Once again the ubiquitous ''Aliens attempt to conquer the world'' storyline is imposed upon us in the form of the BBC's new drama series Invasion Earth. Aiming to match such commercial successes as imported American cult hits The X Files and The Outer Limits, Peter Haining's companion guide for the purely fanatical strives to provide detailed examinations of various aspects of the programme and related concepts behind its central plot themes. Television tie-in books are notorious for being of a poor quality, often seeming shoddily pieced together, badly written, and very much lacking in substance, being marketed with a sole purpose of money-making. Sadly this publication proves to be no exception.
Haining elaborates on numerous areas of Invasion Earth, describing the processes involved in filming, scripting, casting and directing, and set and costume design. Also incorporated is the scientific and astrological theory inspirational to the drama. Flitting from one subject to the next in a disorganised and almost random manner, with no fluid link between chapters or topics, we swing from the technicalities of V-Rockets as used in the Second World War, to the construction of polyvinyl space-suits and then on again to the alleged sightings of UFOs in Bonnybridge. The legend of ''Nessie'' even merits two pages of irrelevent text plus infamous indistinguishable photographs as a result of reported ''bizarre happenings'' while shooting a scene in the loch.
Other similarly overlong instalments, including drab on-screen and off-screen character profiles, fail dismally to add any interest to the content, while accompanying colour photographs serve only to pad out huge chunks of space instead of complementing written material.
Haining does, however, succeed in including the odd factual gem. On a comprehensive level (somewhat more simplistic than Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time), he attempts to explain such phenomena as blackholes and infinite dimensions, neither patronising the reader, nor using overly complicated terminology. Although rare, these snippets do provide food for thought, with greater emphasis on the extent to which events occurring in Invasion Earth could feasibly happen in the future.
In spite of that redeeming feature, Peter Haining's Invasion Earth Companion continually misses the mark. Easily condensible, it is inconsistent throughout and devoid of sufficient material to satisfy hardened sci-fi junkies. A disappointing representation of what promises to be a popular television series.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article