The blockbusting atomic biopic hits the small screen, and some equally explosive stuff from a dramatised newsroom memoir

Emily Maitlis’s interview was unmissable limo-crash television, but Gillian Anderson’s Maggie Thatcher-lite performance and an underused Rufus Sewell add little

Here is a laboriously acted and distinctly self-admiring, self-mythologising drama about the media, the royals and the media royals. It is all about Emily Maitlis’s 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew , challenging him about being friends with sex trafficker and abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The prince’s performance was so grotesquely embarrassing that he had to forgo his royal titles and “step back” from public duties , an achievement much emphasised over the closing credits, but about which audiences may now have mixed feelings, given that he is still, after all, known as Prince Andrew and still unrepentantly prominent on royal occasions.

Rufus Sewell in heavy prosthetic makeup plays the pompous HRH, a puffy-faced babyish poltroon whose smug smile is that of someone accustomed to having his every lame or boorish joke greeted with gales of laughter, and every boneheaded observation rewarded with a solemn courtier’s nod. But that normally estimable performer Gillian Anderson goes into a peculiar Maggie Thatcher-lite mode to play Maitlis – all gimlet-eyed forensic alertness and unrelaxed eccentricity as she brings her dog into the office.

In Scoop, the story behind the prince’s disastrous TV appearance, Piper plays McAlister, the woman who landed the interview. They discuss their unlikely alliance, the pitfalls of fame and the extent of Andrew’s delusions

The Netflix film Scoop , which retells the story of how Newsnight landed its infamous, eye-popping 2019 interview with Prince Andrew , has a strong Working Girl vibe, which may be one reason why I enjoyed it (I’m talking about the Oscar-winning 1988 movie, in which Melanie Griffith plays a girl from Staten Island who dreams of climbing the corporate ladder). In part, this is thanks to the blond wig worn by one of Scoop ’s stars, Billie Piper, which comes with a powerful whiff of the late 1980s. Mostly, though, it’s because Peter Moffat’s screenplay pitches Piper’s character, Sam McAlister, as a plucky outsider surrounded by somewhat toffee-nosed types who only finally begin to take her seriously when she lands the TV exclusive to end them all. One minute, her lip is trembling with the unfairness of it all. Why do her bosses disdain all her brilliant ideas? The next, she’s at Buckingham Palace telling the queen’s favourite son to his face that his brand is distinctly grubby and could do with a generous spin in the Newsnight washing machine.

Was it really like this? When I meet Piper and the real life McAlister at Netflix HQ in the weeks before Scoop has its premiere, I hope vaguely to get to the bottom of some of the gossip that trails it; there’s talk, for instance, that Emily Maitlis, the journalist who ultimately delivered the prince’s head to the nation on a platter, is put out by her former colleague’s version of events (the Netflix film is loosely based on a chapter of a recent book by McAlister, once a booker on the show; Maitlis, meanwhile, is an executive producer on Amazon’s rival depiction, A Very Royal Scandal , in which McAlister’s role may, we hear, be far smaller). But alas, in their presence, one thing about the Netflix production does at least ring very true: McAlister is indeed an unusual combination of warmth and steel, just as Piper plays her. Ten minutes in her presence and I can see how good she must have been at her job in the decade she spent at Newsnight (a booker, in case you’re wondering, is the person whose job it is to bag the right guests). Basically, everything is up for grabs… until it isn’t.

Enlarge / Gillian Anderson's likeness has been promoting Star Citizen since 2015. (credit: Cloud Imperium Games)

Eleven years ago, Wing Commander designer Chris Roberts announced Star Citizen, an online multiplayer game that he said would "change the way people perceive games for the PC." Roberts told Ars' Kyle Orland soon after that he didn't enjoy the four-year development of another hit, Freelancer , because "spending that many years disconnected from your audience, sort of working off by yourself, wasn't creatively fun for me." With Star Citizen , Roberts said he could keep development from dragging on by engaging fans and using a pre-built engine, as opposed to what Roberts said would be "two years" building his own.

Roberts has definitely engaged his audience in Star Citizen , to the tune of $616 million raised from more than 4.8 million "Star Citizens." It has just taken a bit longer than two years to give them a true release.

Roughly 11 years after Star Citizen 's initial announcement that included it, then nine years after its first potential release date, Squadron 42, the single-player campaign, is now "feature complete" and has "entered its polish phase." Roberts announced this in a video released Sunday as part of an annual CitizenCon for backers, along with footage from the game and details on its development.

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Enlarge / FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were the heart and soul of The X-Files . (credit: 20th Century Fox)

In September 1993, fictional FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) made their broadcast TV debut on The X-Files and went on to investigate alien abductions and all manner of strange phenomena for nine full seasons and two feature films , followed by two additional limited-run seasons in 2016 and 2018. This hugely popular and influential series celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, giving us a prime opportunity to pay homage to our favorite episodes and characters.

(Spoilers for The X-Files below.)

The X-Files was created by Chris Carter , who was a fan of the 1970s horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker , featuring a wire service reporter (Darren McGavin) investigating mysterious crimes with a supernatural or science fiction element. Other cited influences included The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Twin Peaks (in which Duchovny played a transgender DEA agent), and Jonathan Demme's 1988 Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs .

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