Ten Statements About....VAULT OF HORROR (1973)

"Now all I have to do if find a spot on the Santa Monica pier
where the tourists love British character actors..."

"It's getting dark. We always close before dark. They come out in the dark."

1) This is maybe the laziest of the Amicus portmanteau films' framing sequences. From the rather awkward start ("Hey, we're all in an elevator...why is it going to the basement? Oh, look, a club!") to its even more awkward resolution ("We're doomed to retell our evil every night in the Disco of Hell"...by who, Curt? Why?), it lacks the style, wit or dignified atmosphere of other, superior examples.

2) You know, if everyone in "Midnight Mess," the opening story, had dentition like Anna Massey's Donna, the resolution would have worked. Sadly, though, everyone except Massey's got these long saber-tooth like choppers that make it seem like they're all playing at being walruses.

(And while we're on the subject, should I be worried that I have always found Anna Massey sexy in a starchy way?)

3) Even though I will admit that there are some funny comedic beats in the fourth segment, "Bargain In Death," I wish they had allowed the second segment, "The Neat Job" to stand as the sole humorous story. Because of their previous skill at comedy, Terry-Thomas and Glynis Johns are much more effective in advancing their story while also providing satirical smiles--as opposed to the group of lesser actors mugging and overcompensating to make their laughs work in the other one.

Okay, she looks okay...but check out the walrus tusks on the
vampire to Anna Massey's left!

4) Whether you liked or hated the third segment "This Trick'll Kill You"--I thought it was okay, more or less--there are two things you have to admit--1) The rope/snake effect is actually pretty clever, and probably could have done without the slow motion and the whip cracks obviously dubbed in to sell it, and 2) Jasmina Hilton, who plays the Indian Girl who preys upon our asshated magician couple, is really, really hot.

5) The aforemetioned "Bargain In Death" is a real mess...the plot is unnecessarily convoluted, the narrative is clumsy in its execution (did we really need the main character's conspirator tell us out loud what we figured out, oh, in the first two minutes of the story?), and overtly broad in its 'comedy.' Yes, Arthur Mullard's Gravedigger is genuinely hilarious (the way he seems to be playing with the two hapless medical students, throwing dirt on them 'accidentally' is well timed)...but the sight of people's hair standing on end and running around in speeded up Keystone Kops style is winge-worthy. In a field of generally mediocre stories, this one is the story that actively stinks.

6) Of the five main characters, a pre-Doctor Who Tom Baker (this film was released a year before he became the Fourth Doctor, and apparently he was a busy boy--there's something like five entries on his cv for that year) stands out. With his wild hair, prominent beard and deep voice, he provides a startling contrast to the other soft-spoken, well-manicured types who are waiting to tell their stories.

7) Good thing, too, because Baker's story, "Drawn and Quartered" is not only the longest tale but the best. Baker is able to carry the show based on his natural charisma, and even the borderline cartoony approach to the voodoo element works because it manifests itself in a novel and visually engaging way.

8) Boy, in a film rife with some pretty unpleasant human beings, the ones in "Drawn And Quartered" takes the cake--from the art critic who manipulates Baker's artist and cheats on his wife because, you know, it's the 70's to the art dealer who thinks nothing of trying to shoot Baker because he pisses him off, these guys deserve to be shredded.

And to think I left Bushwick to play this role...

9) Not that everything in this story works--the rather obvious Native American figure in the voodoo hogun's grass hut is a particularly inept (lack of attention to) detail.

10) Look, the hero of "Bargain of Death" is seen reading the novelization of Tales From The Crypt! And the two medical students are played by the stars of Doctor In The House! How clever...no wait, NO IT ISN'T!

Overall...one of the weaker Amicus anthology films. While there are small touches that are good, especially performances by Thomas, Johns, and Baker, it doesn't hide the fact that there are four bland stories and one hold out. Definitely one to put toward the end of the queue when doing an Amicus retrospective.

Ten Statements About....THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE (1984)

The second our President (Michael Pate) sings a song
composed of the word 'bullshit' repeated ad infinitum....
you know this isn't just any super-hero movie.

Long before the Age of Reason

Evil waged unholy treason.

Believe me that no mother ever cried for Midnight."

1) So help me, I am so a sucker for mock newsreel footage. Yes, there's a certain arch tone to the opening sequence that provides us with Captain Invincible's backstory. But there's also--thanks primarily to Alan Arkin--a great deal of fun, and it's hard not to imagine how he'd do in an actual pulp adventure film.

2) This is, of course, another insane film by the insane filmmaker Phillipe Mora--and as such, we have to accept that certain things will be somewhat fluid....like simple continuity (part of Christopher Lee's scheme is to drive ethnics into ghetto communities--one of which is called 'Sicilian Heights' on the sign outside, and is refered to as 'Sicilian Villa' by the salesman, for example...and that's in the first fifteen minutes).

3) Given that Michael Pate plays the President in both this film and The Howling III: The Marsupials, I have to wonder if Mora actually has his own little universe where all these mad musings of his mind gambol together. But then, if we accept that, we have to accept that in Mora's mind the President is inclined to go into a song and dance number where he repeats the word 'bullshit' about fifty times....

I did mention this is a musical, didn't I?

Dracula sings!  Fu Manchu dances!  Sherlock Holmes...
enjoys the hell of out himself?

4) Of the ten musical numbers, many of which seem to ape different American musical genres, three are the last known songs by Richard O'Brien and Richard Hartley. And boy, do they stand out....particularly the song for Christopher Lee's Mr. Midnight, 'Choose Your Poison,' and the defacto duet of Lee and Arkin, 'Midnight.' Especially after some really rough patches, those songs give the film a jolt of energy.

5) Kate Fitzpatrick, who plays the female lead Patty, is truly dreadful. She frequently resorts to the broadest sort of pantomime to convey what she needs to (like bugging her eyes and grasping her throat to indicate she's suffocating), and actually detracts from Arkin's rather good all-in performance.

6) This film would simply not have worked without the performances of Arkin and Lee, who dive right in and approach their characters absolutely seriously. In a movie filled with caricatures and buffonery, these two actors make sure the immortal enemies Invincible and Midnight are throughly believable...and that keeps the film from sliding headlong into total and absolute nonsense.

7) I really have no idea what's going on in the sequence where it's hinted that we're about to learn Mr. Midnight's evil plan. Why is everything in Keystone Kops speed? Why is that strange monster that serves as Midnight's sidekick romping with black-lingerie clad girls? What. The. Fuck?

...and this is not the most undignified thing Phillipe Mora
asks Alan Arkin to do....

But then...it is a Phillipe Mora film and, as such, bugfuck insane.

8) It's not just that 'Choose Your Poison' is the kind of song that only O'Brien and Hartley could write, with its twisting lyrics that weave in an amazing number of alcohol and cocktail references into it....it's that Christopher Lee delivers it with such overwhelming glee. He seems to actively be having the time of his life singing and dancing in this number, and his enthusiasm is transfered to the audience.

9) With Midnight's scheme of driving all ethnic peoples off Manhattan Island and sending them afloat, I have to think that Mora thought he was doing a satire on the then still fresh in people's minds Superman films...but what interests me is how I am sure this film was an inspiration--unintentional or not--to Albert Pyun's godawful Captain America film, with its boy who worships the hero growing up to be President and asking the help of said hero many years later to stop a maniacal, fascist madman....

10) As bad as this film is in spots, it's impossible to hate something so unafraid of its own corniness as to have its hero inspired by such icons as FDR and--in the climax--Kate Smith (who apparently gave Mora permission to use her famous 1933 recording of 'America The Beautiful').

Overall...a true oddity--how many super-hero musical comedies are there in the world, let alone ones starring Adam Arkin and Christopher Lee?--that makes up for its moments of bad taste and mediocrity with the trademark Phillipe Mora nuttiness and some central performances that manages to pull this film together by sheer force of will.

Ten Statements About....SUPER (2010)

Let's be honest...this is the only thing about this film most
of you are interested in...

"Look what happened to you when you don't have a kid sidekick! You get shot by people!"

1) Maybe it's because my previous exposure to Rainn Wilson has only been when he was playing that grotesque on The Office, but I was struck here by how much more nuanced an actor he was. Throughout the first act, there's such a well-meaning patheticness to Wilson's Frank that speaks volumes about the desperation of his life. There's echoes of Dwight in his performance (an argument could be made that Frank is Dwight in the real world), but it's shorn of the broad artifice.

2) That being said, I have to wonder if this film isn't damaged by its super-hero-in-the-real-world angle. Once Frank puts on the costume of the Crimson Bolt and starts wacking people with a pipe wrench, the film loses focus for large portions of the second and third acts. Especially jarring are the moment where the darkness that infuses most of the comedy sloughs off in favor of goofiness with Wilson struggling to change in a car and playing secret identity games with him boss. The costume is the biggest thing that blurs the trajectory of Frank's character arc.

After being let go in the 80's, the Domino Noid struggled with
his identity....

3) Luckily, we have Ellen Page's thoroughly insane performance as Libby, who forces herself into the role of Frank's sidekick 'Boltie.' Spastic, energetic, and demented on every level (her laugh, which is calculatedly too manic to be natural, practically becomes an element of the score), Page gives that portion of the film a jolt, while also providing a much needed contrast to Wilson's underplaying.

(And yeah...Page's costume is hideous in concept....but the way she fills it out is anything but...)

4) While James Gunn has done some good films as a writer and director, he seems to have problems here maintaining a consistent tone. The first act is strictly indie comedy....then it veers into farce, then black comedy, then gory action thriller before finally discovering his its path back to the indie comedy it's finally revealed as being. Gunn really needs to have more control over his projects, as the sliding around from tone to tone, from genre to genre, makes the film narratively murky.

5) ...and adding to that murkiness is the quirky touches Gunn uses sometimes, like the imposition of comic art elements to key moments. That wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't done so arbitrarily. I can certainly understand the usage of comic sound effect elements during the fight scenes, but filling the screen with 'bombs' in different comic letters when Wilson says the word makes no sense.

6) Look, I know I once said I wanted to see Nathan Fillion playing Green Lantern, but after seeing him filling that yellow Holy Avenger costume like an overstuffed sausage, the opening in his mask emphasizing his double chin....I rescind that statement.

"And this is for badmouthing Steve Carrell!"

7) As Frank's, ummmm, nemesis, Kevin Bacon's Jacques is pretty damn cool. Bacon chooses to play the drug dealer not as a villain, but as a regular workaday guy. Almost all of his mayhem is executed by the people around him (headed by Michael Rooker), and he actually tries to reason with Frank at several points in the film. What that does is make his descent in the climax to a full-on murderous thug all the more impactful.

8) I almost wish we got to see more of John Elway lookalike Gregg Henry's Detective Felkner. His performance seems to hint at something more going on inside the guy's head, and his early exit from the film at the hands of Michael Rooker's Abe and his henchmen robs the film of its opportunity to do its take on the comic book trope of the policeman rival....

9) You know--and I think I blame Gunn's script for this, although it could also be my perceiving a chemistry between the actors--Linda Cardillini has a very small role as a Pet Store Employee who tries to sell Frank a pet rabbit that seemed to indicate she would have a slightly larger role. And yet she doesn't appear again, and I'm sorry that's so especially in light of how the rabbit plays a part in the film's coda.

10) I continue to be struck about how Liv Tyler--who plays Frank's wife Sarah, the character who unintentionally is the center of the story--has grown into her face finally. She's shaken off the creepy Steve Tyler-esque cast to her features, and is now just an attractive woman who is a competent actress.

Overall...while there is loads to like in this film, Gunn's script comes off as narratively ADD and could have been more successful if he didn't impose his comic book obsession on it. There are some great performances, especially from Wilson and Page, and if you're interested in some of these actors, you might want to give it a look.

Ten Statements About....COMMITTED (2000)

If you knew the things he's going to do to prove his love
to you, Heather....ewwwwwww....

"I read somewhere that the reason most relationships break down is that each partner is waiting for the other one to fix it. But if you want somebody to stand by you always, you have to be willing to do the same for them, even when they're acting like an idiot."

1) You know what's worse than a second-rate romantic comedy? A second-rate art house romantic comedy. For you see, a romantic comedy just has two people acting extreme and irrational because they're in love. An art house romantic comedy has two people acting extreme and irrational because they're in love, and there's something far, far more meaningful and spiritual that the woman needs to get on with her life.

2) I've made reference in the past to finding Heather Graham kinda insane-looking, especially around the eyes. And that look does work on some level for her here, as a small portion of the film has her, well, going insane. But the best little moments in the film are the ones where she seems to allow herself a little leeway in this rigidly structured film, like when she turns a rather dour group of partiers into dancing just by force of will.

Plus, she looks amazingly hot in red leather pants. Just saying is all.

3) What's really funny is how there's little chemistry between Graham and her husband, played by Luke Wilson--and even less chemistry between Graham and the Designated New Beau, the paper mache' artist played by Goran Visnjic...but the chemistry between Casey Affleck, playing her brother, and Patricia Velasquez, playing the gal who will become his girlfriend, is through the roof. I kept wanting the film to stop following Graham's Jolene and start following them, because their storyline seemed like it was going to be much, much more fun.

4) And speaking of Affleck--there's this strange quality with him that seems to make him empathetic with pretty damn near anyone on screen, and you believe he's invested in his character, Jay, one hundred percent...save for that weird-ass moment where it's implied he has incestuous feelings for Jolene. It's brief, but it hangs there for a long time, like a fart in church.

You can end this movie right now, Heather...Please!
For The Love Of God!

5) You know, I understand that in these films there has to be a Designated New Beau so our Heroine Trapped In A Poisonous Relationship has a guy she can walk off into the sunset with...but Goran Visnjic's Neil is so sleazy, from his admission that married women turn him on to the weird sex show he puts on for Jolene with a mannequin, that the idea of him being the Positive Choice is...ick. Just...ick.

6) Wow...So you once played a caricature Mexican trucker who tries to kill Luke Wilson in a bathrub, Mark Ruffalo? My sympathies.

7) This is one of these movies where Jolene would get exactly what she wanted at the point where Wilson's Carl is berating her for sucking away all his luck if she just revealed that it was her speaking up on his behalf to his boss (played exceptionally by a favorite character actor of mine, Dylan Baker) that made his fortunes change in El Paso. But if she did that, the film would be over at roughly the fifty-minute mark.

Boy, do I pray she's crying on the inside...

8) I think I would like Art Alexakis' brief turn as a junkie car thief if a) I didn't know that in real life he turns into a whining lil' bitch that keeps trying to trumpet his band's importance in the world of grunge, or b) I didn't know exactly when he was going to show up to return Jolene's money and reveal that her kindness did lead to his being sober.

9) As much as I hate the presence of the Wise Old Magic Man in these art house romantic comedies (which usually involve a trip to someplace urban audiences would look upon as 'exotic' and a spiritual journey led by a magical figure indicative of that exotic location's indigent people), I'll admit it--I enjoyed Alfonso Arau's turn as Grampy. He also has a great, easy chemistry with Graham, and makes me wonder if the film would have worked if it eschewed the romantic angle and focused on her studying under him to become some sort of shaman. The strange magic realist grace notes (i.e. a trouble doll of Carl Jolene fashions is thrown from a moving cop car, and the next time we see Carl, his leg is broken) only emphasizes that this should have been the way the film should've gone.

10) Boy, that final seven minutes, with it's 'Looks, I's Empowered' montage followed by the half-baked resolution of Carl and Jolene's story (including Graham doing exactly what she said wouldn't work to Wilson at one point because it's a cheap 'woohoo' punch the air moment) is painful to watch.

Overall...God help me, but Heather Graham--Heather Graham!--is better than this. So is pretty much everyone involved with this film.

Except for Art Alexakis. Him, he deserves being trapped in this cookie cutter romantic comedy hiding behind its indie 'depth' in an attempt to fool us into thinking its more meaningful.

Ten Statements About....GET BRUCE! (1999)

"It's a very interesting, intricate kinda relationship between a comedy writer and a person who's scared to death they wouldn't be funny."

1) This film is solely based on the premise that Bruce Vilanch is The Greatest Comedy Writer Ever And You Will Love Him. If you don't...and boy howdy, don't I...well....

2) And the weirdest part of all the schmoozing and slurping of Vilanch is how contradictory the main body of the film is with the clips used as proof. There seems to be a definite disconnect here, as everyone is praising him for being so timeless and eternal when every clip namedrops then current celebrities that are pretty much ciphers at this point (Linda Tripp? Paula Dean? huh?)

3) However, what is interesting is those moments that give us insight into the process of writing comedy. Especially fascinating is the way director Andrew J. Kuehn contrasts how Vilanch develops routines for two of the four major interviewees. Seeing how Billy Crystal has him come to his home and works over things meticulously as opposed to how Robin just has him feed concepts and idea he can rift on reveals what may be Vilanch's real talent of reflecting what is the comedian's strengths back at them. That being said...

4) Man, does Robin Williams come off as a stunted post-adolescent, cock-obsessed jackass in this film. Watching him doing these weird, borderline racist riffs on The X-Files and relying almost fully on impersonations, Williams is served the poorest.

(Although even I will admit that the whole 'what if Jack Benny was Mulder section of said rift is pretty funny.)

5) Crystal, however, shows a real intelligence and thoughtfulness about his craft, and hearing him reason out how he worked out specific gags with Vilanch actually improves his status in my eyes.

6) The other two main interviewees are Whoopi Goldberg and Bette Midler. Goldberg comes off a touch disingenuous, and seems to be defending herself and some of her choices (especially that Ted Danson Black Face thing) a little too much.

7) Midler's segment, on the other hand, is of note because it's mainly about how Vilanch exposed her to older comediennes, especially Sophie Tucker, that allowed her to discover and develop her own stage identity. It's cool not only because it gives us more of the process, but shows us Vilanch not as Comedy Writing Messiah, but as someone shaping and advising someone just starting out. I wish we saw more of that and less of the endless streams of celebs bowing down before him.

8) There are a couple of other interviewees I wish Kuehn has spent more time with--especially George Schlatter, who shows a lot of insight in the few moments we hear from here.

9) If the whole purpose of this film is to tell people How Wonderful Bruce Is, Kuehn should probably not have used as much footage of him performing on his own because, quite frankly, he sucks, and his lack of talent only emphasizes how baseline and without wit he is when he is on his own. Hell, the delight he takes on the concept of making a fart joke out of news of a gas leak pretty exemplifies everything that doesn't work about the flick.

10) That being said...the one moment where we see him on stage at a benefit, struggling with genuine emotions and the jokes he wrote for himself, is the single instance where we learn what he's like for real. For this film to work, we needed more of that and less of Bette Midler doing an insincere 'I love you, Bruce' and then scolding the filmmaker for not cutting afterwards.

Overall...a puff piece through and though that needed more of the process and genuine emotions and less kissing of the less-than-impressive Vilanch's too-wide ass.

Ten Statements About....SLAM DANCE (1987)

"I wanted to be different for a long time. But I was the same. I was always the same. I can't go back."

1) I now understand why Tom Hulce didn't have the career so many people thought he would after Amadeus...dude's got a Bobble Head. I mean, his melon is so huge. His inability to actually convince me he's in danger all the while he's being chased around by the New Wave Scumbag Detectives might have something to do with it as well.

2) Since this is an attempt to recast a noir story in a New Wave context, we've got a number of characters played by actual New Wave musicians. Adam Ant, playing Hulce's agent, is actually pretty good (and it's not for nothing that Mr. Ant had an actual career in Hollywood for a few years, mainly playing heavies), as is John Doe as one of the New Wave Scumbag Detectives (and like Mr. Ant, Doe had a small acting career as well), but Mitchell Froom is a little too 'Kid Playing Cowboy'...and since he has the largest role of the three, I'm not impressed.

3) It's interesting how the deeper Hulce's Drood gets into the mystery, the color palette of the film subtly changes, with the brighter reds and blues of the New Wave portion is swapped for the darker, more sombre tones more appropriate for a film noir.

4) Boy, I think my friend Derrick is right...Harry Dean Stanton was born a middle aged man. I do find it amusing that Stanton has the most new-wave name (Detective Smiley--and we do learn down the line that it is his actual name!), and is the most noirish character.

5) Now this film runs an hour and forty minutes--but it would run a little under ninety minutes if director Wayne Wang hadn't indulged in his art-house sensibilities and given us a number of very, very lengthy montages. Hell, the next-to-last scene includes something like three or four minutes of Hulce's preparation for what he's about to do.

6) And Wang's art-house-iness also invades the mystery itself. At its core it's about a sex scandal--but since Wang puts such a peculiar spin on said sex scandal (why are the men wearing Scuba masks? Why is Virginia Madsen sitting in a shallow fountain?), it actually serves to muddy the water rather than illuminating it. Hell, I didn't realize there was a sex scandal until the film was halfway over, even though the scandal is introduced very early on in the film's running time.

7) And speaking of Virginia Madsen....My God, does she fill out that one party dress exquisitely (that was the main selling point of the film in its original run after all). Her role is extremely small, but she does fill it out well.

And yes, I did intend that statement to have a whiff of double entendre....

8) Adam Ant in tiny blue shorts and a snapback cap with a comical moose face on it....some things cannot be unseen.

9) This is one of those neo-noirs--Romeo Is Bleeding is another one-- where there's not a single character who's really sympathetic. And, like Romeo Is Bleeding, the realization that the main character's wife is as scummy as everyone else is the one that sinks the film as a whole for me.

10) And sadly, this is one of those films where the director dresses the film up in the trappings of a social movement without making the film unique to said social movement. It's not as bad as the so-called psychedelic films of the 60's in that respect, it is pretty disingenuous.

Overall...at times very frustrating in its art-house-iness and seeming disinterest in being the new wave detective story it claims it is, this is still intriguing as an artifact of it's time...and, to be fair, it was for the longest time the only place you could hear my favorite Stan Ridgway track of all time, the demented 'Bing Can't Walk.'

Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY TEN: THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH (1964)

"Seig Hie--EX-TER-MI-NATE!  I mean EX-TER-MI-NATE!"

"We do not release prisoners. We are the Masters of The Earth."

"Not for long."

1) I will acknowledge that I am too young that I don't appreciate the real reason this show must've had the impact it did when it first aired. The WWII similes come hard and fast throughout the show (this really is the story than cements the Daleks=Robot Nazis concept), and while it's not as unsubtle as, let's say, Torchwood: Miracle Day, it is very, very present throughout.

2) Unlike other 'companion falls in love and leaves the Doctor' final stories ("Hi, I'm Leela, fierce warrior of a primitive culture...and now I's in lurve with wimpy Gallifreyan Guard Guy I have two, three scenes with"), Susan's storyline is very well constructed. Terry Nation makes certain Susan and David have lots of screen time together to build their chemistry and make you believe that they are in love...and I find it interesting that the final decision is The Doctor's, choosing to give her a home rather than selfishly keeping her for himself. It sort of signifies a point in the Doctor's character arc as well as Susan's.

3) We've got another example of Hartnell's struggle with his health as not only do we get him stumbling over his lines, we get in episode four...The Doctor falls insensate so Hartnell can rest for a while! The way this development is introduced is so hamfisted, it's hilarious. And speaking of hilarious....

"It's time you had a life of your own, my child...besides, your
weird-ass face is quite frankly creeping me out...:

4) WHAT. The. Fuck. That Slyther thing....Ye Gods, that's an awful monster. And I love the fact that it's apparently The Black Dalek's 'pet'....doesn't that imply a level of affection the Daleks just aren't capable of? But then....

5) Even at this early point in the series' existence, it's obvious the 'greater-than-four episodes' structure for longer stories start to seem overextended very easily. Not only the whole time waster of the Slyther seems gratuitous, the whole side trip with the women in the shack in the woods could be cut whole without any disruption to the flow of the story.

6) Was I the only one who wanted Barbara at some point to grab Jenny by the collar and punch her repeatedly? Especially after all the 'I'm a ballsy tough broad who will do anything to survive' bullcrap she keeps spouting....only to collapse into a pile of pork gelatin once she's captured by the Daleks in episode five. Ann Davies' portrayal pisses me off.

7) Dortmunn...I understand intellectually why this character existed in the story (The parallels to him and Roosevelt are hard to escape)...but maybe it's Alan Judd's portrayal, maybe it's the way the character is written, but I just don't buy his role. His death, meant to be heroic and bittersweet, just seems anticlimactic to me.

"...and we take bread and fruit and dip it in the cheese...it's
the party idea of the century!"

8) What I did think was effective was the shots of Barbara, Jenny and Dortmunn running through the empty streets of London, and seeing Daleks wandering around recognizable London landmarks. They ground the story in a weird reality that makes the invasion seem realer.

9) Overall the design sense of this story contributes greatly to the atmosphere and reality of the narrative. Simple things like the Dalek lettering seen throughout the show, or the 'vetoed' signs on artwork and museum pieces all lend veracity to the idea that this is a recognizable city that something truly terrible happened in.

10) Here's something that nags me about Dalek stories as a whole--wouldn't they be more effective, especially given how Episode One's cliffhanger is the appearance of a Dalek out of the water of the Thames, if the story wasn't named 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth?' Apparently, the story at one time was called simply 'The Invaders,' and I can imagine the chill that would go through me if I didn't expect that shot.

Overall...I know a lot of people hail this as a classic, but the truth is it's overlong and somewhat all over the place. Sure, there are some nice moments, but it could have benefited from being shorter and/or more focused. Still, an important story in the development of the show and required viewing.