Monthly Archives: February 2011

In this issue, we try to overcome some technical problems with the Bagged & Bored Cast returning to our side once more.  We apologize for the quality of the audio on this one, but a perfect storm of weather and transportation issues made this issue a little haphazard.

However, we do our best to act our part as producers of a new film version of The Fantastic Four in We Make It.  After that, the gang takes on a Top 6 of our favorite movie heroes.  We wrap things up in this issue with a Watch This conducted by Ethan on Torchwood.

About The Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961), which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. The Fantastic Four was the first superhero team created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, who developed a collaborative approach to creating comics with this title that they would use from then on. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the company’s 1960s rise from a small division of a publishing company to a pop-culture conglomerate. The title would go on to showcase the talents of comics creators such as Roy Thomas, John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Walt Simonson, John Buscema, George Pérez andTom DeFalco, and is one of several Marvel titles originating in the Silver Age of Comic Books that is still in publication today.

The four individuals traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four, who gained superpowers after exposure to cosmic rays during a scientific mission to outer space, are: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), a scientific genius and the leader of the group, who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes; the Invisible Woman (Susan “Sue” Storm), who became Reed’s wife, who can render herself invisible and later project powerful force fields; the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Sue’s younger brother, who can generate flames, surround himself with them and fly; and the monstrous Thing (Ben Grimm), their grumpy but benevolent friend, a former college football star and Reed’s college roommate as well as a good pilot, who possesses superhuman strength and endurance due to the nature of his stone-like flesh.

Ever since the original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional, yet loving, family. Breaking convention with other comic-book archetypes of the time, they would squabble and hold grudges both deep and petty, and eschewed anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. The team is also well known for its recurring struggles with characters such as the villainous monarch Doctor Doom, the planet-devouring Galactus, the sea-dwelling prince Namor, the spacefaring Silver Surfer, and the shape-changing alien Skrulls.

The Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated television series, an aborted 1990s low-budget film, the major motion pictureFantastic Four (2005), and its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

About Torchwood

Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies’ 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who, which has a family audience. Torchwood, however, is aimed at a mature audience. As a show, Torchwood has transitioned its broadcast channel every year since its inception, moving from BBC Three to BBC Two to BBC One, and acquiring US financing in its fourth series.

It follows the exploits of a small team of alien-hunters, who make up the Cardiff branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute, which deals mainly with incidents involving extraterrestrials. Its central character is Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), an immortal and ex-conman from the distant future who has lived on Earth since the 19th century. Captain Jack first appeared in ‘The Empty Child’, the 9th episode of the 2005 series of Doctor Who. Under Jack’s leadership, the formerly morally ambivalent organisation operates under a much more humanist ethos. Other than Barrowman, the series’ initial main cast consisted of Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd. Their characters are each specialists for the Torchwood team, often tracking down aliens and defending the planet from alien and nefarious human threats. In its first two series, the show uses a time rift in Cardiff as its primary plot generator, accounting for an unusually recurrent alien presence in Cardiff. Gorman and Mori left the programme after the second series, with Kai Owen promoted from a recurring role to the main cast in series three. After David-Lloyd’s departure in series three, the fourth series will feature two new main cast members.

The first series premièred on BBC Three and on BBC HD in 2006 to mixed reviews but viewing figures which broke records for the digital channel. As such it returned in 2008 where it aired first on BBC Two, receiving a higher budget; criticisms of the first series, such as its uneven tone, were largely smoothed out, and the show received yet higher ratings and better reviews. The third series was given a larger per-episode budget and placed on the network’s flagship channel, BBC One. BBC budget cuts in 2009 meant, however, that the show was limited to five episodes, which Davies elected to present as a serial, taking the titleTorchwood: Children of Earth. Despite airing in July evenings, typically a graveyard slot, stripped across five nights in one week, the show received unexpectedly high ratings at home and abroad and for the most part, reviews hailed it as excellent. A fourth series, co-produced by BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Worldwide and US premium entertainment network Starz will air in 2011 as Torchwood: Miracle Day.

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