When Donald Trump and the executive branch of the U.S. government announced the creation of a sixth division of the armed forces called “Space Force,” many of us had the same idea. Space…Force? That’s the name? That sounds like a generic Star Trek rip-off you’d find on the front of a dodgy DVD.

Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the star of and the creator of NBC’s The Office, respectively, had a slightly different idea altogether – “this is going to get us that sweet Netflix money.”

Netflix announced today that it has greenlit a new series from Carell and Daniels based on the Space Force idea. Carell and Daniels will produce and Carell will star. The series is described as a workplace comedy (hey, that sounds familiar!) about the men and women tasked with creating the actual Space Force based off of the President’s demented ramblings.

Now that’s a teaser, friends. The Richard Strauss 2001: A Space Odyssey music plays over very basic, mundane facts of what Space Force will be tasked with. The goal of the branch is to “defend satellites from attack” and “perform other space-related tasks” Or something.

While this isn’t necessarily The Office sequel or reboot we were all looking for, we’ll certainly take it. It’s interesting that Carell and Daniels didn’t immediately think “sci-fi comedy” when the idea of Space Force came up, but rather decided to explore how the implementation of a new branch of the military would affect the working Janes and Joes working in public beige offices in the District of Columbia. Plus, the market already has The Orville for sci-fi comedy.

Now a bona fide movie star, Carell is next set to appear in a drama for Apple alongside Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. It seems as though we’re unlikely to see Steve Carell back behind Michael Scott’s desk ever again and that’s OK. There are always new workplace comedies out there that need the deft touch of Carell and Daniels.

We don’t actually have Hulu over here in the UK so we don’t have to deal with the exquisite agony of choosing between two competing documentaries. But our friends in the US have seen both so if you’re curious about how the two compare read on! Having only seen Netflix Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, we can confirm that it is indeed excellent. Here are some more great docs to watch on Netflix in case you need an extra fix.

On with the review:

Oh no, would you look at that: the streaming services are fighting!

Netflix and Hulu are engaged in a full out, total war with each other. Hulu has conjured up a Stephen King-ian horror from Castle Rock to do battle against the Demogorgon. The cast of Runaways is duking it out with the cast of The Defenders. Billy Eichner is drinking Alan Arkin’s blood!

The source of this war? Two documentaries about the ill-fated influencer culture fly trap Fyre Festival. Netflix announced a while ago that it would debuting Fyre, a documentary about Fyre Festival directed by Chris Smith (Jim & Andy), on Friday, January 18. Then, out of absolutely-fucking-nowhere, Hulu premiered its own documentary about Fyre Festival, titled Fyre Fraud, on Monday, January 14.

Lest anyone think this is some sort of Deep Impact/Armageddon happy coincidence, Hulu went on the offensive, pointing out (not wrongly) that Netflix’s Fyre was produced by Jerry Media, the same company that served as the marketing arm for Fyre Festival. That’s what we call in the biz a conflict of interest. Undeterred Netflix fired…excuse me, fyred back with an accusation of their own. They claimed that the Hulu documentary only received an exclusive interview with Fyre Festival organiser Billy McFarland because they paid him an undisclosed lump sum of cash (rumoured to be around $100,000 to 250,000). This is what we call in the biz a scummy move. 

Regardless of all the streaming service on streaming service violence (receiving word now that Offred has eviscerated Kimmy Schmidt), this presents a nice little opportunity for viewers and critics alike. Viewers now have two Fyre Festival documentaries to watch. As for critics, we get to do that one thing we always are tempted to do but can rarely do so overtly: compare stuff directly.

Really all film, television, literary, and every other criticism is merely a more artful way of comparing one thing to other things. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Even the most original piece of art can only be considered original when compared to all the stuff that came before it. And even then someone will find a close analogue for it in like a 1690s German medical manuscript or something. But here we have two documentaries covering the exact same topic debuting within a week of each other. It’s journalistic malpractice to review one without at least watching the other. So I did…and something weird happened. I fucked up.

A peak behind the curtain: I’ve been slated to review Netflix’s Fyre documentary for weeks. The review embargo lifts on Monday and I decided to finally give the thing a watch. Right before I do Hulu debuts their Fyre documentary by surprise. In all the excitement and confusion, I decide to watch Hulu’s documentary first and then the Netflix one. Here is where the fuck up comes in. I watched BOTH documentaries under the mistaken impression that the Hulu doc was produced by Jerry Media and the Netflix one was not. In reality it is the opposite. I didn’t know that though so I watched the Hulu documentary closely watching for any signs of conflicts of interest. To my surprise I didn’t find many clear ones, aside from perhaps letting Billy McFarland run his mouth unchecked a couple too many times. Then I watched the Netflix one with a similarly close eye and again found no “problematic” material. 

Perhaps I learned something about what we really look for out of documentaries throughout this process. A documentary is supposed to be a journalistic endeavour as much as a creative one. Things like conflicts of interest and skewed perspectives should matter, and they do…but not if they don’t actually make it to the screen. In watching both of these documentaries, I found that the ability to tell a clear, concise, and entertaining story mattered more to me as a viewer. 

So both documentaries are seemingly “clean” from an ethical standpoint and both tell the same fascinating story. Which one tells it better? 

There’s really no way to compa…the Netflix one. This one. This one tells it way better. 

Netflix’s Fyre (sometimes subtitled “The Greatest Party That Never Happened”) is the superior Fyre Festival doc, and one of the most purely enjoyable documentaries in some time, because it is almost pathologically obsessed with story. This is simply the non-fiction story of the Fyre Festival. Front to back with no other frills. The access that Smith has received is expansive and the diversity of interviews from behind the scenes players gathered is impressive. 

The Fyre Festival is simply one of the greatest stories of fraud, hucksterdom, and hubris of the millennium. You likely know the basics by now but it is never not worth reliving them. Billy McFarland was a millennial entrepreneur who decided to throw the word’s greatest music festival on a private island in the Bahamas and invite all of social media’s most prominent influencers. Things were looking great until…they decided they could pull this off in four months…. and they could pack 1,000 people on a tiny island…and then lost said island because Pablo Escobar’s family got pissed…and then ran out of money. It all ends with some of the world’s most privileged and powerful young people arriving at an abandoned Sandals resort with nothing but cheese sandwiches, FEMA tents, and no planes home. 

The decision that Fyre makes that makes it a truly great documentary is that it recognises the timeless spirit of bullshit inherent in what the Fyre Festival is and then clinically uncovers it, piece by piece. One of the more aggravating aspects of Hulu’s Fyre Fraud is how much time it spends discussing the Fyre Festival as a millennial endeavour. Yes, millennials can be annoying, I’m sure. And there are plenty of uniquely millennial obsessions involved in the story of Fyre Festival like Instagram and…. actually that’s about it. Fyre Fraud treats the Festival as an indictment of millennial culture as though it was your nephew Josh who drivers Uber, has $50,000 in student loan debt, and no health insurance who dropped $250,000 on Fyre Festival.

Netflix’s Fyre goes deeper than the base level modern interpretation. It finds the story of grifters, people with money, and all the bullshit that transpires between them that’s as old as time, itself. Looking at Fyre Festival as the ultimate millennial disaster almost cheapens the Biblical nature of the deception and hucksterism at play here. 

The story of Fyre Festival requires no adornments or styling, so Fyre doesn’t bother with them. There is no weird editing here, no lingering shots on speakers’ silent faces after they’ve said something profound, no B-roll of absolutely anything outside the immediate Fyre Festival orbit. 

You can always tell when a documentary’s got the goods and it knows it. Both Netflix’s Fyre and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud have the goods because the Fyre Festival, itself, was utterly insane. Only Fyre, however, had the confidence to let the story truly stand for itself.

In a brilliant bit of casting, Dune has found its Reverend Mother Mohiam in the form of Oscar-nominated actress, Charlotte Rampling. For those familiar with both the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic and with Rampling’s incredible career, it’s probably easy to imagine how perfect the French actress is for the role of the Emperor’s Truthsayer.

The role of the Reverend Mother is a key one in Dune, as the character is the head of the matriarchal Bene Gesserit religion which tests young protagonist Paul Atreides to see if he may be their long-sought Kwisatz Haderach, the messiah figure her order seeks to breed and control. The mantra that has become famous from the Herbert novels and the multiple adaptations includes the recognisable, “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.” Siân Phillips played the Reverend Mother in the 1984 film, whereas Zuzana Geislerová played the role in the 2000 miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel.

The announcement of Rampling’s casting now sits alongside other exciting additions such as Dave Bautista, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, and Stellan Skarsgard. Dune has built plenty of buzz with its cast news even though filming has not begun on the film. Speculation is that famed director Denis Villeneuve will wisely choose to break the daunting first novel into several parts to honour the epic nature of the story, something which the Lynch film famously failed to do and which Jodorowsky sadly was never able to attempt.

Dune tells the story of warring nobility on a desert planet known as Arrakis whose sole export is a rare spice that gives its users greatly enhanced mental powers, to oversimplify it. The project will begin filming on location in Budapest and Jordan this spring, according to THR. The release date is estimated to be sometime in 2021.

This review contains spoilers.

5.10 The Flash & The Furious

Can bad people change? Should metas be “cured”? Does everyone deserve a second chance? Should Barry maybe let one little car theft go so Cecile’s first day back on the job as District Attorney after maternity leave can go smoothly?

OK, aside from the last bit, those are the big questions asked in this week’s The Flash, The Flash & The Furious. Serving as something of a superhero ethics course, the rather tame “meta of the week” episode is the first back after last month’s “Elseworlds” crossover, and it is Nora-centric, and Barry-lite (presumably because Grant Gustin was occupied filming the big event).

The story also brings back Joslyn Jackam/Weather Witch and introduces new baddie Raya/Silver Ghost (Gabrielle Walsh), who proposes starting the Young Rogues supervillain team.

The instalment begins by setting up an emotional struggle for Nora, who confronts the imprisoned Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash in 2049 about murdering her grandmother, picking up from his surprise return in the 100th episode (still looking like Harrison Wells following Crisis on Earth-X). Nora had been working with Thawne in the form of relays in another language, but she now feels betrayed. But Thawne is seemingly regretful for his evil ways.

Returning to the present, Barry heads to court with Nora to testify as Central City CSI against Weather Witch – which coincides with Cecile’s first day back after giving birth. In another part of the city, Silver Ghost makes her debut with a meta-tech key fob that allows her to control vehicles, which she uses to steal a Lamborghini. Both speedsters leave the trial to stop the theft, and The Flash’s powers are thrown out of whack when he touches the meta-tech-infected vehicle, leaving him filled with unstable dark energy and unable to control his phasing.

As an aside, how foolish is it of Barry to leave a trial where his testimony could convict a meta-criminal simply to address motor vehicle theft, especially before he knew it was perpetrated by a villain? Couldn’t XS have handled it on her own? And what kind of a city throws a District Attorney into court on her first day back without giving her time to prepare her case? So many questions!

Anyway, with Barry held in a power dampening cell in the pipeline for twenty-four hours as his powers re-stabilise, Nora testifies as CSI in his stead, and she unloads her pent-up Thawne anger on Weather Witch – despite Cecile wanting to go easy on Joss after sensing remorse via her super-empathy. Joss actually steps up in court and admits guilt.

But it’s not straight off to prison for Weather Witch because Silver Ghost intervenes in a prison transport, breaks Joss loose, and reveals she’s getting a band together of Young Rogues because “there’s been enough old men running this town.” She also wants Joss’s help on a job to break into A.R.G.U.S. to steal some bleeding edge tech (which turns out to be a $24 million Wayne Tech-designed car, or “mobile,” if you’d prefer). Joss turns down the offer and instead gives herself up to XS in the hopes the hero will vouch for her to the police.

But bad guys and gals never change in Nora’s mind, so she dumps Joss back at CCPD without speaking up for her and she is once again imprisoned – and once again sprung by a determined Silver Ghost, who says she’s the only one around offering the young woman a second chance… at crime. With her meta-tech-infused weather staff back in hand, Joss becomes Weather Witch once more and agrees to help Silver Ghost.

As this is taking place, Iris acquires Raya/Silver Ghost’s military file, revealing she was a scapegoat for a failed operation and dishonorably discharged. More importantly, Iris reveals to Nora that Joss has no connection to the new villain, and thus, likely is not in cahoots with her. Instead, Joss may be telling the truth.

Nora has a heart-to-heart with Barry, still in his dampening cell (and reading the romance novel “Uncaged Desire,” written by one Mick Rory under the pseudonym Rebecca Silver). Barry tells his daughter that all people have good in them and possess a potential to change for the better. He said it’s how Leonard Snart became a Legend and a hero. Much to her surprise, Barry believes even Eobard Thawne could rehabilitate given enough time.

Sure enough, Silver Ghost and Weather Witch bust into A.R.G.U.S. and make off with the Wayne Tech supercar for a joyride – of villainy! But Killer Frost and XS are in pursuit. Silver Ghost – using a pretty amusing emoji-controlled weapons system which launches missiles, cloaks, and phases – incapacitates XS. Raya targets the cloaked car straight at XS as the speedster apologizes to Weather Witch, and offers her another shot at redemption. Weather Witch seems to accept and creates a slate of ice that causes the car to slide past XS. But instead of giving herself up, Weather Witch escapes with Silver Ghost. As the re-powered Barry later notes, Nora now has her own Leonard Snart.

But, unlike Snart, Joss’ slight turn to the light side seems to come a little too fast and feels unearned. After all, she just tried to kill her dad, all while threatening the life of anyone who got in her way. Her sudden remorse comes out of nowhere, but it does work in terms of bolstering Nora’s development.

Speaking of Nora, she returns to 2049 to once again visit with Thawne. As an ominous clock counts down, he explains he doesn’t have much time and asks for her trust. She denies him trust, but agrees to help him. Meanwhile, Sherloque Wells’ secret investigation of Nora continues, and by episode’s end, he learns records of Ms. West-Allen have been wiped from Gideon’s databank.

While the main plot serves to give Nora the lead on her own adventure and expands the character’s emotional depth, the subplot revolves around Cisco and Caitlin/Killer Frost arguing about whether a “cure” for metahumans should be explored. Discovering the now-removed micro-shards in his hands were removing his Vibe powers, Cisco realises they could point the way to a cure – which he wants, because he hopes to have a normal life, and would be happy to leave the superhero life behind him. Killer Frost reacts poorly to this by destroying his research. By the end of the episode, Caitlin agrees to help Cisco and brings him to her father’s old laboratory.

The superpowers cure trope is a familiar one to comic book fans, most notably X-Men readers, and it doesn’t tend to end well. It seems likely Cisco will succeed and the cure will become the bane of Team Flash. That said, a return to Cisco minus Vibe powers would be an interesting, and welcome, turn.

Without much Barry Allen, and with the absence of Ralph and Joe West (who is in Tibet as actor Jesse L. Martin heals from an injury), Central City feels a little empty in this episode. As for the new villain, Raya’s powers aren’t terribly exciting. Still, Walsh seems to be enjoying her turn as a bad kid in the role. If given more to do, Silver Ghost could develop into an interesting antagonist.

Meanwhile, Tom Cavanagh continues to delight as yet another Wells, but his return as Thawne – now beaten and broken down – is an exciting development. Is he truly a changed man or, as is more likely, is he still the same villain, this time playing Nora to get to Barry? Hopefully, the show will quickly dispatch Cicada as the big bad and move on to focus on Thawne for the second half of season five.

Now, let’s get back to more superheroics and less grand theft auto.

Read Mike’s review of the previous episode, Elseworlds Part 1, here. 

Electronic Arts has cancelled another Star Wars game, this time an open-world title in development at EA Vancouver.

Kotaku reports that the game, codenamed Orca, was still in the early phases of development. The outlet reports that EA decided to cancel the project because the publisher feared the game would not be ready for a 2020 release date. EA Vancouver will instead begin work on another, “smaller-scale” Star Wars game.

Little is known about Orca except that it was to feature open-world gameplay. Job listings in early 2018 suggested that the game would have had an online component as well, including matchmaking and live services. According to Kotaku, Orca would have allowed players to “explore various open-world planets and work with different factions” with either a “scoundrel or bounty hunter” character. 

Orca was actually born out of the ashes of another cancelled game being designed by the now-shuttered Visceral Games. That project was called Ragtag and it would have featured a band of rogues led by a scoundrel named Dodger, as they went on heists across the galaxy. Ragtag was described as “Star Wars meets Ocean’s Eleven” and would have been set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, tackling story beats such as the aftermath of the destruction of Alderaan.

Unlike Visceral, EA Vancouver will get another shot at a Star Wars game. Details on the new project are very scarce at the moment, but at least the team in Vancouver still get to work on a Star Wars title. 

There’s also Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order to look forward to, which is an action adventure title from Respawn Entertainment that will be set between Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope.

We’ll keep you updated as we hear more, on all fronts.

FOX is bringing an official The Walking Dead immersive exhibition and art gallery to London in February.

The show, which will be open to the public at Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane on 8th-9th February, will feature large scale interactive set recreations, prop replicas and prize-winning fan art, with the artwork in the gallery having been chosen by none other than Greg Nicotero himself.

If you pop along that weekend, you’ll get to do things like visit the Governor’s room and submerge your head in a tank alongside some dead walkers. Daryl’s motorbike will also be there (we’re not sure if you’re allowed to touch it or not, but probably we would try to touch it as you can’t take us anywhere) along with live walkers and SFX demonstrations.

Sounds like a pretty decent day out for uber-fans!

The exhibition will be running between 12–7pm on Friday and 10am – 5pm on Saturday.

It’s noted that the experience may well only be suitable for the 18+ age range, but so many younger people watch the show that fans will likely make their own choices where these types of gory images and such are concerned.

Season 9 of The Walking Dead will resume on FOX UK on 11th February at 9pm.

Contains spoilers for Doctor Who: Resolution

It’s an experience only select actors can claim: playing a character controlled by an on-board tentacled squid alien set on world domination. That was the fate of archaeologist Lin in this year’s Doctor Who New Year special, Resolution.

Played by Charlotte Ritchie (Fresh Meat, Siblings, Call The Midwife), Lin and colleague Mitch (Nikesh Patel) uncovered the ancient remains of an alien enemy underneath Sheffield Town Hall. That alien, as we all now know, was a Dalek.

Speaking to Ritchie while promoting her ace new gaming sitcom Dead Pixels, coming next week to Channel 4, she told us a little bit about her experience on Doctor Who.

Den Of Geek: Tell us about wearing that Dalek prosthetic and how it worked

The prosthetic was really cool actually, it was designed by these two guys [Lee Radford and Robert Allsopp, we think] with very little notice. I think like, a week’s notice, maybe two weeks, something insane like that.

They made this animatronic sort of squid monster that was connected to me with a weighted harness that was strapped around my belly and over my shoulders, like a backpack. It had some arms that were pinned to me and two animatronic arms that would wiggle around in my face. They were controlled by remote-control, a bit like a joystick and that was really cool.

It smelled so bad! Weirdly, the material that they used really stank.

How did you go about channelling the Dalek in your performance?

The way I channelled the Dalek was just being terrified of the fact that I had to portray someone being piloted by a Dalek so it sort of came through as like, genuine fear that I was experiencing. It was really cool. It was really cool. I found it very scary to do because it’s quite an action-packed episode [directed by Wayne Yip], and something I’d never done before but it was great to watch.

I actually really enjoyed it. I so rarely really enjoy things when I’m in them. You feel so stressed but I managed to forget about it, and it was just so fun. Good show!

Doctor Who: Resolution is available now on BBC iPlayer.