Some films just have a magic about creating the level of excitement necessary to make them even a modest hit with audiences, and Wonder Woman (2017) certainly looks to be a force to be reckoned with at the box office.  When it was announced, I'll admit that I wasn't all that thrilled with some of the pre-production photos of Gal Gadot as the female superhero, but she proved in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice to have the right stuff.  In fact, that critically drubbed film seemed to at least have everyone in agreement that a Wonder Woman feature was long overdue.

​An additional trailer hit the web last week, and I'm slow to getting it up here for your review.  Here it is in all of its super-glory!
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As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

... and on a general housekeeping note, I wanted to let interested readers know that I finished adding all citations for CBS's The Incredible Hulk - Season 01 to the daily archives.  You'll see them as you're scanning the daily pages, and I'll probably begin relatively soon making 'anniversary style' announcements via Twitter (for major anniversaries but probably not each year).

In any event, now you know!

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

One of the many, many things I've planned to do as time permits is to continue expanding upon some of the citations already listed on SciFiHistory.Net, and this includes creating more resources for folks wanting to know more about All Things SciFi.

​For example, it's great for me to cite that the first planned television episode for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (subsequent to the pilot movie, of course) was a little ditty titled "Planet of the Slave Girls."  Readers can find that episode properly listed in the page for September 27th within this registry, but why stop there?  Eventually, I'd like to pen reviews or provide links for readers to reviews available online elsewhere on the Information Superhighway, but -- as mom and dad always said -- that kinda stuff takes time.

​However, I recently rewatched the two parter, and -- while doing so -- I put in the extra effort to screencap a good portion of the event.  For those who want to know more, I've even uploaded all of those screencaps to a single page, and they're available for your review within smaller "galleries" (of a sort).  You can access them by clicking on the blurb within the Sept. 27th link OR you can feel free to click the link right here.

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

Throughout the years, one of the biggest complaints regarding traditional Science Fiction films is that they tend to present a dark vision of what lies ahead; and rarely does a hard SciFi feature present an optimistic view of the tomorrow where the future’s so bright ya gotta wear shades.  Don’t be confused here: while a motion picture may ultimately deliver a hope or a promise for better days, it still is generally preceded by gloom and despair wherein Earth and mankind’s survival hang in the balance.  Gene Roddenberry’s popular Star Trek bucked that trend, though even the grand visionary himself wasn’t all that enamored with what he thought was an increasingly ‘militant’ view of Starfleet in the films featuring the crew he created.
 
To a certain degree, one could argue that it’s the economics of crafting big budget films which force storytellers to go ‘dark’ and ‘darker.’  Moviegoers crave action.  They long for escape from their everyday lives.  For example, both Ridley Scott’s ALIEN and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. – THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL explore mankind’s contact with an EBE (Extraterrestrial Biological Entity), but only one of those two properties enjoys a lucrative box office franchise with multiple entries.  And why is that, you ask?  Well, goodness, grace and friendship work for only so long in spinning yarns of fancy, but any good writer will tell you what’s needed to captivate an audience is ‘conflict.’  Now, if E.T. returns with a plan to eat Elliot, his family, and the rest of the subdivision, maybe a sequel is warranted (and bring in Quentin Tarantino to direct); otherwise, it might be a hard sell to both studio suits and the audience they seek.
 
Even Science Fiction’s revered classics drift toward themes and messages decidedly bleak.  THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) ends as an object lesson warning mankind that it had better clean up its act or else the alien overlords might have to intervene.  PLANET OF THE APES (1968) climaxes with our hero – astronaut George Taylor – brought to his knees over the realization that Earth’s warring factions finally pushed the button and blew civilization back to the Stone Age.  Even Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY can’t quite escape the underlying pessimism inherent in SciFi: ‘go out into space where you will, Earthmen, but don’t come here.’
 
Into this merry realm (/sarc) now comes Simon Phillips’ THE LAST SCOUT (2017).
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(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last three paragraphs for my final assessment.  If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
 
From the publicity materials:
“2065...With Earth rendered uninhabitable by war, humanity's remaining survivors send a fleet of ships to different points in the galaxy in the hope of finding a new world. After seven years of travel and long since out of communication range, the crew of The Pegasus are nearing their destination when they encounter a derelict ship. As tensions on board rise and they struggle to complete their mission they soon realize that they are not alone and must fight for their survival - and the survival of the human race.”
 
When SCOUT begins, the crew of the Pegasus are seven years into their journey to find a new home for the human race.  Have you ever spent seven years confined with the same souls?  Now, I spent four years in a fraternity house during my years in college, and I can tell you without hesitation that I learned quite a bit about those men and the women who hung out there.  Granted, I didn’t know everything, but circumstances of close quarters do make for very effective conversation starters.  Still, the members of Pegasus appear all too often in the film as if they’re just ‘getting to know’ one another, a big misstep in a script by Paul Tanter.  There are moments of camaraderie: in fact, the feature has a great exchange (over space radio) between two of central players (after an entirely unnecessary, five-minute voiceover set-up).  The problem is that I found these moments too few and too far between to be entirely believable for their claustrophobic circumstances.
 
That narrative shortcoming aside, SCOUT is captured the way features like this always are: there’s a pervasive sense of dread and desolation about these people, their ship, and an empty, unforgiving frontier around them.  Mankind couldn’t even learn to live with itself back on Earth, resulting in the planet’s destruction, and now it’s having an even harder time getting along in the void.  All the baggage that made our species in need of a collective time-out is stowed away on this ship, and audiences can be certain it’s only a matter of time before those vices and prejudices rear their ugly heads where no one can hear you scream.
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Tanter’s script cleverly introduces further layers which pose even greater challenges to its crew’s physical and emotional survival (i.e. the Pegasus may not be spaceworthy much longer; ship’s sensors discover another craft already waiting near their destination; how long can a sane, red-blooded human being go without sex; etc.), but perhaps the one least needed was also the one most clichéd: some evildoer begins killing off shipmates one-by-one, morphing this tale of survival into a space-age AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945).  This idea had already been explored in Danny Boyle’s SUNSHINE (2007), and it resulted in many critics casually dismissing an otherwise intelligent and exceptional SciFi feature as little more than a slasher picture in space.  Sadly, Scout may fare no better in the final estimation, but its players deserve better.
 
On that note, Blaine Gray stars as the ship’s captain, and he delivers a believable central character worn down by the rigors of command and protracted isolation.  Director Phillips does double duty here, assuming the role of ship’s engineer, Pete, the Pegasus’s most likeable soul.  Deji LaRay, Paul Thomas Arnold, and the familiar Peter Woodward (of BABYLON 5 and CRUSADE fame) all turn in good work, though their respective crewmen aren’t deep enough consistently to be more than cinema creations.  Rita Ramnani plays the good-natured and occasionally plucky ship’s helmsman with great conviction, and the fetching Rebecca Ferdinando gives heart to the ship’s physician and resident ‘mother hen.’  The young Mercedes Synodis rounds out the Pegasus crew as the child preserving hope for that oft-promised ‘better tomorrow.’
 
For what it’s worth, SCOUT reminded me quite a bit of one of the very first SciFi books I read as a young man: Frederik Pohl’s “Gateway.”  In that version of the future, space explorers have discovered what remains of the Heechee, a long since vanished race who’ve left behind a vast fleet of deep space craft.  The problem is that Earthmen aren’t talented enough to figure out what destinations these pre-programmed ships have been configured to stop and then return home, so every trip is a gamble: one might seal your Fate while another might deliver you untold riches.  SCOUT’s Pegasus is on a similar journey: wherever this crew arrives, they won’t know if they’re doomed or deliverers until they get there.  That alone kept my interest, despite some awkward and at times lethargic pacing.

​

THE LAST SCOUT (2017) is produced by Templeheart Films, Knusperstein Productions, and Runaway Features.  DVD distribution (stateside) is being handled via Epic Pictures.  As for the technical specifications?  I viewed the film via digital streaming, and the video is excellent quality; I had some minor quibbles with some of the audio (the occasional crackling that can go hand-in-hand with streaming, and one character’s verbal presentation in hallucinations was occasionally hard to hear) but much of it was very, very good.
 
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  While most of the ideas and themes explored in THE LAST SCOUT aren’t new (certainly, they’re practically staples in Science Fiction these days), Simon Phillips’ feature still worked quite well for me despite some only serviceable characterizations.  In the end, it’s the kind of flick that – so long as you don’t think too long and too hard about it – that SciFi geeks (of which I proudly consider myself) are inclined to like, though it could’ve used some edits here and there to get it down to ninety minutes (at best).  Performances are solid, and – all in all – I give it a thumbs up.
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Epic Pictures provided me with a means to view the release digitally for the sole purpose of completing this review; and their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.

In order to feed my hobby of following All Things SciFi, I do watch the media releases fairly closely, and this definitely includes DVD release schedules ... but somehow The Last Scout completely slipped through the cracks.  That isn't surprising, per se, as there's far more media choices available these days that were even when I started trying to keep up with the genre; but the coming attraction for this one definitely looks interesting, and I thought it proper to share the same here for interested parties to check-out.  Also, I've reached out (via email) to Epic Pictures (the distributor); should they come through with a premium for me to watch, then I'd be happy to review this puppy as it definitely falls in my wheelhouse (as they say).
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As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

1983's Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone is one of those rare films that defies an explanation for why all of its fans love it without question.  It was conceived and released largely during Hollywood's second (or was that third?) flirtation with 3-D in theatres, but having seen it in its said 3-D state I can assure you I didn't find many of its effects all that interesting.  But Peter Strauss admirably pulls off the lovable 'Han Solo'-like clone to perfection; Molly Ringwald plays a scrappy little nobody to delight; and the venerable Michael Ironside chews scenery as 'Overdog' the way a B-Movie villain should from start to finish.

​Owners of the 2001 DVD release have probably enjoyed its sugary goodness the way audiences were always intended, and they're even garnered a solid return on investment: a pristine copy sells for nearly $50 on Amazon, and as the feature has never experienced another domestic release copies are hard to come by.

​Mill Creek Entertainment recently announced over at Blu-Ray.com (link) that the ol' space rogue would be receiving a new release via their imprint this May 2nd, and I suspect fans will clamor to pick up a new version.  The press release doesn't mention any restoration or clean-up, and -- for what my humble opinion is worth -- Mill Creek is atrocious especially in the sound department: I've found several of their discs to be downright unintelligible at times, and I've also had to crank up the volume to hear what was being said over the orchestral accompaniment.  Also, this Blu-ray update appears to completely ignore the 3-D aspect of the flick, so I'm guessing that's gone by the wayside unless some other distributor wishes to give it a go.

​It isn't listed up on Amazon.com as of yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it: when it does, I'll try to update this post for interested readers.

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

Well, color me a bit confused, especially after the news that actor Jason Isaacs had joined the cast of CBS All Access's forthcoming Trek incarnation -- Star Trek: Discovery -- whenever this project eventually sees the light of day.  (Tip: I say that as the show keeps getting kicked back for its inevitable premiere, a prospect so confusing that at present CBS doesn't even have it scheduled.)

​Now, I say "confused" above because Jason Isaacs is an actor of some merit -- certainly no newcomer to the world of Hollywood projects for the big and small screen -- and I thought much ado had been written that Discovery WASN'T going to focus its storytelling on the captain's chair.  Given Isaac's gravitas, why would an actor of his caliber sign aboard if he weren't going to be the lead?  In fact, I thought the reportage had recently declared that The Walking Dead's Sonequa Martin-Green had emerged as Discovery's "lead," so yesterday's news really only muddied the waters more about what's truly going on with this Star Trek show.  (If you're aware, it also lost Bryan Fuller as showrunner not that long back, a development that soured many who had long celebrated the fact that the storyteller had finally been given the franchise's future.)

​I won't say more than that.  In fact, as a blogger I really only "know" what I've read in the entertainment trades and from various sources available online (which most of you probably follow as well).  Still, I'm thinking this Trek is looking a bit shaky even before it leaves spacedock.

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

Some planets have a helluva time holding it all together.

​If the collective films coming from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin teach us anything, then it's probably that cities are destined to fall no matter what we as a species do ... so maybe we ought to hang it all up.  (Tip: they're the cinema wizards behind such features as Independence Day and its awful sequel, 1998's Godzilla reboot, The Day After Tomorrow, and the Mayan Prophecy-themed 2012.)  Well, it looks like we're in for extinction again in a forthcoming feature written and directed by Dean Devlin as Geostorm promises to take theatres by (ahem) storm this October 20th.

​Meh.  The trailer is interesting, but this is all stuff we've seen before, especially from Devlin, so you'd think the auteur might want to stretch himself, no?  Maybe take time out and direct a Gilmore Girls flick or something.  Maybe even a motion picture about taking zebras.

​For those interested in the upcoming devastation, the coming attraction is here for all of your reflection:
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As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Here's a little behind-the-scenes goodness, folks.

​As a blogger, I maintain SciFiHistory.Net as a means to explore my own fascination with All Things SciFi with the ongoing hope that others might find these corners, explore what I've put up in this growing database, and maybe even some day find some way for regular readers to participate.  Well, a few weeks back I experienced another "first" when I had to block a reader for constantly complaining to me privately about the content.  Before I instituted the ban, I did try to engage this person, to try to come to some mutual "understanding" about what it is I do here and what I can realistically accomplish with time constraints, but -- after a few emails -- it really became clear there was no middle-ground.

​The point I tried to reinforce was that there ARE other readers out there than just this person, and he wasn't hearing it.  When I explained that I even occasionally get a response from actors, actresses, and artists, I was accused of lying about it for the sake of my own esteem.

​Well, here's another Tweet from an appreciative actress, just to underscore that SciFiHistory.Net is making an impact, however major or minor that may be.

Maxim Roy, you're a class act!  Thanks for thanking us for your citation.

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

I'm not much of a fan of awards shows.  A few years back, I pretty much gave up on them, largely because everyone involved in them decided to take the opportunity of a public appearance supposed to be focused on arts and entertainment to lecture me about politics.  Still, if there's any one I still follow fairly closely then it'd be the Saturn Awards.  For those unawares, the Saturn Awards are dedicated to the recognition of films in the realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy, so it's a natural that SciFiHistory.Net would kinda/sorta keep them on our radar.

​In any event, the nominations for the 43rd annual Saturn Awards are out, and I'm copying and pasting the featured film selections below from their website.  Take a gander at how many great genre entries there were in the last year.  It's certainly an impressive list, and that bodes for some fierce competition.

Best Comic-to-Motion Picture Release:

• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
• Captain America: Civil War
• Deadpool
• Doctor Strange
• Suicide Squad
• X-Men: Apocalypse

Best Science Fiction Film Release:

• Arrival
• Independence Day: Resurgence
• Midnight Special
• Passengers
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Star Trek Beyond

Best Fantasy Film Release:

• The BFG
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Ghostbusters
• The Jungle Book
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
• A Monster Calls
• Pete’s Dragon

Best Horror Film Release:

• The Autopsy of Jane Doe
• The Conjuring 2
• Demon
• Don’t Breathe
• Ouija: Origin of Evil
• Train to Busan
• The Witch

Best Action/Adventure Film Release:

• Allied
• Gold
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hidden Figures
• The Legend of Tarzan
• The Magnificent Seven
• The Nice Guys

Best Thriller Film Release:

• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• The Accountant
• The Girl on the Train
• Jason Bourne
• Hell or High Water
• The Shallows
• Split

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