Russell T. Davies made DOCTOR WHO becoming an independent production a condition of his return

In a startling piece published by The Times (paywall), it has been reported that Russell T. Davies made his return to Doctor Who conditional on the show becoming an independent production (via Bad Wolf Productions), allowing him complete creative control with no interference from the BBC.

Russell T. Davies and fellow Doctor Who producer and now-Bad Wolf executive Julie Gardner in 2017.

Since its inception in 1963, Doctor Who has been produced inhouse at the BBC: first at the BBC drama department from 1963 to 1989, then a one-off co-production with Universal Studios in 1996 and most recently (2005-2022) at BBC Wales. This has allowed the BBC close control and oversight over the making of the show. However, this arrangement has had drawbacks, particularly related to how the show is funded and how it is remunerated. As a BBC production, the show cannot benefit from the immense amount of profit it generates from book, media and merchandising sales, with profits from those endeavours instead going back into the general BBC budget. As a result, Doctor Who and other big BBC shows, like Top Gear and various David Attenborough documentaries, are often said to subsidise other, less popular and more niche BBC shows and services as part of the broadcaster's public service remit.

This has become more problematic since 2010, when Doctor Who's budget was effectively frozen in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In real terms, Doctor Who has seen an inflation-driven budget cut for almost every year since then (with an exception for the 50th anniversary in 2013). To accommodate these cuts, the show has slashed production from 13 episodes (plus a special) to 10 episodes every year, and to six episodes this year (though this was also driven by restrictions and limitations resulting from the COVID pandemic). However, it is clear that the show is no longer able to keep pace with American SFF shows. When the revived Doctor Who started in 2005, it was able to comfortably go toe-to-toe with contemporary American network shows like Star Trek: Enterprise and Stargate Atlantis, but today, when its competitors are the likes of Foundation and The Expanse, it has clearly been left behind.

Outsourcing production to an independent company means a revamping of the way the show is funded, allowing Bad Wolf to bring in more investment, as well as striking a deal to allow the production to benefit more from profits generated from the show. This combination will hopefully allow the show to gain production value and once again look like a modern genre TV series. With The Times reporting that the BBC is giving up some $40 million in profits which could be put back into the show instead as an independent production, the show's budget could perhaps as much as quadruple under the new regime.

A happy by-product of this is that, although the BBC still have some say in the series via their contract (so certainly don't expect graphic violence or sex or anything unsuitable for the show's timeslot), they will not have day-to-day oversight of the series. Davies will have complete creative control and freedom to do what he wants with the series. As related in his book The Writer's Tale, Davies found his work on the series was sometimes compromised by having to adhere to the BBC's vision and guidelines, and as the show became a massive hit more and more people at the BBC wanted to get involved with it, creating a sometimes stressful working environment. It sounds like this new arrangement will mean that will no longer be a concern and he can make the show he wants to without being as beholden to BBC corporate politics. Davies will likely also be relishing the opportunity to work once again with Julie Gardner - his former Doctor Who co-producer - and Jane Tranter, the former head of BBC Drama who greenlit Doctor Who's return in 2003. And of course, the very name "Bad Wolf" came from Doctor Who in the first place.

The current production paradigm will remain in place for this year and next, however, with Chris Chibnall and BBC Wales overseeing both the current 13th series and a series of three specials to air in 2022. Russell T. Davies' second stint on Doctor Who will commence in 2023.

Out of the Blue: An Orphan Black Retrospective

A young woman, Sarah, returns home to Toronto after almost a year away. Her plan is to pick up her daughter, Kira, from her stepmother Siobhan and use the gains from an ill-gotten coke deal to set up a new life for herself, her daughter and her arty stepbrother, Felix.

This plan is almost instantly derailed: at the station Sarah sees a woman who is her exact double suddenly jump in front of a train, being killed instantly. Sarah is horrified but also sees an opportunity. She takes the woman’s bag, phone and possessions, finds out where she lives and pretends to be her so she can empty her bank account. She learns the woman’s name is Beth Childs and she’s a police officer under investigation for accidentally shooting a civilian. Unfortunately, Sarah gets in over her head: she is forced to pretend to be Beth at work (despite having zero idea how police officers operate) and with Beth’s boyfriend Paul, and, to explain the body on the tracks, has to set up Beth as Sarah, making it look like Sarah herself is dead.

It’s complicated set-up and morass of double lives and identities. And that’s before Sarah finds out she’s really one of at least two dozen clones from an illegal 1980s experiment that went awry.

Orphan Black ran for fifty episodes across five seasons, airing from 2013 to 2017 on BBC America. It was critically well-received but relatively little-watched at the time, with very low viewing figures. Its critical cachet was considerably greater than its modest profile due to the performance of lead actress Tatiana Maslany, who played not just the main character of Sarah Manning but a dozen other roles across the course of the series (including voicing a hallucinatory scorpion). Maslany’s jaw-dropping performance saw her nominated three times for a Best Actress Emmy Award, winning once in 2016. The show also won a Peabody Award and a Hugo Award. Since its original airing, the show has been released internationally on Netflix and picked up many more appreciators.

Despite its acclaim, Orphan Black seems to have fallen out of favour pretty quickly. It rated mentions only on a few “Best Shows of the Decade” lists that appeared last year, and its status as the “little Canadian show that could!” feels like it’s been gazumped by sitcom Schitt’s Creek (not that it’s a competition, and Schitt’s Creek is also an excellent show). Rewatching the show in full for this article, it feels like Orphan Black has been a little undersold and underrated, especially as it’s a series whose original issues have largely been fixed by being able to watch the whole run now in one go.

Orphan Black’s overwhelming strength is its characters. Tatiana Maslany obviously has the heavy lifting to do here, playing the regular roles of not just British punk rebel Sarah Manning but also suburban housewife Alison Hendrix, genius scientist Cosima Niehaus, cool businesswoman Rachel Duncan and Ukrainian serial killer Helena. Later seasons add Swedish hacker Mika and nail technician and would-be social media influencer Krystal Goderitch, whilst cop Beth Childs appears a lot in flashbacks and video footage. Maslany’s ability to make each and every single character a fully fleshed-out individual, completely different from the others, is absolutely amazing. The complexity is increased when she has to appear in scenes with one clone impersonating another. From a technical standpoint, there are also multiple scenes with two, three or four clones interacting with one another (including a dance party in Season 2 and a dinner scene in Season 3), which required the use of cutting-edge effects techniques when the old greenscreen standbys were found to be inadequate. The combination of technology and performance delivers the very nearly flawless illusion of this one actress playing multiple characters.

Orphan Black probably doesn’t get enough love for its other castmembers, though. Jordan Gavaris plays Sarah’s stepbrother Felix, an artist, occasional rent-boy and one-man emotional support for the clones, to the point of putting his own life on hold (which becomes a source of anguish for him in the last two seasons, where he goes looking for his own biological family). I’m genuinely surprised Gavaris hasn’t had a bigger career, since he plays Felix with conviction, humour and steely resolve. Felix also has a nice line in metacommentary, frequently saying the exact thing the audience is thinking in any given moment. Perennial Canadian guest star Kevin Hanchard is also outstanding as Detective Art Bell, a genuinely good man whom Sarah is forced to lie to (by pretending to be his deceased partner, Beth) and who always tries to do the right thing even as the morality of the situations he finds himself in becomes murkier.

Particularly impressive is Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan or “Mrs. S”, Felix and Sarah’s Irish stepmother and the unquestioned matriarch of their family unit. Her role is small to start with but later expands dramatically as she uses her network of contacts in Canada, the US, the UK and Ireland to help the clones. The same is true of Skyler Wexler as Sarah’s daughter Kira, who starts off with not much to do but Wexler’s impressive acting skills for such a young age make her a key player in later seasons.

Kristian Bruun plays Donnie Hendrix, Alison’s husband (Alison is the only one of the Clone Club to be married). Frequently played for laughs (such as when he and Felix have to pose as prospective gay parents when they go undercover in a fertility clinic), Donnie does have a greater dramatic role as the show proceeds. Keen board gamer Josh Vokey as Scott, Cosima’s partner-in-science-crime, is also an underrated key part of the ensemble. Évelyne Brochu is also outstanding as Cosima’s French girlfriend Delphine and the source of much of what Felix refers to as the show’s “lesbian drama,” who also can’t help but wear the most fabulous outfits on the show. Ari Millen is also great as a second set of clones, playing multiple roles. They’re not as numerous as Sarah’s doubles, but Millen does impressive work depicting very different characters.

The show also brings in genre veterans where necessary: Michelle Forbes (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, True Blood) has a brief but memorable role in the second season, Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, The Stand) is outstanding as recurring semi-antagonist Dr. Leekie and James Frain (The Tudors, Star Trek: Discovery) is deliciously evil as assassin Ferdinand. Also, special mention must be given to Alison Steadman, a British veteran of film, stage and television, cast slightly against type as Siobhan’s chain-smoking, permanently angry mother in the third and fourth seasons.

So, the cast, beyond just star Maslany, is outstanding. Where Orphan Black does trip up a little, and this is the most frequent criticism voiced about the show, is its storyline.

The main problem with the story is that it’s never quite original enough. As soon as it becomes clear that Sarah is a clone (by the end of the second episode, so this is hardly a spoiler), the viewer’s immediate assumption is that this is an illegal genetic experiment which has been overseen by a powerful corporation with government involvement…and that’s what it turns out to be. If there’s one set of clones, the logical conclusion is that there might be more, and perhaps a set of male clones as well; this is confirmed in the second season. If they’re all clones, they must be clones of a genetic original who will be important to the plot, and that turns out to be the case in the third season. Orphan Black never really sets itself up to do anything surprising in general terms with the plot. Anyone who’s passingly familiar with contemporary science fiction shows from The X-Files onwards will likely be able to see most of the major plot movements coming down the road.

That is certainly all true, but in general terms I found it not to matter very much. Execution is more important than surprises and Orphan Black tells its story of shady corporate operations, illegal genetic experiments and complex backstory revelations with confidence and verve. The plot twists are logical, the character arcs are well-judged and the show’s trademark fast pace makes it perfect for bingeing. Cliffhangers abound and, if characters are in a difficult spot, you can be assured that situation will be resolved quite quickly rather than allowed to fester on for many episodes at a time. The show’s relentless pace can sometimes be a problem (maybe a bit more time to stop and smell the roses would have been nice) but, in a sea of other series with plot elements advancing so glacially they can only be measured in ice ages, it helps Orphan Black stand out from the crowd. This is a show that knows how to set up, execute and resolve a story arc with brisk economy.

That said, the economy of storytelling does lead to repetition. The main enemy in the first two seasons is the Dyad Institute and their backers, an ideological cause known as “Neolution.” After Dyad falls from grace, Neolution becomes the primary foe of the third through fifth seasons, first through subsidiary organisations (Project Castor and BrightBorn Industries in the third and fourth seasons) and then the Neolutionists directly in the final season. There are also other enemies, such as the Prolethean religious cult, and various criminals and gangs. It has to be said that the show probably should have focused on one enemy more than bringing in lots of subsidiaries which end up just being variations on a theme.

Far more critical to Orphan Black’s success is its mastery of tonal variation. Each one of the clones has their own personal storyline as well as playing a part in the larger storyline and each one of these could easily be a TV show by themselves. Donnie and Alison’s façade of suburban bliss, soccer games with the kids and Tupperware parties hides a darker story of pill addiction, marital boredom and frustration that veers into drug dealing, murder, mayhem and an increasingly large number of dead bodies buried under the garage. It’s by turns genuinely disturbing, laugh-out-loud hilarious and at times gag-inducing. However, the show can then turn on a dime and delve deeply into Cosima and Delphine’s overwrought, tragic love story of woe, which teeters on the edge of outright cliché (not helped by Felix pretty much narrating this story from the sidelines with morbid fascination) before being brought back down to Earth. The Cosima-Delphine romance is arguably the most compelling in the show and, thankfully, the producers have the sense not to lean on the “kill your gays,” trope that too many shows have indulged in.

Elsewhere we have the story of Helena, the innocent young Catholic girl turned into a homicidal weapon of mass destruction by a deranged religious group that believes all clones must be destroyed. Helena, a deeply damaged individual who serves as something of a villain for the first season, eventually overcomes her “training” and joins forces with Sarah and her other “sestras” to defeat their enemies and even declares a maternal ambition (Maslany's faux-Ukrainian-accented proclamation of "What about my babies?" soon becomes a key catchphrase). Helena’s story arc is one of the most successful in the show, even if the fact she did kill several innocent people in the first few episodes of the series is brushed under the carpet a little too easily.

There are too many other stories to really relate all of them in detail: Sarah’s own insecurities and in particular her feelings of guilt and inadequacy which forces her to slam the “self-destruct” button whenever anything goes too badly wrong (or too badly right, in some cases). Dealing with the clone situation gives her purpose and sees her direct her creativity, spontaneity and capacity for invention and thinking on her feet in a productive manner, but at several key moments she does nearly fall off the wagon and spiral back into depression, alcohol and substance abuse because, hell, the situations she puts herself in are quite hairy, and traumatic. Then there’s the tragic story of Beth Childs, which the writers leave until the final two seasons, where we see her backstory in detail and discover what led her to taking her own life in the opening seconds of the show. For a show that only lasts fifty episodes (less than a quarter the run of The X-Files), Orphan Black packs a hell of a lot of story into its modest run-time.

This balancing of tonal variation, of sometimes going from laugh-out-loud, warm-hearted comedy to something bleaker and more depressing, or romantic, or action-based, in the space of a few minutes is a key part of the show’s success. If Orphan Black was too funny or too bleak constantly it wouldn’t work, but by moving between these tones and styles, to the point of sometimes feeling like an anthology series, it creates a much richer story and world. Orphan Black knows when to be harsh and brutal, but also when to be warm and funny.

The show has a few other weaknesses. It has a problem holding onto guest stars. Michael Mando has a major role in the first two seasons and then vanishes without trace (in reality, poached by Better Call Saul). Michelle Forbes’ character is set up as a big deal in the second season, but she doesn’t appear again. Similarly, Michiel Huisman appeared in the second season in a major role and came back briefly in the third year, but he was nabbed by Game of Thrones (playing flamboyant mercenary Daario) and never appeared again, leaving some storylines flapping in the wind. This even extended to more core castmembers, with Évelyne Brochu contracted to appear in another show in the third season (which didn’t go the distance, allowing her to return later on). These problems are annoying but bearable; the show is always able to course-correct and carry on. The show also did the reverse: it brought back characters who’d apparently left behind for good to show how everything was connected and to make sure most of the loose ends were tied up in the finale.

The theme of Orphan Black is probably one of the oldest in narration: family. As the literal orphans of the title, the clones have no real biological families. Several of them have loving, adopted families (like Sarah, Cosima and Alison, and Rachel to an extent) but several of them were raised in much harsher circumstances (most notably Helena). As they uncover the mystery of their background, they form a tight unit and create a new extended family consisting of the clones, their friends and allies. This “clone club” bands together to defeat their problems and support one another through their individual issues. The impact of this is shown most clearly on Sarah, the staunch, punk-inspired loner who needs no one’s help and initially feels a failure as a mother, who finds then herself becoming almost the matriarch of a large, complex family of people who need help and support.

Orphan Black feels under-appreciated, but it’s a good time to revisit the show. Its web of complex conspiracies between various corporations felt a bit much during its original run, but watched as a whole it’s much more comprehensible. The character arcs and main storyline are executed reasonably well, and at fifty 44-minute episodes, it doesn’t go on for too long and outstay its welcome, but it’s also not too short and cut down in its prime. It tells a five-year story well and once it’s done, it moves on.

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First trailer released for THE WATCH

BBC America has released the first trailer for its controversially "loose" adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

BBC America also confirmed some additional casting for the show, with Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) playing the voice of Death and Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Toast of London, What We Do in the Shadows) playing a magical talking sword called Wayne. Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones, Chernobyl) is playing the voice of Sergeant Detritus, with Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, again) as Inigo Skimmer, the Duke of Stab.

The Watch starts airing on BBC America on 3 January 2021.

Writer of THE WATCH forgets to thank Sir Terry Pratchett as production wraps

The writer of The Watch, BBC America's increasingly controversial "loose adaptation" of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, has apparently forgotten about the late author and his estate whilst extending his thanks to people involved in the making of the television series. In fact, the writer fails to mention the Discworld book series, or that his TV show is based on novels, at all. He instead names himself as the "creator" of the story in a remarkable display of hubris.

The apparent snub was picked up on by Sir Terry's daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett on Twitter. Needless to say, the response from the enormous, global Discworld fandom has not been kind.

Sir Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels between 1983 and his premature death from early-onset Alzheimer's in 2015. At the time of his death, the Discworld novels had sold almost 90 million copies, making it the joint best-selling post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy series (with near sales parity with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). The series is a cultural institution in the UK, where Pratchett was a perennial bestseller. Sir Terry was also lauded for his work for charities and bringing greater awareness of issues such as the endangerment of orangutan populations and Alzheimer's research. He was one of the few writers in the "national treasure" category. He also has a growing fanbase in the United States (who were late but increasingly enthusiastic attendees of the Pratchett party).

Six of the Discworld novels have been adapted for the screen: Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted to animation by Cosgrove Hall in 1997, whilst Sky adapted Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal between 2006 and 2010. Development of The Watch began in 2011, with the original idea being to develop a TV-focused sequel to the Discworld novels set in the city of Ankh-Morpork and revolving around the City Watch (starting with Guards! Guards!), rather than adapting the books directly. This version of the series was in development with the BBC for several years before the BBC divested it to BBC America around the time of Sir Terry's death.

BBC America hired a new writer (Simon Allen, best known for The Musketeers) threw out all the work that had been done already, apparently chose not to involve Sir Terry's family (including his daughter, Rhianna, a talented writer in her own right who had been closely involved in the prior project) and completely reconceptualised the project, including throwing out major characters, turning the setting into a "cyberpunk" city (nonsensically; I think they meant steampunk) and "sexing up" other characters by making them younger, thinner and better-looking. The Pratchett fanbase responded negatively to the early publicity images of the show and this discontent grew as it became clear that the Pratchett Estate was unhappy with how things had gone.

Snubbing the creator and writer of the original stories in this manner will likely increase the discontent and negative publicity the show has engendered so far.

The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. A UK broadcaster has not yet been announced.

Terry Pratchett Estate distances itself even more from BBC America's THE WATCH

Following the publication of yet another publicity image from BBC America's The Watch, a TV series loosely "inspired by" Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, his family and associates have once again made it clear that they do not approve of the project and have distanced themselves from it.

The Watch - then also referred to as The City Watch and also less seriously as CSI: Ankh-Morpork - began life way back in 2011 as a co-development between Sir Terry Pratchett and the BBC. Pratchett had seen several adaptations of his work undertaken in the past, most notably the animated Channel 4 versions of the novels Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, both released in 1997, and Sky One's live-action versions of Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal in 2007-10. Although none of these adaptations were outright terrible, none arguably were as good as they should have been given the strength of the source material. Pratchett wanted to get more involved in these adaptations and in 2012 set up a company called Narrativia. Narrativia's goal was to try to establish greater control over the process and ensure greater fidelity to the feel of Pratchett's work transplanted to the screen, although not necessarily being completely 100% book-accurate in all respects (Pratchett understanding well that changes were needed given the shift in medium).

Sir Terry himself led discussions with the writers and it looked like everything was set for a faithful adaptation based on the novels, but with the freedom to move things around and take different ideas from different books. One idea apparently baked in from the start was that the series would not directly adapt the novels, but would instead pick up in the "present day" Discworld setting and use the novels as backstory, with the characters already in place. Among Pratchett's own ideas were using Ankh-Morpork's oft-mentioned, never-seen hospital as the setting for one storyline and using the creation of a City Watch band as a running gag.

Pratchett and his assistant and business partner Rob Wilkins were filmed discussing the project with the team from Prime Focus, the production team originally slated to make the show, by SFX Magazine in March 2011. Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers) and Terry Jones (Monty Python) were slated to write and possibly direct some episodes, and Pratchett's daughter Rhianna, now a respected writer in her own right, was also attached. The series was envisaged as being made in the UK on a relatively modest budget of $2 million per episode for a 13-episode first season, to air on the BBC. Crucially, the deal for the project was signed in 2011, before Narrativia was founded, with Sir Terry as the only named person involved on the book side of things.

Despite there being a strong wind in the sails of the project at this juncture (in October 2012 it was even reported - later erroneously - that the show had been greenlit), it appears that the BBC began to have second doubts and around 2013 put the brakes on the project. The BBC was under fire at the time for what was deemed to be over-extravagant spending in the aftermath of the global recession, and with The Watch coming in at significantly more expensive than Doctor Who, one of the BBC's own flagship programmes, it appears that enthusiasm for the project had dried up.

At some point between 2013 and 2016, possibly around the time of Sir Terry's sad passing in March 2015, the rights for the project were transferred from BBC Enterprises to BBC America, which decided to completely re-tool the project from the ground up with a whole new writing team. It appears during this time that Narrativia was effectively shut out of the process. Both Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins later reported (with somewhat-but-not-really concealed misgivings) that neither they nor Narrativia as an entity had been involved in the show for "many years." Nevertheless, when the show was formally greenlit (for real this time) in October 2018, Narrativia was namechecked as still being involved.

Prior to this point it appeared that the project was still going to be in line with Pratchett's original vision, where the novels are canon background material but the story takes place in the present-day of the book universe. Early reports that Ankh-Morpork was being modernised makes more sense in that context; although the city starts life in the first Discworld novel as a traditional medieval fantasy city, by the end of the series it as become a lot more Victorian and steampunk in technology and character, complete with railways and telegraphs. However, the initial casting reports from the series provoked concern, particularly when it was revealed that Sybil Ramkin, a middle-aged, rotund woman in the books who is nevertheless a major and powerful character, was being aged and slimmed considerably down to add sex appeal and action in her newfound role as a "vigilante," fighting crime on the streets of the city. The character of Cheery had also been changed from a young dwarfish woman anxious to prove her worth in her patriarchal society whilst also retaining her femininity to a young, non-binary human raised by dwarfs, borrowing Carrot's background and story for no immediately obvious reason.

By November 2019 it was clear that the project bore little, if any, resemblance to the source material, causing an immense backlash from fans and critics alike. In January 2020 the first publicity pictures from the project were released, reigniting the furore as it became clear that Ankh-Morpork in the TV show was a much more contemporary city, inspired by "punk rock" and featuring very modern-looking street lights and graffiti. It was at this point that Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins addressed the situation. Wilkins noted, rather forcefully, that The Watch is "inspired by, NOT based on," the series. Rhianna Pratchett further noted that the series being developed by BBC America is not the same series that her father signed off on, when it was a very different (and presumably better) beast and she hadn't been involved for years.

The Discworld Monthly published a run-down of the project here which seems to explain the root cause of the problem: the original contracts between the BBC and Sir Terry Pratchett stipulated that Sir Terry had some degree of influence and approval over the production, not Narrativia; Narrativia wasn't formally founded until after the initial contract was signed. As a result, when Sir Terry sadly left this Mortal Disc in 2015, there was no longer any kind of creative control being exercised from the book end of things and that allowed BBC American to effectively do whatever it wanted with no input from Narrativia.

The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. Narrativia has signed a series of new deals with Moving Pictures to develop TV and film projects based on the other Discworld novels. The Wee Free Men is also in production at the Jim Henson Company, with Rhianna Pratchett attached as a writer. It appears that BBC America only has the rights to the City Watch sub-series of Discworld novels (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff) and cannot include any elements from the other books. Moving Pictures may have the rights to all the other books (including those previously filmed by Sky One and Cosgrove Hall, since the rights reverted to the Pratchett Estate in the early 2010s), with Narrativia likely having more say over these adaptations.

The Discworld book series consists of 41 novels and numerous ancillary works and is the joint-biggest-selling adult fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings, currently tying with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire at around 90 million book sales apiece.

THE WATCH gets an airdate

BBC America's controversial adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books featuring the City Watch has finally gotten an airdate. The show will debut on BBC America in January 2021.

The Watch is "very loosely" based on Pratchett's source material, but has seen a raft of changes made to the books which have alienated the fanbase. These include creating a "young, sexy," crimefighting version of Lady Sybil Ramkin (a larger and older woman in the books) and turning Ankh-Morpork into some kind of steampunk metropolis rather than the Renaissance-level post-medieval city of the books.

Terry Pratchett's business partner Rob Wilkins and daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett were originally both involved with the project, when it was a much more faithful adaptation with the UK BBC, but have publicly distanced themselves from the show since it was transferred to BBC America.

Terry Pratchett's daughter and writing assistant throw shade at THE WATCH TV series

The first publicity photographs from The Watch, a BBC America series "loosely inspired" by Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, were released this morning and in just a few hours have prompted a massive backlash from fans of the series. Beloved characters and settings have been changed for no immediately discernible reason, resulting in a storm of protest from readers.

In an amusingly-timed move, Terry Pratchett's daughter (and respected video game writer) Rhianna Pratchett and his former assistant and partner in Narrativia Productions, Rob Wilkins, both tweeted a link to a 2004 interview with Ursula Le Guin, where she eviscerated the Sci-Fi Channel's appalling mini-series based on her Earthsea novels which changed the source material for no reason.

Unfortunately, with production drawing to a close on the eight-part series, it's far too late for BBC America to change course and produce a more faithful adaptation of the books. As a result, it's likely that fans will now have to wait even longer for a decent version to appear in the future.

BBC America release first publicity images for Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH

BBC America has released the first publicity images for Terry Pratchett's The Watch and, well, yikes.

In this first image, Sybil Ramkin (Lara Rossi) appears to have either set someone on fire or are watching them on fire, plummeting through a hole in an Ankh-Morpork street. If you're thinking, "This never happens in the books," and "Why is a middle-aged, stout woman now a smoking hot vigilante?" you are not alone.

In this second image, we meet Constable Angua (Marama Corlett) and Constable Carrot (Adam Hugill) of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, although they seem to have lost their armour. Carrot at least looks spot on, if a few years older than the character.

In this image, Sam Vimes (Richard Dormer) and Angua (Marama Corlett) visit an Ankh-Morpork market. This image is the clearest example of a major shift in the setting aesthetic. Whilst the books are set in a late medieval/early Renaissance-level city slowly transitioning into a steampunk one (albeit over the course of forty books), the series looks set to open in a full Victoriana environment, with no traditional armour and the Watch characters wearing lanyards in lieu of a uniform.

This image shows Carcer Dun (Sam Adewunmi) up to no good. His guards appear to have parachuted in from a mid-franchise Final Fantasy video game, but okay.

Angua (Marama Corlett) and Constable Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent), the latter of whom doesn't appear to have a beard. Or be a dwarf.

The TV show has attracted negative coverage for its decision to only be "loosely inspired" by the books and instead pursue their own path with regards to casting, writing and setting. These images are not likely to improve this.

Monstrous Development: The Controversy of BBC America's THE WATCH

BBC America are currently shooting the first season of The Watch, a new fantasy TV show based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, specifically the “City Watch” sub-series which begins with Guards! Guards!

This is not the first time the Discworld has been depicted on-screen. In the 1990s it was adapted as three video games (Discworld, Discworld II and Discworld Noir) and two animated series from Cosgrove Hall, Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music. In the 2000s four of the books were adapted by Sky One in the UK as live-action dramas: Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal. The quality of these projects was “variable,” ranging from okay to disappointing.

The Watch is different. It has a far higher budget and it’s an ongoing show meant to last for multiple seasons. It aims to bring the city of Ankh-Morpork to life in detail and with a large cast of characters. What it is not planning to do, however, is adapt the books.

Instead, The Watch is “loosely inspired by” the novels and will instead create and tell original stories involving characters based on – to varying degrees of fealty – Pratchett’s characters, but not actually meant to be them. Based on the information we have so far, the storyline borrows elements from Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms and Night Watch, but will craft an original story by mixing and matching elements from those books together.

Fans are, it has to be said, baffled and increasingly angry over the direction the adaptation is taking.

This is not new ground for BBC America. In 2016 and 2017 they aired a two-season adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. This was likewise “inspired by” the books, not a direct adaptation. However, in this case the “loose inspiration” idea made more sense. Dirk Gently has been adapted to the screen and to radio several times previously, so a direct adaptation was not really necessary and may have indeed been redundant. In addition, the show was being shot and made in the United States, so an all-new story set in the States (whilst keeping Dirk as a slightly mad Englishman) made casting a lot easier. The first episode even includes a namecheck of the events of the first novel, positing the TV show as a sequel to the books, although Dirk in the show is a much younger character and has a different backstory to Dirk in the books, but this is not an outrageous change.

Of course, that show got away with it because Dirk Gently is relatively obscure, only consists of two very short novels, has a small cast of characters (of whom only Dirk appears in the show) and is relatively thin on backstory, lore and worldbuilding.

Discworld, on the other hand, is one of the biggest-selling fantasy series of all time, with over 90 million books sold worldwide. It has an ardently passionate fanbase who have been waiting for an ongoing Discworld TV series for almost forty years, and its worldbuilding, backstory and cast of characters is utterly immense. Whilst Dirk Gently needed bulking out to work as a TV show, Discworld very definitely does not.

The Books

The City Watch prominently feature in eight of Pratchett’s forty-one Discworld novels: Guards! Guards! (1989), Men at Arms (1993), Feet of Clay (1996), Jingo (1997), The Fifth Elephant (1999), Night Watch (2002), Thud! (2005) and Snuff (2011). Watch characters also play prominent roles in several of the other novels set in Ankh-Morpork, including Moving Pictures (1990) and Raising Steam (2013), as well as Monstrous Regiment (2003).

The City Watch of Ankh-Morpork are something of a joke, lacking real power and mostly just keeping themselves to themselves. Its commanding officer, Captain Sam Vimes, is a drunk who just tries to have a quiet life. The Watch are invigorated by the arrival of Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human raised by dwarfs who may also the long-missing, uncrowned king of Ankh-Morpork (something that interests him not at all). Carrot’s straightforward approach to dealing with crime – such as trying to arrest the head of the Thieves’ Guild – bemuses Vimes but also reminds him that his job has serious responsibilities. When a crazed religious cult unleashes a dragon on the city, it falls to Vimes, his motley crew of constables and a new ally, Sybil Ramkin, an expert on dragons, to save the city. When he succeeds, he is rewarded with more responsibility by Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.

Over the subsequent books, the Ankh-Morpork police force becomes a huge force for good in the city, stamping out crime, eliminating threats to the Patrician and ensuring order (to what degree this was unintended or part of a long-gestating masterplan by the infamously devious Patrician is open to question). Every time a threat arises, Vimes and his team are able to defeat it, if not without great cost. The City Watch becomes larger and more diverse, inducting vampires, zombies and trolls into its ranks, and helps the city become the thriving, semi-Victorian steampunk metropolis it is by the final few books in the series.

The TV Show
The information we have from the TV show is incomplete so far, but it does have several significant changes from the books.

The first is that many of the later recruits to the Watch are present from Day One: in fact, Cheery the dwarf and Angua the werewolf are already in the Watch when Carrot arrives. Angua is assigned to mentor Carrot and show him the ropes, which is a change from the books (where the reverse is true).

There’s also a curious line that “crime has been legalised,” which is not quite accurate. The Thieves’ Guild is licensed but has to operate within strict rules or face punishment. Freelance thieves and criminals remain illegal, so there’s still plenty for the Watch to do. This may have been a simplification of the plot in the books for a TV audience, or a sign of a major change to the worldbuilding.

In the biggest and arguably the most outrageous change, it’s been revealed that Lady Sybil Ramkin is no longer a formidable, somewhat rotund woman in early middle age, but now a younger, athletic “vigilante,” which has sparked some comparisons with Batman. Lady Sybil in the books is impressive as a character who operates within society rules but is also able to achieve results. She is also a rare example of a fantasy heroine who is middle-aged, not stunning attractive but still brave, capable and resourceful. Turning her into Batman in order to further "empower" the character feels derivative and lazy.

In a similar note, Cut-Me-Own-Throat-Dibbler, a street informant usually found selling dubious meat products to crowds watching whatever chaos is unfolding, has now been recast as some kind of intelligence agent with an army of freelance spies and thugs at his command, sort of like a working-class Varys from Game of Thrones. This is the absolute inverse of the repugnant character from the books.

Another concern is the publicity line confirming that the TV series will not be directly adapting any of the books but instead being inspired by them to create an original storyline. With the greatest of respect, this is always an act of stunning hubris by TV scriptwriters. The main writer of The Watch, Simon Allen, does not have a particularly distinguished CV, having written episodes of the BBC’s indifferent Musketeers show and light, disposable fare like New Tricks. I think it’s fair to say that he is not a good a writer as Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the greatest fantasists and satirists of all time. Thinking you can improve on Pratchett is extremely unwise.

It’s frustrating because the casting has, so far, been interesting. Richard Dormer (Ser Beric from Game of Thrones) as Sam Vimes is superb casting, and the formidably talented Anna Chancellor as a gender-swapped Patrician Vetinari is a fantastic notion, one I think Pratchett would have approved of. Some fans have expressed disdain for gender-swapping or race-changing characters, but given Pratchett's own views on the subject (and Ankh-Morpork's bustling cosmopolitanism) I suspect he would not have given a flying toss about any of those kind of changes.

The changes to the themes, characters, storylines and the very morality of the Discworld books are much more concerning, and I suspect would have set alarm bells blaring for the author.

Why buy the rights and then not adapt the books?
This is the question I suspect a lot of people are asking right now. Peter Jackson didn’t option The Lord of the Rings and turn it into a movie where Frodo Baggins is a ninja and Aragorn rides a Harley Davidson (no matter how interesting that might have been). Even Benioff and Weiss didn’t option Game of Thrones and turn it into a relationship drama about Ned and Cat’s marriage, and before the HBO show Martin’s novels were – especially compared to Pratchett – relatively obscure. Benioff and Weiss of course ran into trouble when they ran out of source material and had to create original material of their own, but that wasn't entirely in their control (although they should have still done a better job and not severely rushed the last two seasons, to be clear).

It feels like there isn’t an answer to the question that really makes sense. Simply adapting Guards! Guards! and maybe Men at Arms as the first season, maybe with some stand-alone new episodes thrown into the mix, is a fantastic idea. You can do some interesting casting if you want – seriously, Chancellor should kill it as Vetinari – but taking some of the strong, interesting female characters Pratchett created and turning them into clichés is pointless and insulting.

Even worse, the rumblings of discontent by Discworld fans is something you really don’t want to happen. Just as Game of Thrones did everything right (at least in the early production phase) and won a lot of support from book fans who spread word-of-mouth about the TV show and helped turn it into the biggest thing in television, The Watch is actively annoying and angering the millions of Pratchett fans who wanted a more faithful adaptation, and there are far, far more of them then there were fans of Martin before the show launched. This is something that could actively backfire in BBC America’s face when the show launches late next year.

Could it be that The Watch ends up being a pretty good piece of television? Maybe. But if writer Simon Allen wanted to create an original fantasy police TV show, he should have gone and created his own one. Optioning Terry Pratchett's fantastic novels and then refusing to use the stories in them the way the author intended is baffling and disrespectful.

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More cast announced for Terry Pratchett's WATCH TV series

BBC America has announced more casting news for The Watch, its TV series based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (more specifically, the ones focusing on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch). BBC America had previously confirmed that the series will be made up of original stories loosely inspired by the books, and this seems to be the case with the casting announcements made today.

Patrician Vetinari, Cut-Me-Own-Throat-Dibbler (now named "Throat") and the head of the Assassins' Guild, Dr. Cruces, are male characters from the books who have been cast with actresses: Anna Chancellor, Ruth Madeley and Ingrid Oliver respectively. Anna Chancellor in particular is a superb actress with tremendous presence and form and could play the Patrician very well, although the move does continue down the path of moving the TV series very far indeed from the books.

James Fleet has been cast as the Archchancellor of Unseen University (which one is unknown). The minor character of Lupine Wonse, also male in the books, will be played by Bianca Simone Mannie. Hakeem Kae-Kazim has been cast as John Keel, Sam Vimes' mentor in the Watch when he was younger.

Filming on The Watch started back in September in South Africa and the series is expected to debut in the second half of 2020.

Filming of Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH begins

Shooting has commenced on the BBC America TV series The Watch, "inspired by" Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels revolving around the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

The new TV series will be a reinterpretation of the City Watch books (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud and Snuff), featuring some of the same characters but, in some cases, in dramatically different circumstances. The TV series will also not be directly adapting the books, instead creating original stories.

Fan reaction to the news has been mixed. Some of the casting, particularly Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones' Ser Beric) as Captain Sam Vimes, has been highly praised, but other casting decisions have been criticised, particularly the decision to turn the middle-aged and stout Lady Sybil into a young, Catwoman-like vigilante.\

The Watch is expected to air on BBC America in late 2020.

THE WATCH TV series casts Vimes and other castmembers, confirms it will only be a "loose" adaptation

BBC America's City Watch TV series, based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, has added several major new roles to its cast.

Richard Dormer, best-known to fantasy fans for playing the role of Lord Beric Dondarrion in HBO's Game of Thrones, has been cast as Sam Vimes, the commanding officer of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. One of Pratchett's most iconic characters, Vimes is the alcoholic, cynical commanding officer with a hint of a conscience who finds himself drawn back into real police work. The previously-announced Adam Hugill is playing Carrot and Jo Eaton-Kent (The Romanoffs, Don't Forget the Driver) is playing Constable Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarfish member of the Watch.

Maltese actress Marama Corlett (Guardians of the Galaxy, Blood Drive, The City and The City) is playing Angua, a werewolf member of the Watch. Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines, Iron Sky 2) has been cast as Lady Sybil Ramkin, whilst Sam Adewunmi (Luck Man, Doctor Who) has been cast as villain Carcer Dun.

The casting seems promising, although the formal BBC press release seems to drive a stake through the heart of those hoping for a faithful adaptation of the novels. It confirms a number of major changes to both the worldbuilding (crime has been formally "legalised" in Ankh-Morpork, apparently) and to characters, with Lady Sybil now apparently being a vigilante, which is presumably why they cast her considerably younger than in the novels.

It appears that this will be following in the footsteps of BBC America's Dirk Gently TV series in being more "inspired loosely by the books" then actually adapting them, which is a bold and possibly controversial choice (moreso with the considerably better-known and better-selling Discworld series).

The Watch starts shooting on location in South Africa on 30 September 2019 and will air in late 2020.

Live-action DISCWORLD TV series casts Captain Carrot

The BBC's live-action Discworld TV series, with the working title The Watch, has cast its first actor. Adam Hugill will be playing the role of Captain Carrot on the series.

The new TV series, which is being developed by BBC America as an eight-part fantasy procedural, is inspired by the "City Watch" subset of the Discworld novels (starting with Guards! Guards!) by the late Sir Terry Pratchett. Oddly, the show will not be adapting the novels but will instead be using characters and situations established in them. The fact that werewolf Angua and dwarfish forensics expert Cheery are already part of the roster when the show opens suggests that the series may be acting as a companion or sequel to the books.

Hugill recently appeared in the pilot episode for Pennyworth and has a role on the upcoming Sam Mendes WWI movie 1917.

The Watch is now in pre-production and is expected to debut in late 2020.

Tatiana Maslany teases new ORPHAN BLACK announcement for Thursday

Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany has teased a major new announcement related to the show to be made this Thursday (13 June).

Orphan Black ran for five seasons from 2013 to 2017 and told the story of a group of clones, all played by Maslany, who were trying to figure out where they came from. The show attracted critical acclaim for the way Maslany differentiated the four core clone characters (Sarah, Alison, Cosima and Helena) and another half-dozen or so minor clones from one another, and for how the show featured the clones in the same scene. Maslany won an Emmy Award for Best Actress (Drama) in 2016 for her multiple performances.

The show did attract some criticism for the corporate/government espionage/conspiracy storyline, which grew quite convoluted and stretched before it was finally resolved. The creators have teased a spin-off show for some time, but the suggestion was that this would not be related to the main series and would not feature Maslany.

It's unclear what this announcement could allude to, but it could be confirmation of the spin-off series or maybe a stand-alone TV movie featuring Maslany reprising some of the clone roles.

BBC America greenlights Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH

BBC America has formally greenlit The Watch, an ongoing TV series based on the late Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel series.

The TV show will focus on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, an initially downtrodden and ineffectual police force which, over the course of many books, becomes an effective force for law and order on the streets of the city. The TV series will include characters such as Samuel Vimes, Carrot, Nobby, Angua, Cheery and Sybil Rankin, alongside appearances by Death himself.

It is believed that the series will mix in new and original stories with adaptations of the City Watch novels (starting with Guards! Guards!), although the precise format has yet to be revealed.

BBC America is pairing with Pratchett's own production company Narrativia to make the series, with Simon Allen (The Musketeers) on board as head writer. The first season will consist of eight episodes, expected to debut in late 2019 or early 2020.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: Seasons 1-2

Bellboy Todd Brotzman is not having a good day. He is in trouble with his landlord, his sister is suffering from a disease that leaves her housebound and he's just discovered some dead bodies in the penthouse of the hotel he works in. Just as things can't get any worse, he meets an eccentric Englishman named Dirk Gently who insists that he is Todd's best friend and gets embroiled in an increasingly bizarre detective case.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a BBC America production that ran for two seasons in 2016-17. The series is inspired by two novels by British comic SF author Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988). The TV show's relationship to the novels is ambiguous: references to the events of the novel in the show suggest this is a sequel to the books, but Dirk Gently's backstory, character and age are at extreme variance with his book incarnation. Given Douglas Adams' own predilection for rewriting his stories every time he moved them to a new medium, it's probably for the best to consider this series to be more inspired by the books than directly adapting them.

The TV show comes across as a bizarre, madcap adventure which borrows a lot from the work of Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), with the same offbeat tone and odd dialogue choices. It's much more overtly science fictional though, with time travel, body-swapping and parallel universes playing a role. It's also surprisingly violent, with death, explosions and gunfights being a common way of resolving plot threads. In that sense the show feels like it's trying to be cleverer than it actually is - scriptwriter Max Landis (Bright) is not a particularly subtle or nuanced writer - but it's still an eminently watchable show.

The main success of the series is its casting: perennially confused everyman Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings, Wilfred) is perfect as Todd the reluctant sidekick, Samuel Barnett is excellent as Dirk and Fiona Dourif is oustandingly growly as holistic assassin Bart. Rounding off the regular cast is Jade Eshete as badass bodyguard Farah, Hannah Marks as Todd's sister Amanda and Mpho Koaho as IT expert (and reluctant advisor to Bart) Ken. Their characters all initially appear to be fairly broad archetypes - Todd as the sceptic, Dirk as the kooky Englishman - but quickly gain new layers as their backstories are explained. Todd, in particular, gets fleshed out impressively over the first season and we learn more about what drives him.

The two seasons feel like novels in a series, with each season having its own distinct storyline and secondary cast (including the likes of Battlestar Galactica's Aaron Douglas and Firefly's Alan Tudyk) which means each can be watched and enjoyed individually, with important character arcs continuing between them. The first season delves into a weird cult operating in Seattle, whilst the second focus on a town in rural Montana which has been plagued by strange events. Both stories are strong in their own way (Season 1 has the cleverer mystery, Season 2 has the stronger supporting cast), although the tonal difference between them can be a bit jarring if you watch the whole series right through.

There's a lot to enjoy about the series, from the characters to the offbeat writing to the meticulously-constructed plot. However, there are some issues. The show seems to be channelling the likes of Fargo but isn't quite as good. Being based on a pair of Douglas Adams novels, you also expect the writer to either base the story on the books or at least bring some of Adams' sensibility to the screen and doesn't really do either. There may be no two finer writers to crib from than Noah Hawley and Douglas Adams, but doing so overtly and not coming up to either's standard is a bit disappointing. The very vague connections between the books and the TV show also make the connection feel worthless: Landis may have been better dropping that connection and just creating his own completely original property rather than leaning on these well-known books.

Still, if you can move beyond that there's a lot to enjoy. The performances are exceptionally good (Fiona Dourif - daughter of Brad - offers up some next-level intensity and weirdness), the stories are clever and make sense (eventually) and it's great to see a show that leans in and embraces its weird side. The biggest issue is that the writers were setting up a longer-term arc for the series and its cancellation after Season 2 does waste some of that setup work. Still, the primary storylines of the first two seasons are resolved and there's much less of a cliffhanger ending to the story, so it can be enjoyed as a completed entity.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (****) is available now on Blu-Ray in the US and on Netflix in much of the rest of the world.

THE LAST KINGDOM cancelled by the BBC but saved by Netflix

The BBC has decided not to continue with its Saxon-era historical drama The Last Kingdom, based on author Bernard Cornwell's Saxon saga which currently runs to ten novels. However, Netflix have stepped in and will continue the series, with the third season due to air later this year.

The first season of The Last Kingdom was a co-production between the BBC and BBC America, but BBC America dropped out after the first season, citing disappointing ratings in the US, although UK ratings were strong. Netflix took over as international distributor and co-funder of the series. The BBC has decided not to continue the series, so Netflix have taken over production completely.

The news does make sense, as The Last Kingdom has received good critical notices since debuting. In addition The Last Kingdom gives Netflix a toehold in the historical drama field without the monstrous price tag of some of their other shows, like The Crown and the cancelled Marco Polo. By Netflix standards, The Last Kingdom's budget is very modest and even with a moderate budget increase (which would be helpful to sell some of the bigger action scenes) it would still be one of their cheapest programmes.

Season 3 of The Last Kingdom will air before the end of 2018, with Netflix to make a decision on continuing the programme based on how it fares as a Netflix original.

Slightly paradoxically, the BBC have cited competition from Netflix and Amazon TV as reason why they can't continue production of drama programmes like The Last Kingdom, and have even advised that in the future, predicted budget shortfalls for British broadcasters may threaten shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock.

Orphan Black: Season 5

Sarah Manning is trapped and wounded on Revival, a secret Neolution island hideout in the Canadian Arctic. As she struggles to escape, Cosima learns of the history of the Neolution movement and some of the struggles it has faced to survive and make human cloning a reality. The moment Neolution has been working towards for decades is at hand and Sarah's daughter Kira will play a key role...if Sarah and here sisters will allow it.

Orphan Black began in 2013 as a mystery drama focused on the suicide of a young woman, witnessed by her exact duplicate. Since then the show has moved from corporate drama to soap opera to a demented vision of suburban hell, all the while rooted in Tatiana Maslany's flawless, jaw-dropping portrayal of half a dozen different-but-identical characters at the same time, backed by an ample array of supporting castmembers. It's hard to argue that the show hasn't taken wrong turns - the "male clones" storyline in Season 3 was never as compelling as it should have been and too many strong supporting characters have ended up benched with nothing to do (hi Art) - but for the most part Orphan Black has been a compelling, rich drama.

The fifth and final season of the show features both the best and worse excesses of the show. On the minus side, there's a lot of characters grumbling in comfortable offices about cloning and cells and test tubes and Sarah's daughter is really important because of vague reasons. We've seen this storyline before for four previous seasons and it's gotten a little old by this point. We're more invested in Rachel as a character at this point so her POV is interesting in this world, but ultimately the reveal of the Real Big Bad of the Entire Show is a letdown. The first half of the season, which features an uneasy alliance between Team Sarah and Neolution, feels like it's grinding its gears a bit too much.

The latter half sees things improve. Once again there is a solid enemy to fight and the show unexpectedly develops teeth. Orphan Black has always been a ruthless show - remember it started with a young woman throwing herself in front of a train and a murderous assassin slaughtering her own clones with wild abandon - but as it heads towards the endgame it becomes quite astonishingly ruthless, slaughtering most of the extraneous secondary cast of the show with enthusiasm. Some of these deaths hit hard and their ramifications are explored, but others feel far too off-hand and feel like the writers wanted to close off a number of storylines that otherwise would be left dangling.

This would be more effective if they still didn't end up leaving a lot of stories underserviced: remember Cal, Sarah's on-off boyfriend and Kira's father? Or the shadow organisation Topside? The writers clearly chose not to revisit some plot elements, especially ones that people had forgotten about, but I suspect these dropped storylines will be more glaring for future viewers watching the show's relatively modest 50-episode full run in one go.

The show's final two episodes deliver a surprisingly low-key ending: villains are defeated, good guys are saved and the sisters come together to ask the question, "What next?" And surprisingly we get a lot of examination of that question, particularly how it pertains to Sarah. When we first met Sarah she was a screw-up and the crazy situation with her newly-discovered sisters gave her a focus and purpose in life. When that situation is resolved for good, she finds herself questioning her purpose and her point in life, and the show brings things full circle by contrasting Sarah as she is now with how she was at the start. This is a tremendously powerful way of ending the show, delivering the end to a thematic arc that a lot of viewers could have been forgiven for forgetting about. Ultimately Orphan Black wasn't about the dazzling visual effects that allowed Maslany to play four distinct characters in one shot simultaneously, it was about each of these flawed and human people, and in the finale the show resolves those character arcs with tremendous skill.

Orphan Black's fifth season (****) overindulges in the show's tendency towards repetitive and tiresome conspiracy theories in its opening half, but later on reasserts itself by refocusing on its core characters and bringing them all to an appropriate, powerful ending. The show will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the USA in September 2017, with a UK release to follow. However, the entire series is available now on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.

Orphan Black: Season 4

Sarah Manning and her clone-sisters have defeated the threat of an illegal attempt to create an army of cloned soldiers, and it seems like maybe they might be able to get back to their lives. But the Neolutionists, who want to expand genetic engineering far beyond mere cloning, have other plans. Sarah and her friends, aided by an enigmatic newcomer known as "MK", are threatened by different factions within the Neolutionist movement and have to face the possibility of making a deal with the devil just to survive.

The first three seasons of Orphan Black were excellent, with the writers showing unusual self-awareness by slimming down a potentially confusing morass of subplots and factions in the third season to a much more straightforward conflict. The fourth season sees this conflict resolved and a whole new storyline begun, but one very much rooted in what came before. The Neolutionists, an opposing faction established in the first season but soon superseded by other groups, return to prominence and the show goes back into its roots by exploring the character of Beth Childs in greater depth. This is also gives supporting characters like Art (who was a little lost in the third season) more to do.

This results in some focused, dramatically-accomplished storytelling. One episode focuses almost entirely on Beth's life as she discovered she was a clone, meeting Allison and Cosima and then the shadowy MK, with events building to the tragic and inevitable end we are already aware of from the opening seconds of the whole series. Tatiana Maslany is so great in her multiple roles that it feels like we've gone beyond redundant in mentioning it, but she somehow manages to up her game even further in the fourth season with both her portrayal of the doomed Beth and also in the present day, particularly her performance as Cosmia where she adds more nuance, depth and tragedy than ever before.

The fourth season risks getting heavy at times, so as usual relies on the screamingly dysfunctional (and dystopian) domestic adventures of Allison and Donnie Hendricks to draw things back in with jet-black humour. This season they also do a great job of involving Allison and Donnie more in the main storylines (in Season 3 it felt like they were making their own spin-off in the context of the larger show) and tonally varying things up a bit to make things more interesting. Donnie and Felix posing as a gay couple looking to have a baby might be the funniest storyline the show has ever done, especially as Felix reels in Donnie's stereotypical performance. Felix, who also got a little lost in the mix in Season 3, gets more to do this year as he embarks on his own quest to find his biological family. We get a lot more insight and empathy into the "villains" of the show this year as well.

Season 4 doesn't really falter at all, although some fans will bemoan a distinct lack of screen-time for Helena (although when she does return, she makes it felt in her own inimitable style) and the total absence of Cal (Michael Huisman possibly busy filming Game of Thrones). Particularly brilliant is the ending, which sets us up with a new villain who is actually an old one: Orphan Black and Game of Thrones have both realised that there is nothing more satisfying than having your ultimate main bad guy as someone you've gotten to know already over multiple years and set up accordingly. Things are set up for what will hopefully be an exhilarating showdown in the final season next year.

Orphan Black's fourth season (*****) sees the show somehow get even better than it was previously. Even in a golden age of television, it is entirely possible that this little SF show from Canada might be the very best thing on TV at the moment. The show is available now on Blu-Ray and DVD in the USA, with a UK release to follow in a few months. It is available now on Netflix in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

ORPHAN BLACK renewed for a fifth and final season

Orphan Black has been renewed for a fifth and final season of 10 episodes, due to air in 2017.

The show recently concluded its excellent fourth season on a series of major cliffhangers, so it's good to know that they will be resolved. More impressively, co-creators John Fawecett and Graeme Manson had planned a five-year arc for the series at an outset, so they will get to end the show on their terms and in the way they'd wanted all along.

The show has also done well to hang onto star Tatiana Maslany, who has been festooned with awards and nominations for her challenging role playing a multitude of different clones on the series. I suspect she has a bright career ahead on other TV shows and in Hollywood.

All four seasons of the show are currently available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland, for those who haven't caught up yet.