14 years before “Star Trek: The Next Generation” debuted in 1987, there was an earlier Star Trek spinoff series; the often (unfairly) maligned animated Star Trek series, which debuted on Saturday morning television in the fall of 1973. Star Trek The Animated Series (TAS), a Lou Scheimer/Filmation production, was, in essence a continuation of the prematurely cancelled original…
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018); a brief tribute…
Just need to preface this post by sheepishly admitting how woefully inadequate I am to the task of summarizing one of the greatest minds of the human race, so I’m going to just skip the late Stephen Hawking’s full biography. Hawking’s life has been well-documented in media (the book & documentary “A Brief History of Time,” as…
Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” creates something new from borrowed DNA…
Writer/director Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”) has a new science fiction movie in cinemas now that will probably not be a giant crowdpleaser/moneymaker, but it is also one of the most thought-provoking, intelligent and genuinely interesting movies I’ve seen since “Blade Runner 2049.” And it’s not a sequel or a prequel, nor is it based on…
Finding “Lost in Space”…
Past Prologue. When I was a kid, “Lost in Space” was one of those shows that I watched in afternoon reruns in the mid-1970s (I was a few years too young to have watched it in first-run from 1965-1968). My earliest impression was that it felt like a wonderfully goofy hybrid of “Star Trek” and…
Sci-fi and diversity do well at the 90th Annual Academy Awards…
First, I want to say upfront that I’m not big on the idea of pitting art (and artists) against each other in competition. Personally, I am one of the least competitive people on Planet Earth. The Academy Awards ceremonies in particular bring to mind the apples and oranges analogy: Is “2001: A Space Odyssey” any…
“Black Panther” strikes out from the Marvel pack…
A few things I need to start this post off: * First, I’m a little late to this party; my wife and I only saw “Black Panther” last weekend. The opening weekend of the movie we were having a blast in Los Angeles at the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention , so … sorry-not-sorry (hehe)….
The original “Battlestar Galactica” 40 yahrens later…
A year ago, I wrote of the excitement and anticipation my then-11 year old self felt back in the fall of 1978 with the television premiere of “Battlestar Galactica”: Remembering Richard Hatch and Battlestar Galactica With this post, I wanted to take an in-depth look at the three-hour pilot episode, “Saga of a Star…
Gallifrey One 2018, 3rd and final report; “One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back…”
The immortal words spoken by the late William Hartnell’s First Doctor (to his granddaughter Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford) kind of echo how I feel whenever I leave the annual “Gallifrey One” Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles. My wife and I have been attending this con for only four years now, but it’s…
Gallifrey One, Day Two: The Doctors will see you now…
The second day of our stay at the annual “Gallifrey One” Doctor Who convention in L.A. was nicely eventful. Started off the day by getting into my “Stone Trek” Fred Flintstone/Star Trek mashup cosplay. Though Gallifrey One is primarily a Doctor Who convention, I’d seen other Star Trek cosplayers in attendance the previous night, so…
Gallifrey One, day one; an adventure in space and time…
I picked up my wife from school today (she’s a teacher) and with our car fully packed, we drove straight to Los Angeles (and hour and a half drive, in today’s sluggish traffic) for the annual “Gallifrey One” Doctor Who Convention. Gallifrey One is the biggest dedicated Doctor Who convention on the west coast, if…
The “Spore Drive” and other Star Trek pseudoscience…
Since the 3rd episode of Discovery aired (“Context is for Kings”), I’ve read quite a few posts online from fellow Star Trek fans who seem to audibly eye-roll at the mention of the USS Discovery’s ‘spore drive.’ I can sort of understand why; the idea of fungi whose spores somehow connect the universe and allow a spacecraft…
Star Trek Discovery S1 finale, “Will You Take My Hand?”
The fifteenth and final episode of this inaugural season of Star Trek Discovery has beamed up. Overall, it was a very satisfying installment that seemed to pull the series out of the darkness, and a bit closer into the optimism of previous Star Treks. ***** GIANT VOLCANO BOMB-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD ***** The Story. The USS…
