With today's news-at-your-fingertips society, it's hard for young'uns to imagine what a narrative wallop George Lucas and company served up with that big, big reveal near the end of The Empire Strikes Back.  You know the one I'm talking about?  That whole "who's your daddy, Luke?" moment?

In any event, I've heard this one before, and though I've heard it debunked I've never read a definitive explanation saying it didn't happen.  Thus, I'm sharing it today for folks to enjoy.

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

Ach ... so much talent ...

The venerable Richard Herd was probably not one of the busiest actors in genre circles.  In fact, I recall much of my seeing him on the small screen as being in mainstream projects like 80's favorite T.J. Hooker (alongside William Shatner) and the 90's sitcom classic Seinfeld.  But the truth is the actor had a long history in Science Fiction for those of us who follow it, including work aboard the original V; Star Trek: The Next Generation; SeaQuest/SeaQuest 2032; and Star Trek: Voyager.  The man even had a solid role helping to launch the online Renegades, a Trek-branded web project that had to drop Trek from its moniker after Paramount balked.

Still, no matter where Herd turned up, he was always a kindly voice of authority, never brusque or belligerent.  His characters appeared to be thoughtful yet persuasive in a way one might hope a captain, commander, or any other leader would be; and I've always believed much of that characterization is owed to the actor as it is the screenwriter who crafted it.  I loved his turn aboard Star Trek: Voyager in particular where -- as an admiral -- he reached out across the vastness of space hoping to make contact with his estranged son Tom at the helm of the starship; it was the kind of character beat every son would hope from every father.

Alas, he's left us know as The Hollywood Reporter announced today, but his legacy in Trek and beyond will forever burn bright.

Personally, I never make too much out of being a geek.

I grew up watching genre shows, ones like Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, The Six Million Dollar Man, and a little something I found in syndication called Prince Planet.  At school, I learned that most of my classmates were watching other things, but I never much cared about that.  My opinion was then (and it still is today) that I watch what I watch, and the Devil will be damned if I pass up on watching something I enjoy just because other folks aren't interested.  Why should their tastes ever dictate what mine should be?  Such peer pressure just never made much sense to me.

However, not everyone grew up with that same singular focus; and wanting to fit in with one's peers can be the source of some personal struggle.  I applaud anyone who can rise above it, who can seek out and explore exactly what he or she wants, and who can make the commitment to continue down that path as life inevitably throws curve balls after curve balls.

In this respect, an online article titled "I Skipped Prom To Watch Star Trek" has created a bit of a buzz online.  I skimmed it, found it valuable, and thought it worth sharing this morning.  Interested parties can check out this column right here.

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

The trivia strikes back!

What with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back turning an incredible forty years young this month, I'd thought I'd let slip yet one more piece of trivia involving the film's production; and today we learn that -- once production wrapped on the Space Fantasy film -- none other than producer Gary Kurtz's wife arranged for the film's cast and crew to get together on the Dagobah set for a picnic.

How utterly quaint ... but definitely inspired!

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

I do so love a good monster movie.  Sadly, the U.S. doesn't make films like this much any more; not sure why, but I suppose that Hollywood would rather spend their production dollars elsewhere as opposed to re-invigorating the movie houses with something they feel is beneath their talents.

From what I've been able to ascertain, Monstrum was a 2018 Korean release that never found U.S. distribution until now: it'll be offering as a motion picture release to the Shudder outlet (not familiar with it, but, then again, the wifey and I don't stream much).  It's also being billed as a Shudder Original, which may or may not be a good thing: putting one's name on something generally indicates that the service believes in the quality, and this one's preview looks very solid.  The release is posted at FirstShowing.Net, but the details are fairly slim.

Check out this preview, though.  Pretty slick.
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As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

I grew up in an era where there wasn't nearly as much money in the Superhero business.  Essentially, producers would have to put a reasonably known actor or actress in a role to draw a crowd, and then they'd have to rely on some fairly rudimentary special effects (if any at all) in order to tell the story.  The big budget Marvel and DC films of today just hadn't come into the realm of possibility, but boy oh boy television audiences still looked forward to watching the lovely Lynda Carter do her twirl -- an athletic, almost ballerina-like move that allowed her transformation from Diana Prince to Wonder Woman -- and deliver her own brand of Amazonian justice.

As can happen when these franchises get hot -- what with the new Wonder Woman coming out sometime after these quarantines get lifted -- Warner Bros. has dug deep into its archives to prepare a modern era Blu-ray release of the complete series run from the 1970's.  The press release over at Bluray.com reports that the episodes have been fully restored, and they've even ponied up a few commentaries with Ms. Carter herself.  The price (per Amazon.com) is a bit steep for my tastes -- it's early, and the SRP generally comes down a bit the closer the release date comes -- so I'll keep my eye out for a bargain.

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

Science Fiction literature has always gotten a 'bad rap' in public circles, and methinks this is owed to several reasons.

First, the premise behind the typical SciFi novel ends up being the driving force for the entire tale.  Detractors dismiss it as a central gimmick -- one that ends up weakening the overall story because, if removed, there might be no story at all -- and, thus, it isn't legitimate.  In some respects, I've always seen this like Hitchcock's 'McGuffin,' and I've never found it a valid argument but a way for intellectuals to simply sidestep discussing Science Fiction as a genre.

Second -- as the characters, situations, and dialogue all flow beneath the construct of a central SciFi premise -- these supporting elements are considering inferior to the tale's "science."  Holes get poked into anything that doesn't support the central conceit, an activity that ends up being far more nitpicking than anything else.  While some criticisms do have merit, critics typically can't take their eyes of the book's premise long enough to enjoy these characters for what they are: true, individual creations in the literary universe.

Lastly, as the books are often times considered 'inferior' to more -- ahem -- 'traditional' literature, the entire genre gets branded for developing what teachers and/or educators might christen "poor distractions" from serious thought.  While these academicians are willing to give praise for SciFi and Fantasy developing new worlds against an almost magical backdrop, they're quick to point out that immersing readers in such places only gives these minds easily over to flights-of-fancy, daydreaming, and the like ... and, naturally, this is the activity of lazy brains.

Sheesh.

So this morning I was pleased to stumble across an article on Phys.Org which actually takes society to task on much of the above, pointing out that readers who indulge in this unique type of literature actually may be doing their cognitive functions some good by tasking them to develop greater skills as coping, relieving anxiety, and escaping the terrors of regular boredom.  The article points out that readers of this type end up being a bit more resilient than purveyors of other genres, challenging them to develop greater empathy and emotional intelligence.

So take that, educators!

Personally, I've always thought that SciFi and Fantasy -- unlike "traditional" literature -- affords folks with much richer escapism and actually pushes the mind to perceive places only capable of visiting through imagination, which is why they're good to push readers to conceive of things they would otherwise miss ... but what do I know?  Typically, I read either to escape (which SciFi, Fantasy, and Mystery are great for) OR to educate (which interests me philosophically).  But please remember: I'm just a blogger.

In any event, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Holy macaroni!

I guess that it's safe to conclude since film began there has probably always been fans of film, ones who strive to 'worship' and/or 'endear' a motion picture on levels other than the average viewer.  And I would imagine Science Fiction and Fantasy films -- with their predilection to take audiences where no one has gone before -- probably inspires the most ardent hearts among us to seek even greater opportunity to follow in the footsteps of our cinematic heroes ... and maybe that's part and parcel of what this truly is.

Some of the brainiacs as NASA apparently were so inspired by The Empire Strikes Back to name a real planet after Hoth, and I think that's totally cool.  A few centuries from now when mankind has finally mastered space flight and takes to the stars maybe -- just maybe -- a few descendants of those geeks will finally pay the cold place a visit.

So very cool!

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

Well, well, well ... some crafty, li'l person with some home editing tools might have inspired a pretty clever trend!

It seems like an inspired individual has started taking some of the outtakes from popular SciFi programming like Star Trek: The Next Generation and put them back in for good measure.  There are a few of these sequences available for your review right here, and I do encourage checking them out.  Granted, some are better than others, but I always appreciate a quality chuckle when I can get one.

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

When 2013's Snowpiercer hit the silver screen, it seemed to me that this SciFi feature was largely snubbed by regular folks but loved by critics (or seemingly loved, even if some reviews were a bit mixed).  I didn't get the chance to see it until it came out on home video, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, largely because it took the usual Dystopian formula and kinda/sorta turned it on-its-end by placing Earth's survivors in a somewhat fight-for-survival aboard the world's only surviving train.  Director Bong Joon Ho did well with crafting the claustrophic atmosphere as another character in the grim tale, and all of the actors seemed to enjoy chewing on scenery while playing off one another.

When TNT announced it was going to create an ongoing series surrounding the property, I was a bit reserved: I tend to not get excited about storylines and casting news, always wanting to see the finished product, but I couldn't help wonder, "Why?"  It wasn't as if the premise behind the motion picture really left itself open to 'interpretation,' and without spoiling anything specifically mankind pretty much did come to an end in the film (in a way) ... so why the rush?

Well, the production has been anything but rushed, and now the finished product is finally airing on TNT this upcoming weekend.  The reviews are out, and perhaps some of my cynicism was properly conceived as the word is not all that grand for the adaptation.  I won't spoil it myself for readers, but I'll put a few links before for those who are into knowing a little bit more about a property before it screens.  If you're interested, then check them out.

Screen Anarchy

IndieWire

Collider

C|Net

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