic series, League was largely panned at the time I for one enjoyed it, largely because it brought together a ragtag of monsters and famous characters. Alan Quartermain, played by James Bond himself, Sean Connery, Tom Sawyer - a Secret Service agent, Captain Nemo, Dr, Jekyll, Dorian Gray and Mina.

These last two characters above all connect this flick to Penny Dreadful. Both are in the public domain as may well be other characters in both.

Many of the characters have literary lives elsewhere. Tom Sawyer featured as a detective in one of Twain's novels in 1897 and Alan Quartermain is the leading man in both King Solomons Mines, 1887, and The Lost City of Gold among others by H. Rider Haggard.

Its worth noting that the Granddaddy of Horror itself, Dracula by Bram Stoker [1897] contained a sort of super league and perhaps the very first one. Besides Count Dracula, theres Jonathan Harker the solicitor, Mina Murray his fiancée, Jack Seward the doctor, Quincey Morris the Texan gunslinger, Arthur Holmwood or Lord Godalming and of course, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the Dutch vampire-hunter.

Here's the male cast from the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula.

With all this extraordinariness in mind, I'm looking forward to the rest of Season 1 of Penny Dreadful.

Have you seen it readers?

I R O N F E S T: Do you feel lucky (steam) punks?

It's time to dress up nice...

The Missus and I are off to the restored Ironfest now being held at Portland NSW. Aparrently It's smaller now, wirh no WW2 vintage armoured vehicles, jousting or Sydney Robot Makers this year!

Still, Portland is a lovely village, so we'll make the trip to see what's on offer.

First up is polishing my shoes. I used to have liquid polish for my school shoes, but I don't remember the brand.

Did you use this stuff, way back when Moonbasers?

F A L L O U T

I'm not a video gamer and never have been but greatly enjoyed the current TV series FALLOUT being aired in full on Prime.

I understand its based on a game. I'm impressed!

I found the sunny Fifites Hollywood/ post-nuclear apocalypse story totally compelling and the imagery was just stunning. The whole thing really benefits from an outstanding performance from actor Walton Goggins as the Ghoul. His mesmeric 1950's smile somehow harks back to the golden days of Hollywood and I was equally hooked by his alter-ego, the loathsome ghoulish gunslinger.

For me merging future steampunky tech in a Fifties America made for compulsive viewing.

I wonder what it was like playing the actual video game, which is now thirty years old I think!

A rip-roaring TV start, I really hope there's a Season 2 of Fallout.

Are you watching? Have you played it?

AN EDWARDIAN SPACE MISSION

Do you think the Edwardians would have like space travel?

I'm thinking of HG Wells and all his fine works concerning time and space, not to mention martians.

Would he have have enjoyed landing on the moon?

I remember the film The First Men in the Moon and the quaint wooden-framed space ball they travelled in. This is how I see Victorian and Edwardian spaceships. Wellsian.

What would they have wanted to do up there? Create gas-lit avenues for the genteel and built vast work-houses for the poor?

I suppose these are almost steampunk type questions. What do you think?

THE FILMS THAT TIME FORGOT

Coffee in hand, I'm currently watching At the Earth's Core on the glorious Horror Channel. 

It's one of that strange brace of movies from the Seventies starring forgotten leading man Doug McClure. Other Doug's include The Land That Time Forgot and the People That Time Forgot. An odd lead, the boyish McClure always reminded me of a poker-faced cowboy for some reason. He never seemed right for these prehistoric romps.

The Forgot films fit into that old sub-genre which place Victorians in other worlds, times and even technologies - the beginnings of steam-punk I suppose. They often star a seasoned British actor as an august Professor desperately trying to decipher an arcane lingo, locate a lost portal or save an endangered tribe, which always fascinate them in a Vulcan sort of way.

The professors are always accompanied by a youthful but 'common' lad and often a beautiful girl in the form of a rich brat or a tribal outcast.

Personally I've always struggled with 'Victorian' Sci-Fi flicks like these. Bespectacled, waist-coated old Gentlemen of letters talking in posh British accents are inherently boring, no matter how eccentric they might be. Even the street-wise lead, whether it be Doug McClure or Kirk Douglas, struggle to make them interesting.

Films in this monocled sub-genre include the Land that Time Forgot trilogy [or are there four of them?], the First Men in the Moon and 20,000 Leagues under The Sea. There are plenty more, the lively stuff of many a youthful Easter Monday or Boxing Day morning lead in pajamas on the settee.

There is, however, one film which bucks the trend and one which I love: Journey to the Centre of the Earth; which starred James Mason as the Professor. Somehow it just works for me. I think its the absence of a lost tribe; as such it focuses solely on the rocks and monsters of the place, which fascinate me........yes, in a Vulcan sort of way!

Currently, in At The Earth's Core, McClure is once again walking through his millionth tunnel to escape the telepathic devil birds of the M'hai and Peter Cushing's Professor has proclaimed the immortal line "You cannot mesmerise me, I'm British!", which could be a rallying cry for the whole sub-genre!

Caroline Munro has entered the fray to lend it some scream queen kudos and with Cushing in his waistcoat, I can't help thinking that a Dalek will roll on at any minute!

The closing scene of a Victorian metal mole machine [nicked straight from Thunderbirds] surfacing on the Pinewood studio lawns of a 19th Century White House [or is it Buckingham Palace?] is pure steampunk! Alas, it hasn't changed my mind, Victorian Sci-Fi movies are essentially boring.

As always taste in films is totally subjective. This is just my personal opinion and I welcome counter-arguments, exceptions, views and comments from Doug McClure fans, Victorians and readers alike.