Welcome to WonderCon 2019! Another WonderCon (my 6th now) comes to a close. Yes, in many ways it’s San Diego Comic Con Junior, but that’s part of its appeal for me; lots of ‘big ticket’ events (and a kick-ass dealer hall) with some of the charm and intimacy of the smaller conventions. The best of…
Star Trek S2.11: “Perpetual Infinity” is a bittersweet convergence…
****CONTROL-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Let’s just spore-jump right into it, shall we? 20 years ago. We see a young Michael Burnham on the colony of Doctari Alpha, under the care of her mother and father, two researchers working on a classified time suit project for the seedy Section 31 (unbeknownst to the tweenage Michael, of course). Young…
Paley Fest 2019: “Star Trek: Discovery” and the new “Twilight Zone”…
Way back in March of 2006, a very good friend of ours (and convention pal) helped my wife and I secure tickets to an event for the Paley Center (then it was called the MTR; Museum for Television and Radio) honoring our favorite show at the time, Ron Moore’s revision of “Battlestar Galactica.” It was…
Jordan Peele’s newest thriller says much about “Us” (2019)…
I’d like to say a few things about writer/director Jordan Peele’s latest movie, “Us”, an ambitious, scary followup to 2017’s brilliant “Get Out”, but I cannot (and will not) reveal the ending. All I can say is that the ending will change your perception of everything that precedes it. And you won’t read that ending…
The Orville, S2.11: “Lasting Impressions” leaves a few…
The latest episode of “The Orville” is once again focused on the previously poorly-and-underused character of Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes). Gordon was the class clown/smart-ass helmsman whose only other function besides flying used to be throwing out one-liners and bad jokes. This season he’s really coming into his own in a strong way. The…
Star Trek: Discovery S2.10, “The Red Angel” revealed… *SPOILERS!*
I put *SPOILER* warnings in the headline of this entry as well, because this episode is just one big reveal after another. “The Red Angel” was written by Anthony Maranville and Chris Silvestri, was directed by Hanelle L. Culpepper. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… Story. The story opens with a touching and moving funeral…
By Grabthar’s Hammer, 1999’s “Galaxy Quest” salutes sci-fi fandom…
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the 1999 sci-fi comedy “Galaxy Quest”, written by David Howard & Ron Gordon and directed by Dean Parisot, is quite possibly the greatest Star Trek movie never made. “Galaxy Quest” really is “Star Trek,” as much as “The Orville” is also Star Trek by any other name. But unlike…
CNN’s “Apollo 11” documentary is as close to a time (and space) machine as possible…
SPOILER ALERT. In July of 1969, three American astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Dr. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins left Earth in a monstrous rocket for a week-long journey to land a spacecraft on the moon and return safely to the Earth. There, now that we got that out of the way… Thanks to a Twitter…
Star Trek: Discovery, S2.10: “Project Daedalus” is a conspiracy wrapped in an enigma…
After the retro-fun of returning to Talos IV in “If Memory Serves”, Star Trek: Discovery takes yet another detour into edgy Trek with “Project Daedalus”; an installment that has some nice character moments, yet bumps its head on the ceiling of its own serialized format, leaving an incomplete episode that still delivers some thrilling action…
“Captain Marvel” (2019) is a refreshing pick-me-up for superhero movie fatigue…
The Marvel movie machine is a well-oiled one at this point. Nine years and 21 movies later (!), it sometimes feels like the machine is left on automatic…cranking out new audience-tested/approved product month after month, with only the occasional standout film being remembered more than 24 hours later (“Black Panther” “Winter Soldier”). These days, I…
The Orville, S2.10, “The Blood Of Patriots”…
The latest episode of The Orville, “The Blood of Patriots”, is written (once again) by series’ star/producer/writer/creator Seth MacFarlane (“Captain Ed Mercer”), and is directed by Rebecca Rodriguez, a former editor from “Machete.” “Blood…” focuses on the character of Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), the wiseass helmsman who, until season 2, was little more than a…
Star Trek: Discovery, S2.8, “If Memory Serves” recalls classic Trek…
The latest episode of Star Trek manages to pull off the near-impossible; act as a sequel to the original TOS Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”, as well as a ‘logical’ (forgive the pun) continuation of Star Trek: Discovery’s own current “red angel” storyline. It does so with enough style, elegance and nostalgia to make this…
