******ROCKET-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Debuting in November of 2019, “For All Mankind” was created by veteran TV writer/executive producer Ronald D. Moore, best known for the critically-acclaimed reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” (2003-2009), along with coproducers/writers Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert. The series was hung on a deceptively simple premise; what if the Soviets had beaten the Americans…
For All Mankind’s season 5 finale, “This Land is Our Land,” regains some much-needed optimism…
******TITAN-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Apple TV’s “For All Mankind” nearly lost me with its surprisingly reactionary 4th season, which saw the demotion and humiliation of its stronger women characters, such as Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), who is brutally imprisoned, while astronaut Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) was shot, and exiled from Mars after a revolt at the end…
A few thoughts on UFOs/UAP and extraterrestrial life…
******SAUCER-SHAPED SPOILERS!****** Growing up in the 1970s, UFOs (as they were called then) were wildly popular. I watched alien visitation/invasion movies, such as “The War of the Worlds” (1953), “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (1956), and “Invaders from Mars” (1953)–that last one really scared the hell out of me watching it alone on late-night TV…
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” (2026); this is (not) the way…
******HUTT-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Debuting just before the COVID pandemic on the then-new Disney+ streaming service, Star Wars’ “The Mandalorian” took place shortly after the fall of the Empire, and chronicled the adventures of independent Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), as he made his way through the galaxy in his Razor Crest starship taking various…
“So say we all!” The cast of “Battlestar Galactica” reunites for Comic Con Revolution 2026…
Comic Con Revolution 2026 I’ve attended Comic Con Revolution in Ontario California since it was a seedling sci-fi/fantasy convention back in 2017, when they had only a few celebrities autographing, and a very sparse Exhibit Hall. CCR had slim pickings that first year, but it had great potential; a sci-fi/fantasy convention in the heart of…
My on-again/off-again love for the theatrical experience…
The Old Days One of my favorite pastimes as a kid was going to the movies. It was a safe trip into a darkened realm of imagination, where larger-than-life stories shadow-played before my eyes and ears. I even remember taping newspaper ads for my favorite movies to my bedroom wall. As the late film critic…
Retro-Musings: “Rocketship X-M” (1950); a funny thing happened on the way to the moon…
******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** The 1950s saw a wave of ambitious space adventure films, inspired by the heady optimism of post-World War 2 prosperity in the United States, as well as a brain trust of science and engineering (a brain trust in serious danger of extinction these days). Full-color space epics such as “Destination Moon” (1950) and…
Class is dismissed for “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” after wrapping season 2…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Debuting on Paramount+ streaming this past January, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was created by Gaia Violo under Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman, and was recently cancelled just after its as-yet-unreleased second season wrapped. Kurtzman himself might be stepping down after this year. For the first time since the cancellation of Star Trek:…
The Force is strong with the graphic making-of book, “Lucas Wars” (“Les Guerres de Lucas”)…
******DEATH STAR-SIZED SPOILERS!****** As a “Star Wars” fan for the past 49 years or so, I’ve read innumerable accounts of the making of this movie–which drew me in like a tractor beam at age ten, back in that summer of 1977. To that end, there are several books I consider must-reads about the life and…
Retro-Musings: “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” blew audiences away 70 years ago…
******SAUCER-SHAPED SPOILERS!****** Inspired by a report of “flying saucers” as described by pilot Kenneth Nelson in June 1947, and followed by the infamous Roswell incident in New Mexico that same year, UFOs (UAPs now) were all the rage in mid-century America. That trend was amplified in the 1950s with prominent sci-fi films such as producer…
Retro-Musings: Robert Altman’s “Countdown” (1967) puts James Caan and Robert Duvall in a race to the moon…
******SPACE RACE SPOILERS!****** I’m still feeling a bit of moon fever after the success of the recent Artemis 2 flight, so this column will examine a relatively obscure moonshot movie from the late 1960s called “Countdown.” Directed by the late iconic filmmaker Robert Altman (“M*A*S*H,” “Nashville,” “The Player”) and produced by actor Willam Conrad (“Ironside”),…
The Artemis 2 flight is the moonshot we really needed right now…
The world is a dumpster fire at the moment. Fuel prices are continually rising due to increasing global instability. Climate change is clearly and undeniably manifesting, as a sweeping far-right movement in key countries is stripping civil liberties from its citizens. Meanwhile, an unstable US president has alienated key allies as he engages Iran in…