Walker S3 Discussion

[Adam]

THE CIRCLE IS ABOUT TO BE BROKEN – WALKER RETURNS FOR THIRD SERIES

Production has officially begun on the third series of WALKER, the critically acclaimed hit show from the makers of The Heretic and The DSR, which is set to return to MZP-TV in the summer of 2011.

The highly anticipated premiere sees JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS return as troubled Knight Alec Walker, alongside MIRANDA RAISON as Chloe Parker, LEONARD ROBERTS as Jackson Byers, JAMES MCAVOY as Jonathan “Flame” Colby and PHILIP GLENISTER as John Henry Boone.

Joining the cast for the third season are ANDREW BUCHAN and SOPHIA MYLES. Andrew Buchan (Party Animals, The Fixer) will reprise his recurring role of loyal MI-16 agent John Wexler on a regular basis for the third season. Acclaimed film and television actress Sophia Myles (Hallam Foe, Spooks, Neighbourhood Watch) will join the cast as the beautiful, serene and deadly Neriah Starling, member of an ancient order of monastic warriors. The role was specifically written for Miss Myles, who had previously worked with the producers on the acclaimed mini-series Dominion.

Confirmed guest stars for the third season include RUFUS SEWELL (The Pillars of the Earth, Sherlock Holmes and the Scandal in Bohemia), KEELEY HAWES (Ashes to Ashes), WHITNEY ABLE (Monsters), TREVOR EVE (Waking the Dead, The DSR), DANIEL MAYS (Ashes to Ashes), MIRA FURLAN (Babylon 5, Lost) and ADRIAN LESTER (Hustle), with recurring stars DAVID MORRISSEY and OLIVIER MARTINEZ reprising their roles as Mr Jones and Michel Gideon respectively.

It was also recently confirmed that ROMOLA GARAI would be returning to the role of Sara Kennedy for multiple episodes this season.

The series, which will consist of fifteen episodes, will be written by series creator ADAM SCOTT (The Heretic, Kings Cross) and Executive Producers A.J. BLACK (The DSR, Star Trek: Premonition) and PETE D. GASKELL (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Staff writers on the show include CHRIS HAIGH (Chosen) J.B. GIBSON (The Pillars) and will feature the writing debut of prolific reviewer TRIX.

The series, produced by Back Room Productions for MZP-TV, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2011.

[Adam]

Take it away folks!

[Dino]

Looking forward to this Adam. I've still yet to read Absolution and Nightingale, but I hope to make time for this. I'll probably be busy writing in the second half of next year. Anyway! Looking forward to seeing what happened next!

[Trix]

and will feature the writing debut of prolific reviewer TRIX.

I don't know about anyone else but that is scary stuff right there!

[Adam]

I'm pleased to announce that Walker's third season will launch on MZP on Monday May 16th, with episode two airing the day after on Tuesday 17th and the rest of the series continuing every Monday after that.

[Tony O'Stark]

Guess what everyone? WALKER IS BACK TOMORROW!!!!!!
 

[Chris Wilson]

 

I cannae wait.

[Adam]

Not long now. I'm going to try to get episode 1 up before I go to work tomorrow. And don't forget episode 2 goes live on Tuesday.

[Adam]

And there you have it, folks - episode 1 of the new season is live!

All reviews greatly appreciated, and don't forget - episode 2 airs tomorrow!

[Adam]

And there's episode 2 online right now! Enjoy!

[Pete D. Gaskell]

Er, anyone home? Guys?

WALKER IS BACK!

 

COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE MAN

And how! This season kicks off in some style with a sweeping tale, set on a much larger playing field than ever before. In that respect, I'll compare this to Doctor Who's latest The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon episodes with its scope and scale.

There's a fizz and a panache to this episode that feels like a fresh start - this is Walker going big - and it works! Hopping across two continents and several countries, this is the story told on a much larger playing field than ever before. Even the action sequences are bigger, more expansive and more creative than I've seen here - the excellent chase at episode's end, whilst a nod to the van chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark, is probably the best set-piece the series has yet produced.

But it's not all eye-popping extravaganza. There's plenty of great character work here too. Having been at his lowest ebb in Absolution, Alec is much more like the man we knew and loved before - albeit with a darker edge - as exemplified by the cracking teaser.

This episode is really all about building bridges for Alec - having had the safety blanket of Baines (who is once again a scene-stealer) to fall back on for much of Absolution and the beginning of this episode, he's flung into the deep end, working alongside the new character of Neriah Starling. Neriah makes an instant impression as a sexy, sassy, serene and mysterious figure - and her interplay with Alec sizzles (albeit in a non-romantic sense).

The big reunion of the episode, though, is when Alec and Chloe stumble back into each other's lives - the ensuing scenes between them are probably the most dramatic of the episode, and play out beautifully. There's still plenty of hurdles to overcome, but a start has been made. Of course, the BIG reunion is still to come...

The absence of Jackson and Boone from this episode actually feels like a good move here - throwing them all into the mix would have taken away from the reunion of Alec and Chloe - plus the new character of Neriah needed an episode to settle in - and she's an explosive addition to the team.

That's not to mention Flame - who's discovered monogamy - which should be an interesting direction for his character to move in, particularly as we see the extent of the double-crossing that this involves...

We get our clearest indications yet that the Circle are going to be the main antagonists for Alec and co to deal with now - and it seems that we'll be seeing a lot more of them in the future. The introduction of the MacGuffin of the season, the Blood Stones, adds a suitably Indiana Jones-esque flavour to the goings-on as well. (Best Indy reference, though, has to be the "making it up as we go" line...)

All in all, an incredibly confident start to the new season - continuing the trend of fantastic Walker episodes of late, and starting this season off with a bang...

Character of the Week:
Alec. For obvious reasons, but once again he is very much the driving force of the episode. The plot may be about Stones and ruins, but the story is decidedly that of his attempts to rebuild lost friendships.

Quote of the Week:
Alec: The hair. Makes you look like a hooker. (grins) I like it.

Rating:
8/10

[Adam]

And there's 303 online. Enjoy!

[Pete D. Gaskell]

FORSAKEN

And so back to the UK we go for Episode 2 here - and this episode feels a lot more traditionally Walker, after the epic, expansive season opener. Smaller-scale and more domestic.

This episode also sees the return to the fold of Jackson and Boone. Jackson in particular is a changed man since we last saw him - with a new demeanour and role in the team. His reunion with Alec can best be described as shaky, but now's not the time for their big moment. Not yet.

Boone, meanwhile, finds himself steering a course through the main plot of the episode, which concerns itself with vampire politics, and the fallout of the collapse of the Cain. It's dense and complicated stuff, and for me at least, could have done with a little more breathing space. The physical confrontation, fun though it is, also comes off as a little forced - the Solomon chanting at the end is a little cringey. That being said, Solomon himself is a great character - and Adam absolutely nails Adrian Lester's speech patterns.

It's Alec's journey, though, that's most interesting - here he's trying desperately to find his place in Sixteen again - trying to fit in. He begins by taking the blame for everything and generally acting as a doormat - the fire that drives him isn't there any more. It takes him most of the episode to recover it, but when he does, it's a bit of a punch-the-air moment!

The rooftop chase is a tense, exciting action set-piece, too - but the stand-out scene for me was the conversation between Alec and Neriah when Alec's at his lowest point. A bit of humour, a bit of sass, and plenty of emotion. Neriah really fits in to this ensemble already.

All in all, a solid follow-up to the season opener, doing a good job of bringing Alec back into the fold and allowing for what should be one of the last episodes to deal with the fallout from S2. Good stuff.

Character of the Week:
Alec. It's he who once again has the strongest arc of the episode, and it's a good journey he goes on, recovering his role in the team and proving his worth in style.

Quote of the Week:
Neriah: Don't panic, if I was planning on trying to seduce you I'd have worn a shorter skirt than this.

Rating:
7/10

[Adam]

And that's episode 4 online, and I'm pleased to announce it marks the debut of the one and only Trix to the world of writing! Hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I did, it's a huge honour to have her debut as a writer on my show.

[Pete D. Gaskell]

THE ALCHEMIST

Another solid entry for the season written by Adam - his seventh episode written in a row!

This episode takes the opportunity to really delve into Jackson for one of the first times in the entire series - and it's a good choice here, considering we've seen Alec's side of the affair for several episodes now.

And we get to see several sides to his character here - not only the heartbroken man recovering from the loss of Kate, but also a Jackson getting accustomed to being the leader of the team. That's an interesting move in and of itself, providing new avenues to explore.

But no matter how hard he attempts to not let the death of Kate define him - the memories linger on, and leads to a particularly powerful climax.

Jackson's story isn't over yet, though - far from it - there's enough hints to suggest that there's more to come between him and Alec - that was kept nice and subtle here.

The character of Costello was a wonderful antagonist for this episode - a woman driven by grief, blinded to the acts of villainy she was causing in her desire to see her daughter live again. This creates a neat parallel with Jackson, but it's also good to see a villain as being more misguided than truly evil. Another great little character was that of Vasic, who had many of the best moments in the episode, typically with Alec and Boone. A proper cheeky chappy - and it's a shame that he died.

The episode wasn't perfect, though - the climax felt a bit rushed and begged the question as to why the team didn't move in earlier than they did, Chloe was sidelined a bit too much, and the Flame subplot she was involved with dragged a bit. Although it did set up a cracking last scene!

To conclude - a good little much-needed character episode for Jackson, really helping to cement his place in the team. Good work!

Character of the Week:
Jackson. As I've said previously, this episode was heavily focused on him, and he rose to the challenge well, with several angles to his character seen, and plenty of promise for the future.

Quote of the Week:
Boone: If God thinks someone's scum who needs to have his testicles handed to him then who am I to argue?

Rating:
7/10

[Pete D. Gaskell]

THE WATCHER IN THE RAIN

And so here we go with the debut script of our most prolific reviewer, Trix!

It's fitting, actually, that for her first script, Trix has the task of developing another new arrival for this season in the form of the mysterious new regular, Neriah. This episode examines two of Neriah's closest relationships - her twisted history with Dukes, and her budding friendship with Alec.

And it's here that this episode excels - there's several good scenes between Neriah and Dukes that really dig deep into her character, and are the stand-out moments. (Though the overall highlight for me has to be the Boone/Hobson scene - a chance for Boone to engage in some Gene Huntery!)

Trix also seems to be very good at describing the action sequences - there's some vivid images in there, particularly the Dukes breakout.

It feels a bit unfair to judge Trix's writing, considering this comes hot on the heels of an excellent run of scripts by the head honcho himself, but her inexperience does show through at times.

Like many first-time writers, the dialogue seems to be the toughest element to get right - quite often here it is perfunctory and dry, lacking the flair needed to make it jump off the page.

The most noticeable criticism, though, is that scenes tend to rush through a little too quickly, often not wringing as much emotion out of the big moments as there could have been.

A few other complaints that Trix wouldn't have been responsible for are noticeable here too. In a rare lapse of continuity, Kennedy takes a much more proactive role here than ever before - surely Jackson should be the one in charge of the operation, with Kennedy overseeing? It jars with what we've established this season so far, so that's a shame.

Something else that surprised me was the amount of punctuation errors that crept in - odd capitalisations, sentences broken in odd places - stuff I didn't expect, and that took me out of the script a little too.

Overall, though, this is a good debut script - Trix should take heart from that, and build on the experience for the future!

Character of the Week:
Neriah. This is HER episode - and we learn far more about her here than we have before. She now truly feels like a regular member of the team, so on that score - very well done.

Quote of the Week:
Boone: You made me run and now I'm getting wet. You really want to do the back and forth?

Rating:
6/10

[Monster Zero]

Alec and Baines make for an enviously good team, and watching them deck thugs around the world and trade Shakespeare quotes could easily be a show all by itself, but by adding Neriah to the mix we start to move back towards a more standard Walker team dynamic. I can’t help but feel that Sophia Myles doesn’t quite fit how Neriah is portrayed here – Sophia’s short and curvy, whereas Neriah seems to be visualised more as a tall, slim kind of girl. Recurring villain Rattigan gets his setup, and the web that Flame’s gotten himself into by romancing Rattigan’s daughter gives him a solid role to play – he’s a character who can get lost in the shuffle, so it makes sense to keep him in play with regards the seasonal arc. Once Chloe and Wexler show up it’s business as usual almost, with Gideon and the Blood Stone providing the rest of the arc setup for this year. There’s a great homage to the Raiders truck chase sequence, a sense of the status quo settling back in and a final twist with Vanessa all to digest too – there’s no danger of this episode slowing down at all! A crowded but well-paced opener that has to juggle a lot but succeeds well with it, managing to allow time for character beats in between the rapid plot movement.

[Monster Zero]

And now we get to the flipside of Walker’s DNA, the vampire houses. After some surprisingly dark turns with the plots in S2, things have been quiet on the Houses front for a while but this marks a welcome return for Boone and the convoluted but always entertaining politics of the vampire nation. Alec and Jackson’s tense meeting leads to Alec showcasing his new, more agreeable attitude at MI-16, although with that and the Alec/Chloe tension back in place let’s hope things don’t stay awkward for too long – it rarely makes for good reading long term to see characters fumbling around each other all year. The more penitent, apologetic Alec may not necessarily be a good thing, although at least Boone has the sense to notice that. Boone getting the meaty political plot shows what a difficult situation he’s up against, but by boiling things down to a fight we avoid having to spend page after page in a boardroom debate to settle matters. A decent case to get Alec working properly with MI-16 again, and also tied intelligently to Boone’s sub-plot, so despite the dialogue-heavy nature a lot happens here as well. That said, with both this and the premiere running long even for a one-hour there’s a risk of sacrificing good pacing for crammed scripts.

[Monster Zero]

The historical angle and getting to the mission briefing early makes this feel like a solid, typical story – Jackson’s increased authority gives him a degree more to do (as well as Alec’s hint that he has a more personal stake in this one), but there’s still a few too many people fighting for screen time in Walker at the moment. Wexler always feels rather surplus, but by downgrading Flame to a recurring that allows a little more breathing room for the rest. Alec and Neriah seem to make a much more fluid team in the fluid, being more honed to each other’s style than Alec has been with anyone else so far – Alec and Chloe seem particularly disconnected right now. However, with the story playing out across multiple levels we again get a nicely packed episode, but again the longer running time knocks the pacing. All three scripts so far could do with being at least 5 pages shorter. Bonus points for the good motivation behind Costello’s crusade – I always like my villains and antagonists to have a solid reason for what they do, even more so when it makes sense to people who aren’t them! Unfortunately, that means we have a story built largely around people in a room, talking, although Alec and Jackson’s face off over the Kate situation is a good one, as is Flame struggling to deal with the mess he’s getting himself into. Jackson’s final confrontation with Costello is great stuff, settling a lot of the issues he has with Alec so thankfully that means much less awkwardness around the office!

[Pete D. Gaskell]

I love the fact that the two people left who give scores out of 10 have actually given exactly the same scores for each episode this season so far...