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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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.

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.

Genre television crushes the Emmy Awards

This week the Emmy Awards aired in the United States. For the first time, science fiction and fantasy shows completely dominated the presentation, taking all of the major drama category awards.

Tatiana Maslany won the Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role playing five regular characters (and many more guest characters) on clone drama Orphan Black.

This is a far cry from a few years ago when genre shows had a hard time getting any respect or traction. The Twilight Zone won a couple of awards back in the 1960s and the original Star Trek was nominated during its first run, but there was then quite a long dry spell until the 1990s, when Red Dwarf's Gunmen of the Apocalypse won the 1994 award for Best International Comedy Series.

In the early 1990s Star Trek: The Next Generation and Quantum Leap were heavily represented in the Creative Emmies (which reward production achievements, such as special effects) but couldn't get a seat at the main event. This changed in 1994 when Star Trek: The Next Generation was nominated for its final season but did not win.

Greater penetration of the Emmy consciousness took place thanks to The X-Files, which won several creative awards and Best Actress for Gillian Anderson in 1997. Surprisingly, David Duchovny never won for Best Actor and the show as a whole failed to win anything for writing or for Best Drama Series overall. But it opened the door slightly. More successful was Lost, which managed to win for Best Drama Series, Best Direction for its pilot episode and Best Actor for both Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn.

The awards this year went to:

• Outstanding Drama Series: Game of Thrones
• Outstanding Television Movie: Sherlock, The Abominable Bride
• Outstanding Lead Actor (Drama): Rami Malek for Mr. Robot
• Outstanding Lead Actress (Drama): Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black
• Outstanding Direction (Drama): Miguel Sapochnik for Game of Thrones, Battle of the Bastards
• Outstanding Writing (Drama): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss for Game of Thrones, Battle of the Bastards

It's good to see SFF represented so heavily, and it'll be interesting to see if this trend continues next year when shows like Stranger Things, Luke Cage and American Gods will be eligible and Game of Thrones takes a year off (Season 7 will air too late to be eligible for the 2017 awards).

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.

Trailer for ORPHAN BLACK Season 4

BBC America have released a new trailer for the fourth (and apparently penultimate) season of Orphan Black.

Season 4 will start airing on Thursday 14 April in the United States (and presumably Canada, which usually airs the same night on the Space Channel). No UK airdate has been set. With the demise of the show's former home on BBC3, it's assumed it will go straight onto the BBC iPlayer service. However, last year they still, bizarrely, made fans wait six months for this. The timescale this time around is not known.

Orphan Black: Season 3

Sarah Manning and her clone-sisters find themselves caught in the crossfire between their very uneasy allies, the Dyad Institute, and a clandestine military experiment involving a batch of male clones. At the same time, Sarah is closing in on finding the origin of the cloning experiments, a mission that will take her far from home, to London and the deserts of Mexico.

The third season of Orphan Black opens and expands the world revealed in the opening two seasons, a world where secret experiments in the 1980s have resulted in the creation of two batches of clones. Now adults, the clones are finding one another and trying to discover the reasons for their existence, and those answers are not happy ones.

The first season of Orphan Black was unmitigated brilliance, a tour-de-force of acting ability as Tatiana Maslanay moved between playing multiple but very different characters with convincing ease. The second season stumbled a little by introducing too many new players, new characters and new factions. Sorting out the Proletheans from Dyad from mercenaries from military groups from Topside could be a little confusing at times.

The third season opens with these elements very much still in play, now expanded with the introduction of a group of new clones played by Ari Millen. What feels like it could become a confusing morass is abruptly reversed by some very, very smart writing decisions. The number of factions and storylines is abruptly slimmed down, some relatively convincing retcons are used to keep the same characters in play without having to bring in too many new faces and, whenever things could get too out of control, the show reels the story back in and refocuses on the core triumvirate of Sarah, Cosima and Alison. Indeed, the show knocks it out of the park with an episode that focuses on Alison's attempts to get elected as school trustee and mixes up the clones pretending to be one another, old-school style. It's extremely unusual to see a series self-aware enough to realise it's running into a problem, and then decisively fix it with both verve and intelligence.

There are a small number of new characters, most notably Ferdinand, an eccentric (but lethal) enforcer for topside played with relish by the always-brilliant James Frain, whilst British acting legend Alison Steadman joins the cast in the last couple of episodes in a pivotal role. Otherwise the focus remains on Tatiana Maslany's typically compelling multiple performances. This time around Ari Millen also has to play multiple characters and does a good job at it, even if the show backpedals a little from giving them the same time and variations that the female clones have.

By the end of the third season, the show has done away with a number of long-running storylines and potential long-term threats, although the finale does open things up by hinting at new dangers. With two seasons remaining in the showrunners' plan, it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.

The third season of Orphan Black (*****) restores the show to the heights reached in the first season and is compelling viewing, not to mention being genuinely impressive in how it handles a few structural and writing issues that other shows would have simply let fester. It is available now in the USA (DVD, Blu-Ray), although only the Australian import is available now in the UK for no readily explainable reason.

ORPHAN BLACK Season 3 released in the UK

The third season of Orphan Black has finally hit UK screens, although in an unexpected way.

Helena was resolutely unimpressed at the BBC's dicking-around antics.

The first season of the critically-acclaimed SF show aired on BBC3, several months after the original Canadian/American transmission. Season 2 then aired just a couple of days after the North American airing. It was assumed that this pattern would be repeated for Season 3, but the BBC oddly sat on it and refused to say when it would air. And then today the first eight episodes of the season were released simultaneously on the BBC iPlayer.

The remaining two episodes should go up shortly. The season will also air on Sunday mornings on BBC3, with the first two episodes airing at, erm, 2.10am this coming Sunday. The rest of the season will follow in double bills.

The bizarre release pattern may be a test run for the future of BBC3. The channel will go off-air next Spring, its content instead transitioning to the iPlayer only. The BBC may be looking at the numbers from Orphan Black for an indication as to how well it will do. Which is nice, but I would submit that if they want this to be more successful they need to 1) actually advertising the show and 2) not wait until six months after the season has aired in the States and Canada.

Anyway, after a lengthy delay it's good to be able to watch the season at last.

Tatiana Maslany finally gets an Emmy nod for ORPHAN BLACK

Showing that there is some justice in the world, Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany has finally gotten a Best Actress Emmy Nomination for her SF series, Orphan Black.

Maslany plays a group of clones on the show, portraying no less than five "regular" clone characters (Sarah Manning, Cosima Niehaus, Alison Hendrix, Rachel Duncan and Helena) and numerous smaller roles. Maslany's ability to completely inhabit each role to the point where you forget you're watching the same actress has been heavily praised by critics. Maslany's failure to be nominated for either of the previous seasons was seen as a misjudgement by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Maslany features some stiff competitions for the statue, with two-times winner Claire Danes getting another nod for Homeland, Viola Davis getting one for How to Get Away With a Murder, Taraji P. Henson being nominated for Empire, Elisabeth Moss picking up a nomination for Mad Men and Robin Wright getting some love for House of Cards. However, all of those actresses are only playing one role each, possibly giving Maslany a leading edge over the rest.

The stand-out show in the nomination stakes is Game of Thrones, which picked up 24 nominations including Best Drama and acting nominations for Peter Dinklage (who has already received one win for the first season), Lena Headey and Emilia Clarke. Thrones's showing may surprise critics who seem to have largely found it the weakest season to date (episodes like Hardhome notwithstanding), but may show that the Academy is listening to the zeitgeist.

The winners will be announced on 20 September.

TV round-up: ORPHAN BLACK, JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL and SENSE8

A bit of news from the world of SFF television:

Orphan Black has been renewed for a fourth (and penultimate) season, following high ratings for the opening episodes of Season 3 on BBC America in the USA and SPACE in Canada. BBC3 recently confirmed they will be showing the series "later this year", although with BBC3 set to close at the end of the year they need to hurry up.

The BBC mini-series version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell has finally gotten an airdate, with the seven-part series set to start airing on Sunday 17 May in the UK on BBC1 and on 13 June on BBC America.

Netflix has released the trailer for its new TV series, Sense8. Created by The Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) and J. Michael Straczynski (the creator-writer of Babylon 5), it's a huge-budget, epic story following the lives of eight people living around the world whose lives inexplicably blend together in one moment, giving each access to the skills and knowledge of the others. Netflix will release all twelve episodes simultaneously on 5 June.

ORPHAN BLACK is given its end date

Orphan Black has just started airing its third season in the USA, but the producers have already disclosed that the show has a finite lifespan. Don't panic just yet, as we have another two years of the show to enjoy after this one.

Producers and showrunners Graeme Manson and John Fawcett have confirmed that Orphan Black will conclude after its fifth season, expected to air in 2017. That won't necessarily mean the end of the universe of characters, as they moot that a spin-off or sequel of some kind may be possible, but the story of Sarah Manning and her clones will end after the fifth season.

This is a good move, as the history of genre TV is littered with the corpses of shows that went on too long (hello, The X-Files) or were simply not coherently plotted out and ended in confusing and self-contradictory ways (neo-Battlestar Galactica). By going for five leaner seasons which are already planned out in some detail, Orphan Black's creators will hopefully be able to make for a much stronger and more satisfying story.

The third season of Orphan Black is airing in the USA and Canada right now, but oddly has not yet received a UK airdate.

Orphan Black: Season 2

Sarah Manning and her 'sisters', Cosima and Alison, find their loyalties divided when Sarah's daughter Kira disappears. Sarah believes that the Dyad Institute, which Cosima works for, is responsible, whilst it appears that a group of fanatics known as the Proletheans may also be trying to hurt Sarah and her newfound family. Secrets from thirty years ago re-emerge as all the factions involved in this struggle try to find the secret to flawless genetic engineering, no matter the cost.

Orphan Black's first season was the undoubted SF TV highlight of 2013, with Tatiana Maslany turning in a powerhouse performance as multiple versions of the same character. Some clever writing and strong supporting turns, not to mention pitch-perfect pacing, made the show even better. This second season has a lot to live up to.

For the most part, it works. The pacing remains strong and the writers do an excellent job of answering past mysteries whilst making new revelations and setting up fresh puzzles. They also resist the urge to play "Clone of the Week", instead restricting themselves to exploring the character of Rachel (introduced at the end of Season 1) and briefly touching on the lives of two other clones (one solely, but still heartbreakingly, through video diaries). Other characters like Dr. Leekie, Alison's troubled husband Donnie and the ever-more-formidable Mrs. S are fleshed out further and there's some strong newcomers in the form of Michael Huisman as Cal (impressing more than his recent, underwritten appearance on Game of Thrones, it has to be said), Michelle Forbes as Marion and Ari Millen as Mark Rollins. There's still a rich vein of humour, particularly in Alison and Felix's stories, as well as tenderness. The romance between Cosima and Delphine is particularly well-handled.

Elsewhere, the show can't quite match the first season's near-effortless-seeming grace. Some characters get lost in the mix for long periods, with Art and Paul not getting very much to do. One character's return from the dead is highly unconvincing, although it does eventually lead to some of the best scenes in the series to date. The series also flirts with M. Night Shyamalanisms with the Village-esque scenes at the Prolethean farm going on for a bit too long. Also, the threat of Kira constantly being kidnapped gets old quickly and starts to get a bit too reminiscent of Hera in Battlestar Galactica. There's also a feeling that Vic gets parachuted into the show again when he doesn't really have much of a reason for being there beyond fan service, but given that his story is pretty funny we can forgive that.

If its second season is a little bit more inconsistent than the first, Orphan Black (****½) still remains the best SFF show on television thanks to its clever writing, dark humour (including the most wince-inducing death scene I've ever seen in anything) and its outrageously good performances, particularly from its leading lady. Roll on Season 3. Season 2 of Orphan Black will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the USA next week, and in the UK later in the year.

ORPHAN BLACK renewed for a third season

BBC America's Orphan Black has been renewed for a third season. The SF show about cloning and genetics (not to mention smart writing, great humour and, in Tatiana Maslany, the most outstanding actress currently working in television) recently concluded its second season to critical acclaim.

Creator/producers Graeme Manson and John Fawcett have previously said that their original planned story arc for the show would run for three seasons and would (presumably) explain most or all of the mysteries laid out at the start of the series. However, they also said the show would not be limited to just three seasons and had ideas that could be explored in further years. It's likely that Orphan Black's eventual lifespan will be determined more by how in-demand Tatiana Maslany becomes for other projects than its own popularity, which has grown immensely between seasons. Orphan Black is BBC America's most successful home-grown production and, along with its signature import Doctor Who, has helped the network grow in popularity by leaps and bounds in the past year.

Season 3 of Orphan Black starts shooting in Toronto in September and will air in Spring 2015.

ORPHAN BLACK returns to UK screens on 30 April

BBC-3 have brought forward the return of Orphan Black in the UK. The show's first season started airing in August last year, but building on the buzz for the second season the BBC will start airing it on 30 April, just a week and a half behind the USA.

Some sources are also reporting that BBC-3 will start Season 2 with a double bill, but digital planners are showing just the standard 45-minute slot so far. The move comes after the release of Season 1 on DVD and Blu-Ray was moved up from August to last week.

ORPHAN BLACK Season 2 trailer and a fun theory

Here's the first full trailer for Season 2 of Orphan Black.

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The season starts airing on Saturday 19 April on BBC America in the USA. BBC-3 will show the series in the UK, probably in August. BBC-3 is shutting down at the end of 2014, so the fate of later seasons (if commissioned) over here remains uncertain.

Here's also a fun theory proposed by SpaceChampion on the Westeros.org message board:

Interesting, though of course it doesn't entirely fit. Danielle Fournier and Janika Zingler (two of the dead clones) don't fit onto the scheme, and it requires the use of Beth's nickname rather than her full name (Elizabeth). Sarah not fitting is more explainable: her name is not the one she was born with, so that name might be the one beginning with N, P or O. 'Leda' is taken from the trailer, and may be the name of another clone, the possibly-mythical progenitor of the clones, or indeed Sarah's real name.

My Hugo Nominations list

As an attendee of this year's Worldcon, I got to nominate for the Hugo Awards. My nominations were as follows:

Best Novel
The Adjacent - Christopher Priest - Gollancz
Ancillary Justice - Anne Leckie - Orbit
River of Stars - Guy Gavriel Kay - Roc
Shattered Pillars - Elizabeth Bear - Tor
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson - Tor*

Best Novella
The Princess and the Queen - George R.R. Martin - Tor
Then Will the Great Ocean Wash Above - Ian Sales - Whippleshield Books

Best Related Work
Adventures with the Wife in Space - Neil Perryman - Faber and Faber

Best Graphic Story
The First Law - Joe Abercrombie, Chuck Dixon, Andie Tong - Blind Ferret Books
Meathouse Man - George R.R. Martin, Raya Golden - Jet City Comics

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Orphan Black (Season 1) - Graeme Manson, John Fawcett - BBC America, Temple Street Productions
Les Revenants (The Returned) (Season 1) - Fabrice Gobert - Canal+, Haut et Court
Game of Thrones (Season 3) - George R.R. Martin, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss - HBO
Pacific Rim - Guillermo Del Toro - Legendary Pictures, Warner Brothers
Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron - Warner Brothers**

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
Orphan Black: Natural Selection - Graeme Manson, John Fawcett - BBC America, Temple Street Productions
Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere - George R.R. Martin, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, David Nutter - HBO
An Adventure in Space and Time - Mark Gatiss, Terry McDonough - BBC

Best Editor (Short Form)
Gardner Dozois

Best Edtior (Long Form)
Simon Spanton

Best Professional Artist
Benjamin Carre
Stephen Martiniere
Alan Lee

Best Fanzine
A Dribble of Ink - Aidan Moher
The Speculative Scotsman - Niall Alexander
Pornokitsch - Jared Shurin, Anne C. Perry

Best Fan Writer
Aidan Moher
Niall Alexander
Jared Shurin

The John W. Campbell Award
Leigh Bardugo - First novel published in 2012
Helene Wecker - First novel published in 2013


And for the 1939 Retro Hugos:

Best Novel
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien - George Allen and Unwin***
The Sword in the Stone - T.H. White - Collins
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis - John Lane

Best Short Story
How We Went to Mars - Arthur C. Clarke - Amateur Science Stories

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells, Orson Welles - Mercury Theatre on the Air
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Walt Disney, Disney Studios - Disney Studios****

Best Editor (Short Form)
John W. Campbell

* Because no previous Wheel of Time book has ever been nominated, and because the entire series is one extremely large story, the entire series is eligible for nomination in 2014 as well as A Memory of Light by itself. Whether The Wheel of Time as a whole or A Memory of Light by itself makes the final ballot will be determined by which gets the most votes.

** Gravity is 91 minutes long, so falls within the 20% rule for determining length of eligible works, which means it can be put in either the Long-form or Short-form categories. As a movie, I think most people would put it in Long-form.

*** Though first published in Britain in 1937, The Hobbit had its first American publication in 1938, so is eligible for the award.

**** Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first screened in 1937 in a very limited run, but was not put on American nationwide release (or any kind of international release) until 1938. A final ruling on Snow White's eligibility hasn't been made, but I suspect it will be allowed if enough people nominate it.

The Wertzone Awards 2013

Best Novels

1. The Adjacent by Christopher Priest
Priest releases his second novel in two years after a decade-long gap. The Adjacent is ambitious, taking a complex idea, tying it into knots and allowing the reader to untangle it. Bolder and braver even than The Separation, this is Priest at his best.

2. River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Kay returns to his alternate China for a more lyrical and thought-provoking novel than its thematic predecessor, Under Heaven. Beautifully written, pitched perfectly and with memorable characters.

3. Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins
A strong debut, painting a vividly atmospheric picture of an alternate-reality Soviet Union. Let down a little by more being the first half of a longer novel than a book in its own right, but still a riveting read.

4. Ancilliary Justice by Anne Leckie
A new, distinctive voice in space opera. Leckie fuses the 'social science fiction' of Ursula LeGuin with a dash of Iain M. Banks to create something intriguing and fresh.

5. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
A series most people had written off a decade ago is finally brought to an appropriately epic finale. There are a few more unresolved minor plot points than might be wished, but based on the history of 'sequels by other hands' this is far better than anyone had any reason to hope for or expect.

6. Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear
A sensitive, well-written and imaginative take on fantasy, reimagining Central Asia as a hotbed of magical intrigue and struggle. A startling mix of the original and familiar.


7. The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding
Wooding brings his fantasy airship series to a conclusion. Arguably the most out-and-out 'fun' fantasy series of the last few years, and its ending does not disappoint.

8. The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
A six-year wait for this book resulted in raised expectations which did not work for some, but Lynch's clever ticking narrative timebomb over Locke Lamora's true identity and the reasons for his unhealthy obsession with a childhood crush is brutally effective. Sharp and funny, the novel is let down by a lack of stakes in the central election storyline, but Lynch leaves things on a compelling knife's edge for the next few books in the series.

9. On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds
A step-up from Blue Remembered Earth, with better characters, a stronger plot and a return to Reynolds's more traditional milieu of interstellar space. It's still not up there with his earlier novels, but this is still a compelling, well-structured read.

10. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Time travel and serial killers meet in a story which is brutally effective, if a bit too lacking in character motivation or explanation.

11. The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham
Abraham's morally ambiguous fantasy, influenced equally by Babylon 5 and the history of the Medicis, passes its middle volume with aplomb.

12. The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce
A slight let-down from Joyce: hauntingly atmospheric, well-written and completely convincing in its depiction of a place and time, but the overall impact of the novel is slight.

13. Fade to Black/Before the Fall/Last to Rise by Francis Knight

A complete trilogy, you say? Released all in one year? Impressive. Knight's debut series is rough-around-the-edges, but its magepunk stylings and main storyline are effective.

14. Queen of Nowhere by Jaine Fenn
Fenn returns to the quality of her debut novel after a couple of slightly disappointing releases in the Hidden Empire series.

15. The Grim Company by Lucas Scull
This epic fantasy debut may be more Abercrombie than Abercrombie, but it's still an effectively-paced, entertaining action story.

16. The Art of War/An Inch of Ashes/The Broken Wheel by David Wingrove
David Wingrove's Chung Kuo relaunch has run into trouble, with Corvus considering putting the series on indefinite hold after the eighth volume is released next year. This is troubling news for Wingrove's fanbase (some of who have been waiting for more than a decade and a half for the series to be completed according to the author's intentions) and newer readers impressed by the breadth and scale of Wingrove's vision. However, one can't help but think the main problem was the decision to split the series into twenty very short novels rather than ten reasonably-sized ones.

17. Parasite by Mira Grant
Above-average prose for this kind of schlock thriller make Parasite an enjoyable read, but the plot twists are spelled out in fifty-foot-tall neon letters 200 pages before they take place and the premise (itself reminiscent of Greg Bear's Blood Music) is rather credulity-straining.

18. The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
Brett scored an impressive debut with The Painted Man but has struggled ever since to match it, with its increasingly bloated sequels featuring less and less character and plot development in favour of repetitive explorations of tedious backstory. Hopefully he can turn it around in the upcoming fourth volume of the series.

The Wertzone Award for Pulling It Out of the Fire

Bringing a series beloved by millions of readers to a successful, satisfying conclusion after the death of the original author is a very tall order indeed, but Brandon Sanderson managed to pull it off. Yes, the fates of a few minor spear-carriers may be left unresolved, but overall this was a satisfyingly explosive end to a series twenty-three years in the making.

The Wertzone Award for Best Books Read in 2013 Regardless of Release Date

Four books, four five-star reviews. No other series in this blog's history has managed to pull off that feat. The Acts of Caine is a mind-blowing fusion of science fiction and fantasy, exploring character and thematic ideas against a backdrop of action and philosophy. It also manages to be 'grimdark' without resorting to cheap misogyny (most of the major characters in the series - bar Caine himself - are female). It's also bewildering how each of the four volumes in this series are written in a somewhat different manner to the rest, even occupying a different subgenre. Inventive, imaginative and unrelenting.

Best Games

1. XCOM: Enemy Within
It shows how lacklustre this year was that an expansion for a year-old strategy game was the best title released. Enemy Within expands upon XCOM: Enemy Unknown's compelling gameplay but adds new options, missions and ideas to make for a very different-feeling (but equally excellent) game.

2. Metro: Last Light
An excellent sequel to Metro 2033, with a better-pitched difficulty level, a more tragic storyline and a more convincing-feeling world.

3. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches
Dishonored was one of the best games of 2012 and these two DLCs were perfect expansions, adding interesting new ideas and storylines to that game without overloading it. The journey through Daud's soul was almost as gripping as Corvo's journey in the original game and some of the new locations and challenges exceeded the original game in atmosphere and playability.

4. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
I had mixed feelings about 2010's Wings of Liberty, but the (ridiculously) late first expansion was a much better game on almost every level. The storyline was more original and interesting, with the Zerg made into a more compelling player-race. Some major storylines stretching back all the way to 1998 and the original game are finally concluded, leaving this feeling less like the middle volume of a trilogy it really is.

5. Shadowrun Returns
One of the earliest big successes of Kickstarter, Shadowrun Returns brings old-skool gameplay to modern audiences. A more linear experience than was originally expected, blighted by the absence of a save-anywhere feature, but a solid storyline, great writing and some really good combat overcome the problems to make for a highly enjoyable RPG. However, there is still a lot of untapped potential in the engine.

6. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - Dragonborn
Dragonborn sees Skyrim bid farewell to the world with style. Providing a large, new island (or an old one, if you're familiar with Morrowind's expansions) to play around in, Dragonborn is the whole Skyrim experience encapsulated in a smaller, more manageable location with some great new ideas (even if the dragon-riding mechanic is rather terrible) and some unusually interesting (by Bethesda's standards) characters.

7. Tomb Raider (2013)
Lara Croft's first adventure in several years is a clean reboot, ably written by Rhianna Pratchett and focusing on characterisation and motivation as well as combat and exploration. Old-skool fans may be put off the lack of actual tomb-raiding in favour of combat, quick-time events and cut-scenes, but Tomb Raider makes these often-annoying mechanics work in its favour to create an enjoyable experience.

8. BioShock Infinite
One of the most visually impressive games of the year, with a highly imaginative setting and some excellent combat set-pieces. The storyline is interesting and the complicated ending works really well. However, even moreso than its forebears, BioShock Infinite is screaming out to be an RPG and seems to only sulkily settle for being an action game. The restrictions of having to lay waste to everything in sight and not being able to interact with characters badly chafe in this title, but if you can deal with this there's plenty of fun to be had.

9. Company of Heroes 2
Company of Heroes 2 is a pretty solid sequel to the original, genre-redefining RTS. However, a weaker storyline and poorer writing hamper the single-player side of things, whilst the multiplayer is not (yet) as compelling an experience as the original game. A playable and enjoyable sequel, but also one that feels a little bit too conservative.

10. Total War: Rome II
Creative Assembly are no strangers to releasing incomplete, buggy games and patching them up later on, but after two solid launches in a row, fans believed that their troubles were behind them. Instead, Rome II launched in a poor state. Four months and eight patches later the game is far more playable than it was at launch and a compelling, rich strategy experience awaits the patient. But there's still a few too many problems to be able to fairly assess the game so far.

11. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
2K's almost embarrassed attitude towards this game didn't bode well prior to release, and this turned out to be a bit of a shame. It may be Mass Effect 3 with an XCOM skin draped over it, but it still features excellent combat (better than ME3's, it has to be said), some great team mechanics and some good ideas that even the main XCOM series hasn't replicated yet (like being able to split your soldiers between different missions simultaneously). The storyline is also more twisty than you might expect, with some nice ideas emerging towards the end. Certainly not a classic - it's a little too repetitive - but definitely a worthwhile shooter.

11. Space Hulk (2013)
Stomping around a space hulk with a bunch of Terminator Marines and destroying everything in sight is, as it has always been, brilliant fun. However, a near-vertical difficulty curve and an overreliance on pure luck over strategy become frustrating long before the final missions are reached.

Re-releases

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
One of 2011's best games is re-released with its most egregious flaws - most notably the annoying boss fights - reworked into something far more palatable. What was once a flawed gem is now improved to the status of stone-cold classic.

Brutal Legend: PC Edition
This interesting RTS/RPG/action hybrid always felt more suited to the PC than console, so it's a relief to finally see it arrive on that platform. However, the failure to rework the awkward controls into something better-suited for a strategy game means that it's still failing to fulfil its potential

Best TV Series

1. Orphan Black (Season 1)

Packing more plot and character into its pilot than most shows manage into a whole season, Orphan Black arrived with a bang and never looked back. It's relentless pace never came at the expense of character development and even a couple of iffy supporting performances couldn't dent the achievement of lead actress Tatiana Maslany, whose charisma and jawdropping versatility gave us no less than seven of the best performances of the year. The only question is whether the show can maintain the same level of quality into its second season, due next year.

2. Game of Thrones (Season 3)
Game of Thrones's third season delivered two of TV 's strongest moments of the year, with the explosive finale to the fourth episode only exceeded by the horrors of the Red Wedding in the ninth and tenth episodes. Elsewhere the show occasionally struggled for pacing and some storylines were revisited a bit too often (the 'torturing Theon' storyline went on way too long, with a very dull denoucement), but overall this remains a compelling, if controversial, adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novels.

3. The Returned (Season 1)
This French drama was deliberately-paced, beautifully-characterised and awesomely-shot, with its central mystery unfolding slowly but inexorably over the course of eight episodes. An overreliance on ambiguity and a lack of explanation for what's going on suggest this Gallic Twin Peaks could turn into Lost rather too easily if the upcoming second season doesn't deliver some anwers, but for now this was one of the most intriguing new shows of the year.

4. An Adventure in Time and Space
A drama about the real-life origins of Doctor Who might sound a little dull, but Mark Gatiss's script and David Bradley's astonishing central performance as First Doctor William Hartnell are both gripping. A galaxy of excellent supporting actors and some fiendish attention to detail result in a more-than-fitting tribute to the show's 50th anniversary.

5. The Walking Dead (Season 3.5)
This really should have been better than it was, with David Morrissey's Governor finally providing the zombie drama with a much-needed main bad guy and antagonist. However, some bad pacing in the latter part of the season and too many episodes (they should have remained at 12 episodes; don't go to 16 unless you have the story to fill it) resulted in too much filler.

6. Agents of SHIELD (Season 1.0)
One of the most eagerly-awaited new shows of the year had a very ropey beginning, with badly-written scripts and confused-looking actors eventually giving way to a more compelling, pulp action show by the mid-season cliffhanger. SHIELD really needs to go for the jugular on its return, however, if it isn't to be judged a failure.

7. Doctor Who (Series 7.5 and specials)
In its 50th anniversary year, Doctor Who should really have been firing on all thrusters. However, a typically muddled, confusing and badly-explained story arc from Steven Moffat, a surprisingly subpar script from Neil Gaiman and rather poor use of new companion Clara (played with enthusiasm by Jenna Coleman) resulted in a half-season to forget. The actual 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, was surprisingly good with some great performances and a clever way of tying in with the show's ongoing storylines. However, this good work was undone by the Christmas special which addressed outstanding plot holes with all the grace and subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Roll on the Peter Capaldi era and, hopefully, a much-needed change of production team.

8. The White Queen
A historical drama about the Wars of the Roses should be absolutely brilliant, with the rich characters and gripping political intrigue of the era ripe for historical exploration. Instead, this show was completely all over the place tone-wise, with pacing that was shot to hell, excruciatingly awful battle sequences and highly variable performances. At rare moments, some strong promise shone through, but ultimately this show wasted its terrific potential on cheap melodrama.

9. Under the Dome (Season 1)
Utter, utter drek. Stephen King's rather poor novel becomes a poor TV show, complete with dire acting, predictable plot twists and a total lack of plot coherence or logic, culminating in a tepid cliffhanger. This really should have been cancelled, but we will have to endure a second season next year. Hopefully, against all likelihood, the showrunners can turn this around and allow it to start fulfilling its actually interesting premise.

Best Film

1. Pacific Rim
It's a commentary on how weak 2013 was in the cinema - and how few films I saw - that a movie about big robots hitting big monsters with rocket-powered arms was the most enjoyable thing I saw this year. Still, Guillermo Del Toro's kaiju movie was a satisfying romp, mixing in some awesome character names (only Idris Elba could pull off a guy called 'Stacker Pentecost') and a nod at a multi-national response to an international threat (most of the film is set in Hong Kong and few of the castmembers or characters are American). Del Toro also showed Michael Bay how it's done, with massive CGI set-pieces which you can actually follow thanks to some well-judged direction. The film was also notable for the difference in reaction across the world: the USA was lukewarm, but Chinese audiences brought in more than $100 million by themselves, helping the film recoup its budget and making a sequel likely.

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Peter Jackson's second Hobbit movie is the least-faithful Tolkien adaptation he's helmed, but it's still an enormous improvement on An Unexpected Journey. Better action beats, much better pacing and more inventive use of the dwarven characters result in a movie that doesn't feel as long as it is (unlike the stupefying three-hour length of the original, which felt more like six). However, there's some decidedly iffy effects moments, too many superheroics from Legolas and an ill-judged cliffhanger ending.

3. The World's End
The third and final movie in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy is also the weakest, despite some solid direction by Edgar Wright and some surprisingly good performances from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. However, the film mishandles its tonal shift from friendship drama to sci-fi action flick and too many gags fall flat. Entertaining, but ultimately much less memorable than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz.

4. Iron Man 3
Having Tony Stark suffer from PTSD in the aftermath of The Avengers is a bold idea that could have resulted in a fascinating movie. Instead, it's not long before we descend into action mayhem with more explosions than you can shake a stick at. As usual, Robert Downey Jnr. remains the most watchable actor on the screen, single-handedly preventing the movie from sinking into disposability. He even handles an ill-judged 'cute kid sidekick' subplot with some skill. Ultimately, watchable and fun

5. Star Trek - Into Darkness
It's likely that the J.J. Abams Star Trek movies are going to be remembered as films featuring a great cast desperately searching for a good script. There are brief moments in Into Darkness when it feels like they might just get it, but the ill-conceived decision to turn the movie into Wrath of Khan fanfiction (only nowhere near as good) blows it out of the water before the final act.

6. Man of Steel
Another case of a really good cast let down by an execrable script, though here the film starts going down in flames as soon as the action moves from Krypton to Earth. Structurally weak, with some awful dialogue and some of the most unconvincing CGI put on screen in a decade or more, Man of Steel is only saved from total disaster by Russell Crowe's steely-gazed presence and charisma.

Note: I haven't seen Gravity or Thor: The Dark World yet.

The Wertzone Missing in Action 2013 Award

For once, this wasn't the fault of George R.R. Martin but of some artists who allegedly were a bit late in turning in their work (though GRRM took advantage of this to deliver tens of thousands more words of material than originally planned). Originally announced in 2008 and with multiple release dates mooted and then missed, this book is currently scheduled - and finally seems a lock - for November 2014. From early sneak previews, it looks like it's going to be more than worth the wait with both compelling new backstory material and some terrific artwork.

The Wertzone Award for Best Genre-Inspired Career Boom

This may have more properly begun a decade-and-a-half ago with his casting as Argus Filch in the Harry Potter movies, but 2013 was really a bumper year for 71-year-old David Bradley. His character of Walder Frey was responsible for the most shocking moment of television of the year on Game of Thrones, whilst his performance as William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time was simply sublime. He even fitted in appearances in The World's End and Broadchurch before ending the year on a high, being cast as the lead on Guillermo Del Toro's TV series The Strain.

The Wertzone Award for Special Achievements in Eyebrow Acting

 

'Nuff said.

First ORPHAN BLACK Season 2 promo pic and interview

Entertainment Weekly have the first interview with the producers of Orphan Black, John Fawcett and Graeme Manson, and the first official publicity photo from the first episode of Season 2.

If you've seen the Season 1 finale, you may have an inkling of why Sarah might be a 'little vexed' at her clone.

We're still four months from transmission, but it's good to see BBC America and SPACE are publicising the show well ahead of time (for comparison, we're closer to the start of Season 4 of Game of Thrones, and almost no material at all has been released for that).

Teaser trailer for ORPHAN BLACK Season 2

Orphan Black was the best new SF show of 2013, despite some stiff competition from The Returned (and absolutely none whatsoever from Under the Dome; look forwards to a review soon). It's back on BBC America (in the USA), SPACE (in Canada) and BBC-3 (in the UK) next year. The following is a teaser trailer that SPACE dropped in just before airing the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, just to make all of its viewers even more excited than they had been previously.

Orphan Black returns on 19 April in the USA and Canada, and likely August again in the UK.