*****CERES-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** After six seasons, or more like five and a half, Amazon Prime’s “The Expanse” has come to an end, though it leaves open opportunities for a potential comeback. The series is based on the novels by “James S.A. Corey” (noms de plume for authors Ty Franck & Daniel Abraham) and was adapted by…
“Space Station 76” (2014); in space, no one can hear you boogie…
*****ASTEROID-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!***** Mise en Scène. Cowritten by Jennifer Elise Cox (“Jan” from the “Brady Bunch” movies), Michael Stoyanov, Sam Pancake, costar Kali Rocha and director Jack Plotnick, “Space Station 76” (2014) piqued my interest with what appeared to be a spoof of 1970s disco-era science fiction TV shows, specifically the aesthetics of “Space: 1999”…
Star Trek: Singing the Body Electric…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD FOR TOS, TNG, PICARD, DISCOVERY***** With apologies to both Walt Whitman and Ray Bradbury, Star Trek’s attitudes on ‘the body electric’ have undergone a paradigm shift from 1966 to 2021. The season one finale of Star Trek: Picard, S1.10: “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2″ saw Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) awakening…
Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” is a scathing satire of inconvenient truths…
*****COMET-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Writer/director/producer Adam McKay is known for poking fun at television conventions (“Anchorman”) and politics (his “Saturday Night Live” shorts). With Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” (2021) he takes aim at the current distrust of science and common sense, using a planet-destroying comet as broad metaphor for COVID and climate change-denials. McKay also skewers…
Doctor Who: “Eve of the Daleks” gets back to basics…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Doctor Who’s New Year’s Day episode, “Eve of the Daleks”, directed by Annetta Laufer and written by current producer/showrunner Chris Chibnall, has aired. While the current run of Doctor Who will be the last under Chris Chibnall before the return of Russell T. Davies in 2023, I’m pleased to write that “Eve of…
Star Trek: Discovery, S4.7: “…But to Connect” reaches out
Happy New Year! To longtime readers/subscribers; I apologize for this Star Trek: Discovery review being a couple days late, but New Year’s Eve as well as a new Disney+ series set in a galaxy far, far away made things a bit more busy than usual, so without further ado, let’s get Trekking… *****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** The…
“Stranger in a Strange Land” opens the Book of Boba Fett…
*****BANTHA-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Written by “The Mandalorian” veterans Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”, “The Chef”) and directed by Robert Rodriguez (“From Dusk Till Dawn,”), the first episode of “The Book of Boba Fett” is now available for streaming on Disney+. Clocking in at a brisk 39 minutes, “Stranger in a Strange Land” (in a possible nod to…
“The Matrix Resurrections” (2021) takes aim at needless, corporate-spawned sequels…until it becomes one
The Matrix Re-Skinned? *****SOME SPOILERS***** Full disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of “The Matrix” movies. To some readers, that may sound blasphemous, but it’s true. I reasonably enjoyed the first film, though it seemed to borrow much of its style (over substance) from Japanese manga/anime (particularly 1995’s “Ghost in the Shell”–which itself was…
Star Trek: Discovery, S4.6: Batten down the hatches for “Stormy Weather”…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!****** The latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Stormy Weather, ” is available for streaming now, and it’s yet another example of some recognizable Trek concepts mashed together and refurbished to advance a season-long arc. As with other entries recently, the character moments more than compensate for any shortcomings in story originality. After 800-plus…
Comic Con Revolution 2021 in Ontario, California brings holiday cheer to SoCal fandom…
Comic Con Revolution Returns! While the COVID pandemic essentially cancelled last year for everyone (including myself), the sci-fi/comic book convention circuit has been slowly returning to something resembling normal (well, as ‘normal’ as we fans get, anyway). Just this year, I’ve already attended a couple of favorite conventions; the Las Vegas’ “55 Year Mission‘ convention…
Star Trek: Discovery, S4.5: “The Examples” aren’t easily given…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!****** The latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s 4th season, “The Examples,” is available for streaming now on Paramount+. Written by Kyle Jarrow and directed by Lee Rose, “The Examples” is, itself, a classic example of the intersecting A and B stories; a structure that became a staple of the Star Trek franchise…
Anne Rice (1941-2021) achieved immortality by reimagining the vampire tale…
Anne Rice (1941-2021) It was an awful way to begin my birthday, reading a news alert on my phone that a favorite author of mine, Anne Rice, had passed away following a stroke at the age of 80. The author, whose own fascination with immortality was realized through her vampires, witches and other godlike beings,…
Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek 