How do you celebrate 'SSS 30' and Big Brother 5 simultaneously? Why you link back to


the very first SSS of course! Ta da! And you'll find that Big
Brother rant just as relevant to this year's edition! But onto other things¹...

I've decided that I now like Spaced, the Channel 4 alternative sit-com thing. What can
I say? Watching all current fourteen episodes back-to-back does that to you. That and the fact
that Tim's choice of occupation is similar to mine. And that leads nicely onto this week's
rant almighty... Two intros? You lucky reader. All one of you.

These past two weeks - besides clicking my heels in the air at not having to stress over what
programme I can pretend to review - I watched Kapow! Superhero Science a scientific
investigation that attempts to discover if certain superheroes' powers are possible.

Essentially they were just saying yes to all the highlighted superheroes. An optic blast just like
Cyclops? Yes please! Wanna be the Hulk? Well you can with this genetics lark. Even the green skin.


Wasn't too sure about seeing the test mouse with its large muscles but then again I'm not keen on
certain animal testing.

I did find the programme generally interesting though with the Spider-Man genetics. Ignoring
the growl of inaccuracy the programme had by saying the radioactive spider gave Peter Parker the
ability to shoot webs², scientists are
trying to harness the power that spider's have in their web fluid to create lightweight bullet proof


vests, clothes etc. To do that they have to get the spider gene into something else less aggressive.
Answer: Goats (Hmmm... they haven't been on the wrong side of an angry goat then...
Ed.).

It could be just me, though there seems to a lasting appeal in saying that there are goats in the
world that are 1/7000th part spider. Spider-Goat may not make a great TV programme--
what am I saying? That title alone is a ratings giver! The programme is watchable and enjoyable
but it was less 'Can these things be done?' than 'Yes we can and here's how far we've got... so far'.


If you're going to ask a question in a programme at least answer it somehow.

Moving on slightly, Toonami is now showing the last series of X-Men: Evolution, an


animated series which surpassed its 1990s predecessor with its closeness to the film and clean
animation. Of course any American readers might be wondering when they made a new series of
X-Men: Evolution. We-ell they haven't. For some reason it took two years for we Brits to get it
seeing as it was made in 2002. Hmmmm indeed. Since it is now being broadcast I can ask why
was it the last series? The show was better than the original(s) and, in a moment of
blasphemy, I consider it better than the comic. This millennium version is more suited to now
(obviously) and as I read through Marvel Comics' 'Essential' books³, there's only so many times I can put up with characters being 'hip' or the
'living end' for so long.

The programme managed to take 'ye olde' stories and update them, just like the film, as soon as
Wolverine lost that stupid orange spandex it all improved again. There's still plenty of life left in
the 2002 version to make interesting viewing. Perhaps it was only meant as a trilogy: Series I
about the mutants having to hide their identities, series II about them being discovered and series
III about having to deal with that discrimination... as well as stopping big beefy mutant
Apocalypse carrying out his name...

Maybe it was only meant to be a money spinner around the time X-Men 2 was in the cinema.
Hope it's not the latter as the Spider-Man series doesn't work well on the eye or ears. But we
haven't seen a Daredevil or Punisher series. Probably because of the 'mature' nature


themes. I suspect there'll be a Fantastic Four spin-off but we'll have to wait for the film
to find out. Only X-Men: Evolution managed to, *sigh*, evolve to match its environment in the real
world...

Oh well, Keep Surfin'!

Small Screen Surfin'
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