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Dang! I missed it! 
Did anyone manage to record it?
Did anyone manage to record it?
Posted: 23:47 Mar 09 2002
"Strange" - Spoilers if you haven't seen it.
Having just watched this show I thought I'd post up to see if anyone else had seen it, and see what you thought!
To be honest I only watched it because it had the word "demon" in the very brief description in the TV mag
I have to say I did enjoy it! Imagine a cross between "Buffy tVS" and "Johnathan Creek", with some thunder, lightening and the would-be 'Danny Elfman' soundtrack thrown in for good measure and you'd be almost there.
Samantha Janus plays Jude Atkins (A wannabe Buffy). A physicist - turned nurse with a family to take care of. When strange things start to happen at a local church, and a priest turns up at the hospital with a suspected stroke rendering him unable to speak, Jude becomes suspicious.
Meanwhile her partner comes across a de-frocked clergyman, John Strange (perhaps Giles?), who is researching the possibility of the existance of the devil and all his demonic helpers who live among us in human form until 'activated' by a so called 'point of incidence' (Read hellmouth ).
The priest in hospital is killed in his bed by some kind of demonic being (that you don't see - so no real special effects). Strange enlists the help of Jude to track down the thing that burned him to a cinder, but an odd (in a I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it sort of way) Canon seems bent on stopping the two demon hunters from succeeding.
In the end Jude finds out that her family is involved, her son ends up at the 'point of incidence' trying to research his school science project right at the time it activates, and just to make matters worse, her partner is the demon!
Jude's physics degree enables her to save the day and her son just in the nick of time, but her evil demon boyfriend is fried. No great loss there then.
Since it was the pilot ep for a possible new series, I hope it takes off, at points I was on the edge of my seat! It's about time the UK started airing some decent home-made spooky shows, I for one have had my fill of repeats!
They left plenty of room to develop the show, as you never really find out what the Canon's ulterior motive is, and you are left wondering 'what of her son?' Will he be a demon also? I guess only the ratings will tell if we see anymore of Mr Strange.
(Edited by Desire 09/03/2002 23:40)
To be honest I only watched it because it had the word "demon" in the very brief description in the TV mag
I have to say I did enjoy it! Imagine a cross between "Buffy tVS" and "Johnathan Creek", with some thunder, lightening and the would-be 'Danny Elfman' soundtrack thrown in for good measure and you'd be almost there.
Samantha Janus plays Jude Atkins (A wannabe Buffy). A physicist - turned nurse with a family to take care of. When strange things start to happen at a local church, and a priest turns up at the hospital with a suspected stroke rendering him unable to speak, Jude becomes suspicious.
Meanwhile her partner comes across a de-frocked clergyman, John Strange (perhaps Giles?
), who is researching the possibility of the existance of the devil and all his demonic helpers who live among us in human form until 'activated' by a so called 'point of incidence' (Read hellmouth ). The priest in hospital is killed in his bed by some kind of demonic being (that you don't see - so no real special effects). Strange enlists the help of Jude to track down the thing that burned him to a cinder, but an odd (in a I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it sort of way) Canon seems bent on stopping the two demon hunters from succeeding.
In the end Jude finds out that her family is involved, her son ends up at the 'point of incidence' trying to research his school science project right at the time it activates, and just to make matters worse, her partner is the demon!
Jude's physics degree enables her to save the day and her son just in the nick of time, but her evil demon boyfriend is fried. No great loss there then.
Since it was the pilot ep for a possible new series, I hope it takes off, at points I was on the edge of my seat! It's about time the UK started airing some decent home-made spooky shows, I for one have had my fill of repeats!
They left plenty of room to develop the show, as you never really find out what the Canon's ulterior motive is, and you are left wondering 'what of her son?' Will he be a demon also? I guess only the ratings will tell if we see anymore of Mr Strange.
(Edited by Desire 09/03/2002 23:40)
6 Replies and 4038 Views in Total.
Posted: 23:47 Mar 09 2002 
I wouldn't mind watching it if anyone has a copy.
To be honest I was put off by Samantha Janus being in it, but my bro reckoned it was OK.
To be honest I was put off by Samantha Janus being in it, but my bro reckoned it was OK.
Posted: 00:09 Mar 10 2002
I was also not enthused by Samantha Janus' presence, but it was a fairly non-glam role, and she acquitted herself well.
There were some good ideas in Strange, and frankly it's just great to see the BBC doing real genre for a change. Plus, anything with Ian Richardson striding into a stroke ward in a black, hooded cloak can't be all bad.
Stroke Victim: You look like death!
Canon Black: Well we're none of us as young as we used to be.
Classy stuff. I particularly liked the demons having to tap into negative psychic energy - go human evil! - to activate their power, and the electricity demon inspiring Faraday so as to increase his operating range was a nice touch.
I hope this one gets picked up, although I'm not holding my breath.
There were some good ideas in Strange, and frankly it's just great to see the BBC doing real genre for a change. Plus, anything with Ian Richardson striding into a stroke ward in a black, hooded cloak can't be all bad.
Stroke Victim: You look like death!
Canon Black: Well we're none of us as young as we used to be.
Classy stuff. I particularly liked the demons having to tap into negative psychic energy - go human evil! - to activate their power, and the electricity demon inspiring Faraday so as to increase his operating range was a nice touch.
I hope this one gets picked up, although I'm not holding my breath.
Posted: 11:26 Mar 11 2002 
I thoroughly enjoyed this, some very nice touches, trying to guess which form the demon was inhabiting, Samantha Janus not being all girly and glammy, lots of atmosphere and a stunning range of Gothic buildings!
Hopefully this Saturday night slot will be filled for a few weeks with something worth watching now!
Hopefully this Saturday night slot will be filled for a few weeks with something worth watching now!
Posted: 13:34 Mar 11 2002
I really enjoyed this show And I wasn't complaining about Samantha Janus in a nurse's uniform either
I really enjoyed the whole theme of the church being so involved too, kind of reminiscent of "John Carpenter's Vampires" as it figures these guys would have the real lowdown on the nasties of the underworld.
I really do hope we get to see the rest of the series
And I wasn't complaining about Samantha Janus in a nurse's uniform either I really enjoyed the whole theme of the church being so involved too, kind of reminiscent of "John Carpenter's Vampires" as it figures these guys would have the real lowdown on the nasties of the underworld.
I really do hope we get to see the rest of the series
Posted: 18:44 Mar 11 2002
I was quite impressed, I found it by accident part way through though I think fairly near the start (postman delivering book to strange) and took it for a detective/mystery/drama thing, but was quite impressed by both the science and the spookery.
By funny coincidence I was anotating a copy of the goetia at the time, and noticed that the name of the priest doing the translations was Rutt, presumably a corruption of Rudd who did a partial translation of the Goetia ( specifically the "72 spirits of solomon" )
C
(Edited by Callum 12/03/2002 01:56)
By funny coincidence I was anotating a copy of the goetia at the time, and noticed that the name of the priest doing the translations was Rutt, presumably a corruption of Rudd who did a partial translation of the Goetia ( specifically the "72 spirits of solomon" )
C
(Edited by Callum 12/03/2002 01:56)
Posted: 01:55 Mar 12 2002