Posts Tagged ‘Eureka’

Since its the time of year when people post lists here are the top 11 most visited of my blog posts for the year.

1. The Expendables

2. Yes, Prime Minister

3. Stephen Fry at the Royal Albert Hall Review

4. RED – Retired Extremely Dangerous – Review

5. Chavasse Park Ride

5. Lime Street Station Uncovered

7. Liverpool’s Pyramid – William Mackenzie Tomb

8. Doctor Who: The Big Bang

9. A Town Called Eureka – Season 2

10. Rotating Yates’s Wine Lodge Building

11. Pancetta, Chorizo and Broad Bean Risotto

Reviews have done well and some of the pictures I’ve been posting have picked up a healthy number of eyeballs too

I’ve been looking for an idea for a new article to send in for the SFSFW’s Ragnarok and I think I may just have found it a mashup of Steampunk and the short lived 80′s TV show Street Hawk…

This is the Honourable Jesse Macintosh, a former penny-farthing policeman, whose reputation was perilously injured whilst performing his lawful duties.  Now a Scotland Yard trouble shooter, he’s been recruited for an exceedingly secret government mission to ride Street Hawker – an all-cobbled surfaces attack bicycle designed to fight urbane criminality, capable of incredible speeds up to thirty miles an hour… immense firepower… and a really loud speaking horn. Only one man, Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress Victoria’s confidant, Lord Axminster (the prominant inventor, industrialist and engineer Norman Tuttle-Herringbone-Smyth), knows the Honourable Jesse Macintosh’s true identity. The Man… The Machine… Street Hawker.

Miniatures shouldn’t be a problem with Eureka’s Pax Limpopo range including a variety of eminently suitable figures.  I’ve not settled on a rule set yet suggestions in the comments would be greatly appreciated.

I finished watching Season 2 of A Town Called Eureka tonight. I like TV shows about quirky communities. A Town Called Eureka is an excellent addition to the likes of Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, the first season of The League of Gentlemen and Trumpton. Each uses an outsider as a way into the strange place: Special Agent Dale Cooper, Joel Fleischman, Benjamin Denton and Brian Cant. Eureka has Jack Carter a U.S. Marshal who arrives in the town by accident. Twin peaks has its murder, Northern Exposure has oddness, The League of Gentlemen has its dark goings on and Trumpton has its musical box. It’s not a huge spoiler to reveal that Eureka has the largest collection of geniuses anywhere on the planet with budgets for all sorts of things to go horribly wrong.

By season two he is settled into town and the main characters have been established. The actors or possibly it’s the writers who are more comfortable with the characters. The inclusion of Joe Morton (Terminator 2) and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) gives the show a certain ambiance without resorting to some of the more often used guest actors who might be brought in to add geek appeal. The large number of recurring characters gives the town the feel of a real place with real lives at risk when things threaten to go horribly wrong.

Season 2 has more of a story line connecting the episodes. It sticks to a style of story telling I like as there is no recourse to endings that come out of nowhere supported by a bit of technobable. Stories tend to misdirect both the characters and the audience before revealing how pieces already revealed fit together. Personally I find that a lot more satisfying than, say, some Doctor Who episodes. Not that Eureka is above technobable or extrapolated science but its a comedy not a documentary.

I’m not going to risk spoilling a series which relies on the viewer being a visitor to a strange place by going into anymore detail.   Highly recommended for anyone who like comedy science fiction but if you’ve not seen Season 1 watch that first.