I swore I wasn’t going to do another column this month as my wife and I prepare to celebrate our silver anniversary this week (yay, us!), but something extraordinary happened last night. Vandenberg Air Force Base (some 200 miles/320 km away from me, near the cities of Lompoc and Santa Maria) launched another SpaceX Falcon…
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!
From “Hawkeye Pierce” to “The Hunger Games”; Donald Sutherland, 1935-2024…
Donald Sutherland, 1935-2024 I’ve done a lot of tributes to late actors, writers, and other notable creatives on this site, and it’s usually when I have some small personal connection to them; such as a convention meeting, or some other little moment. But no, I’ve never met Donald Sutherland, nor have I ever seen him…
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”; introducing Steven Spielberg’s 1977 UFOpus to fresh eyes…
*****MOTHERSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** “If everything’s ready here on the dark side of the moon? Play the five tones…” When the COVID pandemic happened, my wife and I invested in a cheap Vankyo digital projector to keep up on our movies since movie theaters were shut down for months, and arguably, still haven’t fully recovered. Without the…
The Gorn Identity: Star Trek’s revision of an iconic alien species…
*****SAURIAN SPOILERS!***** Contrary to my own silly title, this is not a column about a reptilian super-spy who awakens with amnesia. No, this is about a little pet peeve of mine within the Star Trek franchise. I have been a fan of Star Trek since the mid-1970s with reruns of the original series of Star…
Prequel to the prequels: “Star Wars: The Acolyte” is a middling mix of “Kung Fu” and “Harry Potter”…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** A pupil leaves the monastic temple they grew up in, roaming to different lands, seeking new adventures, and getting into life-and-death scrapes as their unique skillset is often put to the test. That is the premise of both TV’s “Kung Fu” (1972-1975) and the new Disney+ Star Wars streaming spinoff, “The Acolyte.” And…
Actor William Russell (1924-2024) will be remembered across time and (relative dimensions in) space…
Yesterday, I learned of the sad passing of a Doctor Who original cast member, and it brought me back to 2019, when my wife and I attended the “Gallifrey One” Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles. Beyond being a Doctor Who fan, one of my motivations for attending was special guest, William Russell, the actor…
“Star Trek: Discovery” (2017-2024); the often-problematic series that reignited Star Trek ends its own ‘five-year mission’…
*****SPORE-DRIVE SPOILERS!****** Premiering in September of 2017 on the then all-new “CBS All Access” streaming service, which quickly became ParamountPlus, “Star Trek: Discovery” (DSC) has finally ended a five-season run; a season earlier than expected. Five seasons is two seasons more than the original “Star Trek” (1966-9), though a couple seasons shy of most Star…
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (2024) roars and rampages, and gets bloody satisfaction…
*****HIGH-OCTANE SPOILERS!***** The “Mad Max” films have long been an uneven mix, with George Miller’s 1979 original being a late-but-imaginative entry into 1970s high-octane exploitation films (his nihilistic answer to “Two Lane Blacktop” or “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry”). Beginning with 1981’s “Mad Max 2” aka “The Road Warrior” (as we knew it in the States),…
Astronaut-artist Ed Dwight Jr., 90, finally gets his space shot, 63 years later…
The Right Stuff Denied Last weekend, something truly amazing happened. An event which did get some press, but not enough. Granted, in an age when when devastating wars, an intense US election season cycle, and other ongoing issues are dominating the news, a 90-year old African-American man taking a suborbital tourist spaceflight seems like a nice…
The Inland Empire Strikes Back! Animated Star Wars was a big draw at Comic Con Revolution 2024…
Return of the Jedi SoCal’s Comic Con Revolution, a sci-fi/fantasy/comic books convention based in the Inland Empire city of Ontario, California, first sprang into existence back in 2017 as a tiny convention with scant attendance. But over the past seven years, I’ve watched this little convention grow in size and stature, while still offering a…
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (2024) fills the prehensile shoes of its predecessors…
*****SIMIAN SPOILERS!***** I’ve been a fan of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise for as long as I can remember. In fact, the original “Planet of the Apes” movies (1968-1973) were my first real sci-fi movie addictions before “Star Wars” came along. And while I wasn’t terribly thrilled with Tim Burton’s 2001’s reboot (save for…
Roger Corman (1926-2024); the B-movie filmmaker and mentor who changed movies forever…
I woke up this morning to the sad news that longtime producer/director/mentor Roger Corman had passed away at age 98, and everything I’d planned to write later on today immediately went on the back burner. While it is very hard to sum up such an incredible life and career, here goes… Corman began his career…