Outcast: Episode 1 — Strangling a Scheduler For Jesus …

Oh, dear GODS, but I could strangle a BBC scheduler, right now, I really could!

Seriously … !

I had pencilled in a movie for tomorrow night — provisionally, of course.

But had gone to the effort of actually forming a Movie night group on FB: and sorting out an event.

And then — as I’d also had in mind — sat meself down to watch the opening episode of the new BBC1 science fiction drama, Outcasts.

Happily got to the end of it …

To find out that the next episode of the series … ?

Is on, tomorrow night …

Couldn’t you just spit, when that happens … … ?

I know I could.

Bless ’im I know Movie Night Adrian’s been hearing some vile imprecations … !

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Hang on, lemme just grab a cigarette* and a cuppa …

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Oooh, that helps …

Now, what was I going to do … ?

Apart from have a rant … ?

Yeah …

I was going to tell you all about the first episode in the new BBC1 sci-fi drama, Outcasts …

Which was on, tonight: I should know, I’ve just watched it.

Tonight’s first episode saw the human settlers on Carpathia — lead by ‘President’ Richard Tate, played by Liam Cunningham — waiting for the next transport from Earth, with extra colonists: with the implication that this transport is to be the last.

With a secondary story about one of the colonists — a member of Carpathia’s Expeditionary force called Mitchell Hoban, played by Jamie Bamber — attempting something of a coup, having planned to move his troops and their families to another part of the planet, away from the township of Forthaven.

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Now, I’ll confess, I’ve seen some of the … ahh … comments … on the Outcasts Facebook page.

And it does seem to be getting something of a mixed reaction.

Personally … ?

Personally, I’m thinking that this first episode is/was a touch on the slow side.

It’s got potential.

It’s got a fairly good, if relatively unknown, cast — Cunningham stood out for me, as the one actor I actually recognised, although Amy Mason, Daniel Mays and Jamie Bamber grabbed me as, respectively, Fleur, Cass and Mitchell.

It’s competently — if not stunningly — scripted by former Spooks writer, Ben Richards.

The effects are nicely done.

The one thing I will highlight as being something special, right off the bat, though, is the scenery: all that money spent in South Africa seems to be money well spent.

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But I don’t know if I’m completely stunned, yet.

Yet … !

After all, I was gobsmacked by the opening episode of the rebooted Dr Who and the Stephen Moffat take on Sherlock Holmes: both of which threw me into the action from the opening seconds.

I felt the same about the little I saw of the remade Battlestar Galactica, and have been thoroughly entranced by Merlin, the only comparatively fresh series on the block.

Same with Dr Who spin-off, Torchwood.

And the really original piece of genre TV, the BBC3 series Being Human, although I’ll be honest, I’m a comparative late-comerº, there.

So, so far … ?

Well …

So far, I’m curious enough to want to invest a touch more time into Outcasts.

I think it has potential to be impressive.

Butª …

But I’m a touch worried that what could be a slow-burning hit …

Could turn out like Paradox, a couple of years ago: a worthy, well written, beautifully done one-hit-wonder, that was never developed or expanded.

Or, worse — much like Primeval and the remade of Survivors, in my humble opinion — to be very worthy flops.

Or as a third possibility … ?

It could go the way of the remake of The Prisoner: and as most of my friends will tell you, I thought that should well have been aborted at birth …

Character	Actor
Richard Tate	Liam Cunningham
Stella Isen	Hermione Norris
Cass Cromwell	Daniel Mays
Fleur Morgan	Amy Manson
Jack Holt	Ashley Walters
Julius Berger	Eric Mabius
Tipper Malone	Michael Legge
Mitchell Hoban	Jamie Bamber
Karina Hoban	Jessica Haines
Captain Kellerman	Patrick Lyster

Director	Bharat Nalluri
Producer	Radford Neville
Writer	Ben Richards

* Yes, bad habit, I know …

º I’ve also been hearing some very good things about Channel 4 genre series, Misfits.

ª ‘But’, like ‘if’, is one of the longest words in the English language, isn’t it … ?