The Other

I can handle a bit of science fiction/fantasy. I venture this peculiar piece of information because I have been working my way through the estimable BBC rendition of His Dark Materials, and I have also re-watched the original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Otherness is an important element of both texts, different as they may be in their milieu. 

Invasion is a cheap studio product that properly became a cult hit and still works to this day, though not as effectively on later viewings as on the first. There is no shame in that - even the very best piece of the fantastic, Pan's Labyrinth, loses some of its lustre on repeated consumptions. Reactions to the 1956 film are gloriously mixed - mostly admiring but disputatious as to which side (if either) of the McCarthyite divide it sits. All good critical fun. Genuinely creepy without ever resorting to gore and, for this consumer at least, a spirited defence of the need for otherness. 74/100. 

Although it is a television production, the epic BBC His Dark Materials paints on an even broader canvas. I am an admirer of Pullman's source novels, definitley misunderstood by those who dismiss them as children's fiction. I was decidedly not an admirer of the botched 2007 cinema version, The Golden Compass. This is far better. Don't get me wrong - Pulmman's plotting can sometimes be sketchy and the adaptation does not attempt to hide this. However this remains high quality stuff from serious source material. A particular word for Ruth Wilson who is supreme as Mrs Coulter. So much better than the over-hyped Nicole Kidman in the movie version.

I am no ally of Pullman on the subject of organised religion but he richly deserves a wide readership and should no more be banned than should The Satanic Verses. There, I've said it now.