In my travels across the vast Information Superhighway, I'm always stumbling across some of the neatest places I've never seen previously.  When I find something of interest, I do try to share it in this space with a respectable SciFi Shout-Out ...and today's is this nifty little corner of the web called Doux Reviews.

Essentially, Doux is this media review site that heavily leans toward genre properties like Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer (with many, many more also in tow); and it's writers are actively engaged in penning summaries and reviews regarding individual episodes.  For example, I was this morning search for a photograph I could use for a classic Doctor Who adventure: Google turned up one that lead me directly to one of Doux's writers waxing on about the strengths and weaknesses of that particular episode.  I ended up spending about twenty minutes shuffling around their site, checking out the who's, what's, and where's they've collected; and I have to say that I'm impressed with the quality of work.  As happens, some of it is a bit brief and flashy, but much of it is very respectful of what the storytellers are trying to tell us in some of the best hours (and half-hours) in the history of television ... and beyond.

Episode reviews are something I'd love to (eventually) add to SciFiHistory.Net's pages as well.  In the meantime, I'm happy to have found another place that enjoys genre work as much as I do.

Check them out!  You can find their mainpage right here.

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Growing up when I did, our family didn't have the luxury of what the modern household provides for entertainment.  These days, practically any program or motion picture is available at the click of a button; and future streaming promises to push the boundaries even more with each passing day.

But back in my youth, our television was lucky to receive six channels ... and even that was questionable if our town was hit with the occasional thunderstorm.  Naturally, you had the three major networks, and local affiliate stations would supplement the big choices with smaller, syndicated, and largely forgettable fare.  It was these secondary channels that held much of my interest for they'd play cartoons and kid-friendly live-action adventures -- many of them imported from Japan and the United Kingdom.

Well, it was on this podunk channel that I first discovered the beauty of 1962's The Brain That Wouldn't Die from Rex Carlton Productions.  In it, poor Virginia Leith was reduced to little more than a head (see picture above): her character was killed in a car crash, and her boyfriend -- a scientist on the cutting edge of tomorrow -- created a means to keep her alive so that he could find a replacement body.

Essentially, the movie was a twist on the classic Frankenstein mythos, and -- for her part -- Leith did a masterful job at emoting just as much as she could to keep the audience believing that the impossible was possible.  I've read that -- behind the scenes -- the actress hated the movie and her experience making it; and who could blame her?  She spends the bulk of the action clearly immobile with her head wrapped in bandages, and I can't imagine those circumstances alone would've made for a great day at work.

For some reason, it seemed like this particular movie was always playing on that channel.  I must've watched it a dozen times as a young'un.  Even though I'd seen it before, it kept my interest each and every time it came on the Boob Tube.  As formative experiences go, I probably should've turned out a serial killer -- or maybe a brain surgeon -- but I digress ...

I read this morning that the lovely Ms. Leith passed away recently at the ripe ol' age of 94.  For what was once just a head, that's no small reward.  May she rest in peace now that she's no longer actively portrayed 'in pieces.'

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Those of us who seriously love our Science Fiction tend to seriously love "screencaps" of those particular episodes.  It's a somewhat daunting and time-intensive process -- you'd never imagine the number of actors and actresses who manage to somehow miraculously blink at the same time -- so I don't go about it as often as I'd like but, rather, squeeze it in when I have a few precious moments to give.  I won't bother you with how long it takes because -- at the end of the day -- celebrating SciFi is a labor of love as much as it is blood, sweat, and tears.

In any event, I took an afternoon (or more) to finally capture the fabulous first season ending "Flight Of The War Witch" from Buck Rogers In The 25th Century's first season, and parties interested in checking them out can do so by following the link right here.  Be warned: there's a lot of images there, so it might take some time for the entire page to load.  You may even have to hit refresh a time or two in order to see all of them.  Such is the nature of data.

So ... Happy Friday!  Thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

From time to time, SciFiHistory.Net receives inquiries and or promotional links from link-minded individuals.  As time permits, these get an honest 'looking over,' and those which are found of interest we're always ready, willing, and able to pass along.

For those who haven't heard of it, Walt Disney is launching a new streaming service, and one of its hot properties is the forthcoming live action series The Mandalorian.  It's been created and written by Marvel favorite Jon Favreau, and the trailers certainly do look like it might be something special.

Like so many households, ours has a relatively limited 'entertainment budget,' so we don't actively belong to any streaming services presently other than Amazon Prime.  This isn't to say that we don't feel streaming is the future: they said the same thing about BetaMax one day, people, so color us overly cautious about investing in yet one more portal.

Still, kudos to the MouseHouse for something which looks to be more in the spirit of the Original Trilogy of Star Wars films, something we've found lacking in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

As always, live long and prosper ... and may the Force be with you!

Recently, I was asked, "How long do you intend to do this?"  Uncertain as to what the person was referencing, I inquired and was further asked, "How long do you intend to keep your blog up and running on the world wide web?"  Initially, I was a bit perplexed: it wasn't an odd question per se, but I didn't quite know how to answer.

In any event, I fumbled around briefly, explaining that Science Fiction and Fantasy were a lifelong passion, and -- so long as I was capably both intellectually and financially -- I saw no reason to ever shut it down.  After all, the blog isn't all that expensive, but it does require a fair investment of time and effort to maintain a freshness of new material.  There's a wealth of trivia for the daily citation pages I have yet to post (one would be amazed at how much clutter I keep on my various hard drives), and website traffic continues to be good (not grand) ... so I can come up presently with no need for major change.  I am thinking about other ways to make it profitable potentially; but the nuts and bolts of merely 'celebrating SciFi' is really what this blog is all about from its inception.

The one thing I haven't had as much time for is celebrating the benchmarks achieved along the way.  Life -- as you know -- requires much attention; and it isn't easy to reach a milestone as one might guess.  Today, however, I've reason to shout my own praises ...

For those of you keeping score, October is the first month that I've been able to post 50 individual citations in each of the daily pages.  This means that a viewer can click on any of the days in the month of October to discover fifty (or more) bits of trivia involving that particular day, be they birthdays, movie releases, television airings, or the like.

I don't mind mentioning that it's taken a lot of time to get to a single month with that many citations.  It's an awful lot of research, and then there's the time required to find the proper graphics, format everything, come up with something to say, etc.  But it's still a milestone for me personally, and I'm pleased to share it with you.

​As always, live long and prosper ... and may the Force be with us!  Always!

For those of you either living on an island or (as stereotypes would have it) living in your parents' basement, this week marks the release of the much-ballyhooed "final" Star Wars trailer ever -- JJ Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.  In an attempt to bolster football's still sagging television ratings, the MouseHouse aired it during Monday Night Football and then blasted it to all corners of the Earth and beyond on the web not long thereafter.

As I've often warned, never put too much stock in trailers.  Typically, they're put together by folks with a greater interest in 'marketing' the impending release, and there's very little emphasis on story.  Instead, glitz and flash and pomp and circumstances rule the day, hinting at big moments that the studios seek to promote while quietly holding back their trump cards for audiences to relish on the silver screen.  Furthermore, trailers have been shown throughout their history of pushing a particular theme or event or plotlines that may or may not figure prominently into the final cut, and for those reasons I learned long ago not to give them more focus than a passing glance.

For example: sure, it's cool to see what may be one of the ships from Star Wars: Rebels ... but, in the end, that may amount to nothing more than a two-second throwaway  to a program that deserved more, especially more than a two-second throwaway.  Dave Filoni's work on television (Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels) is often cited as giving fans of the Original and Prequel Trilogies hope that Lucasfilm hasn't quite forgotten its roots; but I'll wait and see whether or not JJ and his Mouseketeers truly served those installments 'justice' or ponied up what little they could.  (For what it's worth, I'm inclined to believe the latter and not the former.)

Despite my tendency to dismiss dissecting trailers, I'm willing to concede minimally that Rise honestly looks to dish out "more of the same" of what I've humorously termed 'the Incoherent Trilogy' as so very little of what's come from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi added up to anything substantial much less a true 'hero's quest.'  While I've admitted time and again that neither film "felt" like they were constructed in the same vein as Lucas's earlier films, I've also said that I do tend to try and find things to like -- even in the worst cinematic experiences -- and both Awakens and Jedi provided me with enough escapism to appreciate the efforts of their respective storytellers, talent, and shapers.

So ... I know I'm a bit late to the party in hawking what promises to be 'the last film in the Star Wars saga,' I'm still giving it a nod today.  Enjoy it for what it's worth ... and, as always, may the Force be with us, always ...

It would be inaccurate to claim that Sid Haig was 'huge' in the realm of Science Fiction but, perhaps, not that far off-base to claim he was about as serious a genre irregular as one gets.

His nearly 150 credits on IMDB.com certainly show solid inroads into Horror -- the genre he's largely most recognized from -- but there's some meaty SciFi and Fantasy work stuck in there as well if you're looking closely.   Maybe I'm just an "old coot" because I certainly remember him from appearances aboard TV's camp classic Batman, the original (and still the best) Star Trek, and the Saturday morning classic Jason Of Star Command.  Still, I'd honestly completely forgotten THX 1138 (1971) and his visits to Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.  Sid had so many great opportunities to chew scenery, and chew with the best of them he did.

Alas, the man has passed on now, but his work remains, and it will no doubt continue to inspire.  Even when cast as the heavy (typecastig was something that the actor learned to resent about the entertainment business), he turned in solid work as somehow worthy of your fear AND admiration.

​May he rest in peace ...

Ardent fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- often jokingly referred to as the red-headed stepchild of Trek -- will tell you that one of the show's most effective qualities was its ongoing usage of background and/or supporting characters within major plotlines.  Unlike other SciFi programs on the air, DS9 made exceptional use of these players, oft times giving them relatively major developments -- "character arcs," as they've been called -- that were entirely organic and not screenwriting creations in order to manufacture drama.  DS9 made its living on its dramatic developments, and that's arguably why so many Trek enthusiasts wish its particular corner of the Alpha Quadrant would get visited again.

In any event, there's sad news to report today as one of the show's semi-regulars has passed: the always enthusiastic Aron Eisenberg left our world late yesterday for whatever lies beyond.

I caught the news on social media yesterday evening of his hospitalization for critical condition, but the specifics were understandably light.  Those who know Aron's own personal journey know that he was born with one kidney, a condition that plagued him somewhat over the years.  Though I've yet to read it confirmed on the web that this played into his last days, I think it's safe to suspect as much.  Leaving the world behind at the ripe young age of 50 only adds to the pain of this announcement: that's far too young for a young who showed such enthusiasm for life, a lesson all of us could benefit from learning.

Prayers and salutations to those who knew him well, and DS9's little corner of the greater Trek mythology has lost a bit of its luster today.

Often times, we learn the hard way: do not get invested in upcoming films based solely on the comic attractions.  Still, the optimist in each of us holds out hope that something good will come from a well constructed trailer -- meaning, essentially, that audiences will be treated to a winning blockbuster release -- and the Terminator franchise continues to chug along despite a solid handful of disappointments (Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys) ... so there's the stakes as we know them.

Now the studio is hoping that writer/director/creator James Cameron's return to the cinema franchise might just make us believe that the entertainment quotient might "be back," as it were.  Certainly, the latest trailer hypes not only Cameron's return but also Linda Hamilton's, and it looks as if she and Arnold Schwarzenegger will share the silver screen, at least, one more time.

Be warned: yes, it looks pretty grand ... but as I always caution "buyer beware."

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Yes, yes, and yes, folks: I did see that Rutger Hauer recently passed ... but as I've warned many times in the past, I'm often slow to the uptake on posting memorials largely because as a blogger I've often found it difficult to distinguish myself from the thousands of other testimonials by those who knew such talent well.  Also, I do tend to highlight births and achievements in our daily pages here, so I shy away from including death notices mainly because -- while good to read -- much of them are unadulterated fluff ... and I choose to recall how they lived as opposed to marking their passage.

Still, Rutger Hauer is one of those standouts who deserves a few words.

Most genre fans only know his work from the landmark Blade Runner (1982) where his singular Roy Batty just "wanted more life, f#cker."  (His words, not mine ...)  And if you're going to remember Hauer then why not choose what many considered his best work?  I stated in a Twitter thread how I thought the actor truly inhabited that character, blurring the lines between where Roy ended and Rutger began, and that's what great talent does: they make it nearly impossible to distinguish themselves from the roles they've played.  Hauer certainly did in the Ridley Scott film, and he furthermore built a career out of doing like-minded work in Ladyhawke (1985), The Hitcher (1986), and the alternative history Fatherland (1994).  His was the type of magnetism that would have fans searching out a particular property -- new or old -- just because he was in it ... and -- think what you may -- there are few actors in the business today who can boast of that kind of loyal fandom.

He's gone now -- "like tears in rain" -- but what he did will forever shine on the big or small screen.  Search it out one more time ... and then some ...