by Helen Langdon
With a short montage summation of its basic premise (magic and wizards are real, normal people are the “Unenchanted” rather than Muggles and aliens want to eat all of the magic), Wizards vs Aliens is back for a third series. When we last left the magical crew, Ursula had died and come back, Benny had come out (after all, Russell T Davies wrote it), and Tom had averted the destruction of the Earth (again) and sent the Nekross back to Nekron. After a summer free of the extra-terrestrial threat, it’s back to school time! And this time, the main threat doesn’t come from the Nekross, but instead a new group of aliens, the Consolidation, who want to remove the Earth’s core.
With a short montage summation of its basic premise (magic and wizards are real, normal people are the “Unenchanted” rather than Muggles and aliens want to eat all of the magic), Wizards vs Aliens is back for a third series. When we last left the magical crew, Ursula had died and come back, Benny had come out (after all, Russell T Davies wrote it), and Tom had averted the destruction of the Earth (again) and sent the Nekross back to Nekron. After a summer free of the extra-terrestrial threat, it’s back to school time! And this time, the main threat doesn’t come from the Nekross, but instead a new group of aliens, the Consolidation, who want to remove the Earth’s core.
To be perfectly honest, the opening episodes of Wizards vs Aliens don’t tend to be its strongest. The story here still isn’t the greatest, but the strengths of the episode are in the way repercussions from the season two finale are felt. After the mutiny against the Nekross King, Varg is now in charge (farewell, Brian Blessed puppet – we shall miss your stentorian tones) and in a politically motivated marriage, but he’s not just back to get magic. He’s come to find his sister, and avenge her transformation into a human. After Tom absorbed magic and went a bit power-mad, threatening to change Benny, he’s now scared to use magic for anything but trivial spells. It’s a fair fear, which both allows Tom to grow and regain his confidence, and means that things could get even trickier when the Nekross are on the attack.
The loss of the Nekross King and Lexi from the main cast isn’t the only major change this season is seeing. Behind the scenes, it’s Phil Ford’s first time running the show by himself (what with Russell T Davies going off to work on Cucumber), and we’ve got one new character to up the female quotient slightly – Varg’s Queen Regent, Lyzera.
And she’s great. OK, so previously on the Zarantulus there was the purely evil pantomime villain of the Nekross King, the conflicted and sympathetic Lexi, and Varg, who was pretty much just a brainless warrior. Rather than replacing one of the absent characters with similar tropes, the path they’re going down with Lyzera is going to be more of a secretly conniving and backstabbing role. The reveal at the end of the episode was jaw-dropping, coming after two seasons where we’ve had it drilled into us that the Nekross eat magic (and the fact that they haven’t thought about making their food source more sustainable is an argument for another time). With evil parrotesque puppet at her side, just exactly what can Lyzera achieve by manipulating her less intelligent husband?
And she’s great. OK, so previously on the Zarantulus there was the purely evil pantomime villain of the Nekross King, the conflicted and sympathetic Lexi, and Varg, who was pretty much just a brainless warrior. Rather than replacing one of the absent characters with similar tropes, the path they’re going down with Lyzera is going to be more of a secretly conniving and backstabbing role. The reveal at the end of the episode was jaw-dropping, coming after two seasons where we’ve had it drilled into us that the Nekross eat magic (and the fact that they haven’t thought about making their food source more sustainable is an argument for another time). With evil parrotesque puppet at her side, just exactly what can Lyzera achieve by manipulating her less intelligent husband?
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