From AP News: A new ‘Star Wars’ movie is coming to theaters: ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu.’ There hasn’t been a Star Wars film in theaters since 2019’s “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker,” which received mixed reviews at best (personally, I thought it wasn’t too bad, despite some issues), which means this announcement…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Past Tense” Parts 1 & 2 foretells a future-present…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-parter “Past Tense” debuted 29 years ago this month (January 5th and January 12th, 1995), and it was set in the then-near future of 2024, which is now. The episode itself forecast a dark, vaguely fascistic era where homeless people are rounded up en masse and placed…
Retro-Musings: Peter Fonda takes on killer androids in 1976’s “Futureworld”…
*****CYBERNETIC SPOILERS!***** Written and directed by the late Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”), 1973’s “Westworld” told the story of a high-end amusement park staffed with android playthings who provide wealthy guests with an immersive experience in several recreated worlds of the past; “Medieval world,” “Roman world,” and the titular “Westworld.” It’s in Westworld where a recently…
Doctor Who Special #4: “The Church on Ruby Road” is a refreshing restart…
******TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Last we saw the new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), he’d just ‘bi-generated’ from the 14th Doctor (David Tennant) atop UNIT Headquarters as they battled the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) together in Special #3: “The Giggle.” With Doctor 14 surviving the split and living in a state of semi-retirement with the Noble family, this 15th Doctor…
Retro-Musings for the Holidays: TV’s Happy Days; “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas?” (1974)…
*****CATHODE-RAY TUBE SPOILERS!!***** As I did with legendary TV producer Norman Lear’s recent passing, I’m taking a brief break from this site’s usual sci-fi/fantasy/horror fare for a look at a classic episode of the old sitcom, “Happy Days.” Happy Days began as a 1972 segment of the then-popular TV comedy anthology series, “Love, American Style”…
“Superman: The Movie” (1978) made my generation believe a man could fly…
****SUPER-SPOILERS AHEAD!***** Having written a retrospective on “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut” a couple years ago, I recently realized I’d never tackled my personal favorite of the Superman (and superhero) movie canon. In December of 1978, I’d just turned a precocious 12 years old when a new movie was released that everyone at school…
Doctor Who Special #3: “The Giggle” wins the game…
After last week’s bizarre, creepy voyage to the end of spacetime (“Into the Wild Blue Yonder”) the third of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary celebration specials brings it home with the return of a classic Doctor Who villain (one not seen since the Hartnell era), a uniquely Doctor Who-style apocalypse, and of course, the introduction…
Television’s trailblazing legend, Norman Lear: 1922-2023…
Reshaping Television To my regular readers, I hope you’ll bear with me as I do another rare digression from my usual sci-fi/fantasy/horror-related content for this column, but a television legend has passed away, and I couldn’t bring myself to focus on another subject without first paying tribute to the late, great writer/producer Norman Lear, who…
“Godzilla Minus One” (2023) is a HUGE plus…
******GODZILLA-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I’ve been a Godzilla fan since I was a little boy (“The King (of Monsters) and I”); from watching the increasingly silly English-dubbed movies on TV (seen/own them all) to worshipping at the altar of my green plastic Aurora Godzilla model kit. Highlights of my long love for the franchise reached a peak…
Doctor Who Special #1: “The Star Beast” reunites the ‘DoctorDonna’…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The first of three new Doctor Who specials starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate has aired/streamed on BBC and Disney+ respectively, and it’s a sentimental trip through the nostalgia lane of the spacetime continuum. When we last saw her, the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) had mysteriously regenerated back into the familiar, male face…
Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Children in Need Special, “Destination: Skaro,” revisits old foes…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** A new Doctor Who “Children In Need” charity special titled “Destination: Skaro” debuted this week. In this seven-minute short, a freshly-regenerated Doctor (Tenth Doctor David Tennant, returning to the role) accidentally makes a brief crash landing on the planet Skaro at a pivotal, foreboding moment in the planet’s history; the unveiling of the…
For All Mankind, S4E2: “Have a Nice Sol” chronicles the Martians…
*****PHOBOS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** I wasn’t planning to do episode-by-episode recap/reviews of entire TV shows anymore (as I used to do with each new episode of Star Trek), because they reduce the overall time I have for other equally compelling topics. My new modus operandi for this column is to only highlight an interesting episode every now…