Welcome Back. Once again, WonderCon has returned to Anaheim, California and with COVID restrictions pretty much gone now (though I still wear masks), things feel a bit more back to normal. This year also saw a surprising championing of smaller or lesser-known movies and TV projects than in years’ past. Instead of a DC or…
Author: A Middle Aged Geek
I am a happily married, progressive-minded, middle-aged science fiction geek. My interests included photography, reading, movies, Halloween, and all kinds of nerdy-niche things. After months of prodding from my wife (and my friends), I decided to 'throw down' with a blog of all of my nerdiest of nerdly thoughts and musings... here's hoping you enjoy!
A Movie Lover’s Dream; the Academy Museum…
The Academy Museum This week, my wife and I finally went where I’ve wanted to go since the place opened in September of 2021 (at the height of COVID, sadly); the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. The museum is by-appointment only, via their website or app, and parking is across the street…
Update for regular readers; a lot of fresh geeky content, coming soon…
This column is for regular readers/subscribers of this site, and don’t worry—it’s NOT bad news. Despite a lack of published content this week, this column is still going plenty strong. In fact, I’m taking a little breather this week, because I’ve got back-to-back events coming next week that I’m very eager to cover for this…
The legacy of “Mr. B.I.G,” filmmaker Bert I. Gordon (1922-2023)…
*****SUPER-SIZED SPOILERS!***** B-movie filmmaker Bert I. Gordon, who passed away on March 8th at the age of 100 (!), was a creator of giant creatures flicks whose very initials dictated the kinds of projects he’d become most associated with—movies about really big animals, birds, insects, people, etc. Bert I. Gordon was the man behind so…
Star Trek: Picard, S3.4: “No Win Scenario” gets its ship together…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** After a decent season opener (“The Next Generation”), the second and third episodes (“Disengage,” “Seventeen Seconds” ) of Star Trek: Picard’s third season were in danger of slipping into the same kind of story morass that defined the unsuccessful second season. However, this week’s episode turns near-death “into a fighting chance to live.”…
Retro-Musings: “When Worlds Collide” (1951) is a doomsday tale from an extinct era…
*****BELLUS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** In 1933, writers Edward Balmer and Philip Wylie wrote a pair of novels; “When Worlds Collide” and its sequel, “After Worlds Collide.” In the early 1950s, famed producer/director Cecil B. DeMille (“The Ten Commandments” 1923/1956 versions) sought to make them into a pair of movies, with only the former being made and released…
The Mandalorian, Chapter 17: “The Apostate” ushers in the third season…
******BANTHA-SIZED SPOILERS!****** The third season opener for Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” is available to stream now. While Chapter 17 “The Apostate” isn’t quite on a par with the “Return of The Mandalorian” (an episode of the otherwise forgettable “The Book of Boba Fett”) it does manage to offer a few nuggets for Star Wars fans in…
“Moon Zero Two” (1969) is one groovy space oddity, baby…
*****MOON-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Hammer Films, a British company reputed for their wonderfully grisly horror films (mainly Christopher Lee’s Frankenstein, Mummy and Dracula movies), hit their peak in the 1960s and made a few cult hits in other genres. These included such audaciously entertaining flicks as the late Raquel Welch’s dinosaur-cave people saga, “One Million Years B.C.”…
“The Orville: New Horizons” deserves a renewal…
*****QUANTUM-DRIVE SPOILERS!***** Charting a Course. Writer/producer/star Seth MacFarlane’s “The Orville,” which debuted on the Fox TV network in September of 2017, had a longer than expected hiatus between its second and third seasons, due to the chaos caused by the global COVID pandemic. When the series finally returned in June of 2022, it left Fox…
Star Trek: Picard warps into its third season with “The Next Generation”…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Star Trek: Picard (PIC) has been an uneven ride, to put it mildly. The first season had some interesting ideas, and a (more or less) satisfying conclusion, saddled with a meandering middle section, and some ill-conceived characters (looking at you, Narek and Narissa). What could’ve ended as a decent miniseries pushed its luck…
Star Trek TOS: “All Our Yesterdays” offers a star-crossed romance for Spock…
*****SUPERNOVA-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The third and final season of the original “Star Trek” (1966-9) (TOS) is often unfairly maligned in fandom for its drop in quality from the previous two. Yes, it’s true that creator/producer Gene Roddenberry took his hands off the wheel, along with a revolving door of producer/writers, including Gene Coon and John Meredyth…
Recurring Nightmare; CreepIECon Returns to the Inland Empire for 2023…
The Growing Horror… Last year, the city of Ontario, California hosted a horror-themed convention in February called “CreepIECon”, which was successful enough in its freshman year to take another stab at it in 2023. Having just returned from CreepIECon 2023 earlier today, it’s safe to say that by attendance alone, the convention has grown significantly…