Bond. James Bond.

Everyone has a beginning. Each character has an origin. There’s always a first story to tell.

For the flagging, tired movie series such as the James Bond franchise, it’s obvious that it is showing wears and tears throughout the twenty-something film history. You can tell that it was getting old.

You’d think of retiring the character. Something like this would be hard to jumpstart.

Yet they’ve managed to pull it off with stylistic flair in the most recent James Bond flick Casino Royale that’s based off the first Ian Fleming book. The film opened in theaters yesterday Nov. 17.

I cheated and went to see it during the matinee to avoid the crowds. But I was surprised by the results of the film. I didn’t think it was going to make it.

This film is very massive. But it’s going back to the basics. Sort of the retooling we’ve been seeing in many other flailing movie series recently. And James Bond is stripped down to the real basic, raw energy that was sorely lacking in since the old days in the 1960s. There’s less on the gadgets and more emphasis on the quick wit.

James Bond gets a new facelift in the actor Daniel Craig who gives a clever performance that’s edgy. The blonde bond, some might call him. It’s a refreshing take for the actor to boil everything down to brawn and brains. And nothing else.

The first four minutes is filmed in black and white that’s sort of film noir, showing the character at the start of his career. He hasn’t made any killings yet. But it takes two kills to get a double-O title. So it’s interesting to see how the character received his distinction.

But he's a brutal pig. He’s become a killer in the world of spies. Even his boss M, played beautifully by Judi Dench, can’t trust this loose cannon.

More back to the basics stuff involved Bond getting the Austin Martin—which is a nice throwback to the 1960s. It’s a much sleeker, classier car, almost a ghostly beauty about it. Even the dialogue in this film was crisper, a little more choppy, but that’s how people talk. Short, broken sentences. Not the long-winded speeches or the unnecessary one-liners. No. The conversations seemed more realistic. This is the real thing.

There are two things that need to be said about Bond. Women want to love him and men want to beat him. And Daniel Craig got both sides of the Bond character down very nicely. His piercing blue eyes are like fiery abysses. His looks aren’t the greatest—but there’s a certain rawness in his character that seems primal, intense, like a caged beast wanting to let out. He’s a killing machine set upon the civilized world. It’s an interesting performance.

Bear in mind that Craig has signed on to do two more films. That’s good.

The film’s pacing can be very frantic especially the first B&W scene which establishes the character. Then there’s the follow-up with the chase through the construction site as Bond tracks down a bomber. It’s very intense stuff. Those folks who don’t like heights might want to be aware that some of the fight scenes happens at the top of a tall skyscraper.

The story remains central on the Bond character as he reacts to the women he becomes involved with. Rule number one: never get involved with someone if you’re in a job that kills people. But he does anyway. He has his flaws. He’s got a fat ego. He’s cocky. Nobody likes a smart-ass. Despite his savagery, there’s still a part of humanity to explore.

The better part of the story remains at the heart of a flawed hero. There’s a tragedy in it. But broken hearts make for a good story. And we see a very good one in a film that’s re-inventing a myth.

And no, I don't care if I want my martini shaken or stirred either.

Doctor Who Restoration

The Doctor Who series went through a purge at the BBC vaults during the 1970s. These episodes took up too much space on the shelves. So what did the BBC do? Purge the shows to make more room.

So who suffers the most from such a blatant move? The episodes from the Doctor Who series from 1963 to 1969. Mainly the B&W era. Nearly a hundred 25-minute segments were lost during the purge. Damned to oblivion, never to return to their former glory.

The purge. It sounds like a force to be reckon with. It is a source of brutality of art. The most heartless, incessant maneuver ever devised at the BBC archives. For what?

For newer viewers, there’s no way of viewing the episodes that were originally broadcast before they were born. For older viewers, their cherished memories of the series are forever lost in a sudden, reckless swipe.

Idiots, idiots, idiots. They should never be forgiven for this. But they are making up for it. Sort of. There’s a recent answer to rectifying the problem.

What if there’s some way to fill in the gap and make the entire show whole again? There are ways to do this now due to newer technology. And Cosgrove Hall, an animation company, pose this question for a long time.

And they may have found the closest way of reviving the episodes from the limbo once again. Building it all from scratch. Cosgrove Hall and the BBC worked together to bring forth an eight part serial called “The Invasion” first shown in 1968. It was recently released on DVD in mid-November.

But parts one and four are missing. So what happened? Cosgrove Hall decided to animate the episodes by using old soundtracks with the original voices on it.

What comes out is an interesting conglomeration between animated episodes and those that survived in 1968. It’s a brilliant move… and the BBC should be thanked for making such a bold move. Besides, it was the BBC who lost the shows during the mighty purge anyway. What were the dorks of BBC thinking anyway?

The results are a clever mix. You finally get to see what happened in parts 1 and 4. The bridges lost in the original run are finally brought together in a whole. The animation is a work of art using a trick called flash frames. Basically it is using 25 frames per second, looking more like a cartoon series.

The characters are photogenic. The movements are fluid, very smooth, and it’s a wonder to see what happened during the Bermuda Triangle of episodes. No longer are they missing. They have been recreated through animation and original soundtrack. It's great stuff.

Patrick Troughton played the Doctor from 1966 to 1969, an era which offered a sort of monster mash, Created from scratch were a horde of new, popular creatures such as the Yeti and the Ice Warriors. A wonderful era that went for atmosphere and mood, hardly tainted by the B&W images that seemed to augment the horror elements. And returning villains such as the Cybermen were always back to menace the Doctor. There was a sense of mystery Troughton always played on.

The Cybermen are the centerpiece villains for the “Invasion” episode brought to life. In perfect timing too. Considering their return to the new Doctor Who series this year at the BBC.
“The Invasion” remains a very stoic piece of filmmaking, very frantic pacing, with a powerful storytelling about humanity vs. machine. Several great performances including the crudley-faced oddball Kevin Stoney and Nicholas Courtney making his second appearance as the much beloved Brigadier Leghbridge-Stewart.

Troughton was the perfect choice for the restoration of lost episodes of Doctor Who. Of the earlier shows, his era suffered the most from the sudden purge. Nearly two-thirds of his series had been struck down. There’s a kind of sadness for those who had never seen his episodes. But this might be changing. It will depend on how well received “Invasion” is on DVD.

So what about the number of episodes lost during Troughton era? Will we get to see those as well?

Only time will tell.

Beyond Bats

Even the darkest corner of the architectural madness, like Gotham City, needs a spot of sunlight. Otherwise the streets snake through the city like a pulsing bloodstream infected with disease. The near future is riddled with crime that never seems to stagger.

Thankfully that small ray of hope comes in the nocturnal form of Batman.

But this is a different kind of Batman. He’s younger, more updated, with a bit of the amateur side. He’s still learning all the moves of Batman. He’s just a teenager named Terry McGinnis who has the normal problems of any boy his age: girls, school and a job.

His part-time job involves working for Bruce Wayne, the original Batman who took care of crime city generations ago. But he’s old now, nearing eighty, his features carved with many more hardships, a bitterness that seems to grow haggard. Yet there’s still a striking vitality in his eyes. Much of the character brilliantly voiced by Kevin Conroy, a long-time mainstay in the Batman mythos.

Welcome to the second season of Batman Beyond. It debuted on Oct. 24 as a DVD box set brought forth by Warner Brothers. Plenty of fanciful treats and extras in this well packaged set. There’s 26 episodes stashed away on 4 discs for those cartoon lovers wanting to indulge in the world of animation.

The number of shows comes with the Emmy award winning “Splicers” which is basically a drug-related episode. It does have an interesting variation on the drug theme—showing the bad side-effects of taking drugs. It could be debated on whether this particular installment deserves an Emmy or not. Though it’s not one of my favorites off the set. Still, it’s a good season opener for the series with more to offer.

McGinnis is still a punk who needs to get the hang of being a superhero, making mistakes as he goes along. And they’re huge mistakes that sometimes nearly costs his life. But he’s got pretty big shoes (or bat boots) to fill.

His continual relationship with his girlfriend often strains as there is, at one point, a time when he actually cheats on her. McGinnis goes through a tougher racket fighting his inner demons as he tackles folks like Shriek, Inque and Curare.

The nice thing about this second season, while not the best of the three, is the character development. Some of the supporting cast gets a nice spotlight, especially the aged Bruce Wayne. Who is, in my mind, still the BATMAN. He gets to kick around a few punks with his cane. He’s still a tough curmudgeon to wrestle at his ripe age.

Bruce Wayne gets out of his cave once in a while, traveling the sunken abyss that was his city. He plays the role of the mentor to the newfound guardian of Gotham City. And yes, he's still crabby.

There’s the introduction of 17-year-old girl Maxine seems to be unnecessary as the Batman already enlists Bruce Wayne as his connected source to technology, computers and detective hints. But it may be possible that her character, a very bright high school colleague, may grow within the next and final Batman Beyond season.

Some of the animation turned out to be pretty decent while others lapsed. The drawing of “Eggbaby” and “Zeta” wasn’t too particularly good, looking very rushed and hampered.

But there’s some definite solid animation in “Final Cut” with a returning silent assassin from the previous year. I thought “Eyewitness” and “Babel” were highlights in the series. “Babel” takes on several biblical references as sounds begin to grow into chaos and horror. It’s interesting to see, or hear in this case, how language barriers can disrupt society. Even in a modern-day technological world.

There’s enough atmosphere that falls like a dark blanket across the city of Gotham and a wariness grows in these old buildings of broken neighborhoods chewed away by passing years. It would take courage and youthful enthusiasm for Batman to face the fate of the future.