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Stardate 12.28.2016.B: What's A Holiday Without A Little Who?

12/28/2016

 
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Like so many Whoovians, I do very much look forward to the silly season if for no other reason than the fact that the BBC treats me (and the rest of mankind, of course, if they’re watching) to an all-new holiday installment of the longest running Science Fiction program on the telly: Doctor Who.  After all, pair-ups, mash-ups, and crossovers are terrific for garnering hit ratings, and who wouldn’t want to see the man in red paired up with everyone’s favorite time traveler from Gallifrey?

Sadly, this year’s adventure – “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” – didn’t have much in the way of yuletide wishes or goodwill toward men.  In fact, it had noticeably little.

Christmas managed only a passing mention as much of the action centered instead on a carbon copy superhero origin story for young Grant Gordon, a boy who swallows one of the Doctor’s magical space gems and inherits superhuman abilities consequently and subsequently.  From there, the action fast-forwards into Grant’s adulthood (played by Justin Chatwin), wherein he’s exposed as a nanny-by-day-superhero-when-needed commodity in the world of ace reporter, Lucy Fletcher (Charity Wakefield).  Just as Lois Lane wanted the scoop on Superman, Lucy wants the goods on the heroic ‘The Ghost,’ and fate as well as the Doctor conspire to put these two together while managing to save life as we know it.

As is always the case, there’s a bit more – the Doctor has a new companion (funnyman Matt Lucas reprises the role of Nardole from last Christmas’s “The Husbands of River Song”), and a global conglomerate (Harmony Shoal) has risen to the level of threat needed to push the story forward – but it’s all second fiddle to the superhero story here.  Lucy and Grant’s tale channels only the best elements of the aforementioned ‘Lois and Clark’ relationship so much so that one might think BBC’s suits asked for a ‘get out of jail free’ card from Santa; and there are plenty of nods other superhero entities, including a terrific one-liner from the Doctor about what really should’ve happened to Peter Parker once bitten by that pesky radioactive spider.

The plot – what little there is – centers on the aliens behind Harmony Shoal and their secret efforts to deposit alien brains into only the finest (or highest ranking) human bodies to control the Earth.  Naturally, this draws the Doctor into action, pitting he and Nardole first on a collision course with the aliens and then on a collision course with the Earth (viewers will get the pun), and this offers Grant the opportunity to shed his disguise, save the day, get the girl, and raise the baby, all in the pursuit of happiness.
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Despite things working out precisely the way one expects in any holiday special, Doctor Mysterio suffers from the fact that it really wasn’t much of a holiday outing.

As I said, gone are the usual festive trappings, some of which were also sacrificed in the previous adventure, “The Husbands of River Song.”  Mysterio does pick up on one of the key plot points from Song – that being the end of the Doctor and River’s much ballyhooed love affair – but it only earns a mention in passing.  There’s little to no remorse on the Doctor’s part, and it would’ve been nice had screenwriter and soon-departing showrunner Steven Moffat given Peter Capaldi a bit more to work with on that front.  Mind you: no one wishes to see the Doctor break down, but it’s the holidays, after all, and isn’t that the ultimate mortal curse of the holidays?

Mysterio was … nice, at best.  All well and good.  It didn’t ‘feel’ like Christmas, and this particular installment could’ve aired almost any time in a regular series.

But dare I suggest that the BBC served up a lump of coal for diehard fans who’ve waited a year for some new Who?

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To me, the only thing that really felt right about this holiday special was the one thing many Whoovians have been complaining about since Matt Smith’s departure from the beloved SciFi program: Peter Capaldi.  The screen veteran hit every note perfectly, and even though I think the story suffered from some missed opportunities the actor showed why he’s pitch perfect in the middle of his take on this seminal character.  As this tenth season looms large (Doctor Who in series form has been absent from the BBC for some time now do to creative tinkering), I for one am glad to watch Capaldi come into his own as this incarnation of the traveler.

Stardate 12.28.2016.A: Rogue One Soars When It Needs To

12/28/2016

 
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I’ll be honest: I didn’t hate Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, but I wasn’t fond of it either.

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The JJ Abrams fan-film (make no mistake, readers: it WAS a fan-film since even JJ has pretty much confirmed as much in his own statements) had no real stroke of originality but instead teased what felt like a group/think project’s attempt at originality (i.e. heavily ‘emo’ villain; killing of a franchise favorite; black Imperial stormtroopers; and maybe a homosexual X-Wing pilot).  And – for the record – yes, it was kinda/sorta great to see Han, Leia, Luke, Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio back (even if it was in several cases for only a few seconds), but the story was heavily half-baked perhaps in such a way to conceal whatever true agenda might lie hidden away in the story untold yet waiting to unfold in the forthcoming Episodes Eight and Nine.  You know what they say?  “Too many winks and nods spoil the child” or something like that.

In any event, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was something from the start that looked vastly more inviting for this long-time fan.  For starters, it was centered on characters and events near and dear to the Original Trilogy, a setting I’ve long believed untapped and fertile for greater exploration.  Sure, there are always opportunities for cameos that could harken back to the franchise’s original magic, but there was no requirement for familiar faces to tell a good story.  And the biggest plus?  There’s a source for conflict built-in: the Empire was at the height of its power, and this could allow storytellers to go off in any number of directions.  (Think what you will about the Prequel Trilogy, but I’ve maintained its greatest failure was its lack of a clear and present villain: looking forward to Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace really only energized one of the three films, and perhaps that’s why the cast just hung around looking concerned or solemn for the first two adventures.)

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To my delight, I’m happy to say that Rogue One isn’t only a great film but also its greatness is strong enough to wipe clean the bad taste left in my mouth from The Force Awakens.

​Now, this high praise isn’t to say that Rogue One doesn’t have some of its own issues.


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In the lead as Jyn Erso, Felicity Jones just never quite ‘caught fire’ the same way Daisy Ridley did in TFA.  (Ridley was the single greatest addition to the greater Star Wars universe from the Abrams’ flick, a newcomer perfectly conceived and cast, though I could again quibble with plot points.  I won’t for now.)  Jyn spends far too much of the first half following the orders of others; it isn’t until the second half that she evolves into the hero a script like Rogue legitimately needed.  The risk in taking so long doesn’t quite pay off as well as it could have given that the story ends with hope emerging from sacrifice (a staple in even the most formulaic of war pictures), and I think Rogue has been almost universally praised for its payoff surpassing all its set-up.

Sadly, the supporting players aren’t given all that much more to do to establish their bona fides.


Diego Luna occasionally oozes the kind of charisma one might expect from a budding Han Solo-type; he handles the conflict of ‘crossing the line’ much too simply for my tastes, but it’s finally great to see a rebel truly ‘rebelling’ over the cost to his soul.
  Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera kinda/sorta serves in the role of a knock-off Obi-Wan Kenobi for Rogue, but I never quite understood the who and the why in much the same way Alec Guinness mastered it with possibly less screen time.  Fan-friendly Alan Tudyk voices K-2SO, an Imperial droid reprogrammed by the Rebel Alliance but – for some reason – cursed with a bad attitude.  (I tend to dismiss characters so obviously crafted for comic relief, so much of the jokes fell flat, though K2 does deliver the best comic line in perhaps all of Star Wars.)  And Ben Mendelsohn’s imperial officer Orson Krennic never quite rose to the level of being a villain worthy of an audience’s hissing; he’s a jerk who behaves like a jerk, so he ends up with an obligatory jerk’s send-off in the film’s climax.  (On the upside, however, a masterful Donnie Yen and an equally enthusiastic Wen Jiang make the most of their grizzled war veterans who not only carry “big sticks” but also know how to use them.)

Much ado has been made about Rogue’s digital creations, most notably the inclusion of Grand Moff Tarkin (originally played by the late Peter Cushing) and Princess Leia (played by the late Carrie Fisher).
  Others have scored their hits and misses with far greater clarity than I could, so I’ll let that be.  I will say that while I didn’t find the Tarkin scenes as troublesome or intrusive as others did I do agree that CGI could still have accomplished the goals had greater nuance been employed.  For example, a scene or two are staged so that Tarkin’s reflection is all one sees, and that worked perfectly to convey the required sentiment: in comparison, the fully body shots do look and feel more like CGI conceived for TV’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, and they killed the effect more than they advanced the plot.

Still, despite the weaknesses, Rogue One excels.

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Its heart is in the right place – perhaps the film’s greatest strength – and the return to the Original Trilogy era soars more than it stumbles.  It takes a while to get to where all is right with the Force, but once it does Rogue rises to the challenge – as do its heroes – treating the audience once more to a traditional good-versus-evil story set against the backdrop of stars, planets, and the scheming galactic empire of a galaxy far, far away.

Stardate 12.27.2016.A: In Memoriam - Carrie Fisher

12/27/2016

 
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​One of the truths that each generation learns over time is that history started a long, long time ago and not just within its current frame of reference.  Today’s youth are obsessed with the Kardashians not all entirely unlike mine was captivated by All Things Star Wars, though to our credit we had to work vastly more feverishly to uncover the facts and figures that today’s social media savvy has at the click of a mouse.  At the risk of sounding like a man much older than I am, I try not to tell kids to stay off my lawn but instead to go home and pick up a book, read a little, and – as a consequence – show a bit more respect to the greater world around us, thus making this world – perhaps our only one – a little place to occupy while we have the opportunity.
 
When it was announced that JJ Abrams was taking the reins of the Star Wars universe, I was one of the few who honestly wasn’t very happy.  Truth be told, I’ve never found JJ’s films to be all that good: as a filmmaker he definitely crafts some striking visuals but as a storyteller everything either moves at a blistering pace with little to no nuance OR he chocks the frame with enough gobbledygook to distract the most ardent viewer from the rips in the seams.  When JJ clarified that he’d be bringing back the stars of the Original Trilogy for yet one more spin in the galaxy far, far away, I at least found comfort in knowing that the controls of the Millennium Falcon would rest once more in the hands of learned talent and not ‘the next big thing’ from Hollywood.
 
As I said earlier today in a post on a political message board, Carrie Fisher was pop culture for an entire generation or two of moviegoers.  Though there’s no doubt her star had faded somewhat (the passage of time is unkind to us all), she remained galactic royalty to those us who learned to look to the stars in search of entertainment more than we did (ahem) for Muslim outreach.  (Sorry, President Obama, but there are some gaffes you just never live down.)  In her time with the Rebellion, she taught boys and girls to fight on both sides of the silver screen, showing us that nobility never meant you wouldn’t face danger up to your elbows in gunk with the trash compactors walls closing in; in fact, maybe nobility was precisely why some princesses ended up right there in the thick of it.
 
She may have left us today, but her legacy much like that of the space saga she inhabits will live on forever.  What she did onscreen will continue to inspire, always reminding us to reach for that better part of ourselves while standing toe-to-toe with baddies as big and imposing as Darth Vader … especially when that bad guy might turn out to be your very own father.  She leaves us with memories of a performance deserving of so much more than some Academy statue, and her words and works will always find a place within the hearts and minds of those forever young-at-heart, strong with the Force, and willing to travel far, far away for a shot at the big time.
 
May the Force be with her.  Always.

Stardate 12.19.2016.C: How Rogue Can You Go? (Part II - The Box Office Strikes Back!)

12/19/2016

 
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Yowsa!  I had posted last week some very brief thoughts on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and how I honestly felt it was much more of a calculated gamble on the part of the knuckleheads at Walt Disney currently managing the space franchise.  (No disrespect intended.)  In short, Rogue remains the first real venture kinda/sorta outside the established framework of trilogy storytelling made so popular with the Original and perhaps less-so with the Prequels.

​Well, money is always the key measure, especially when we're dealing with box office tentpole properties, and Rogue looks to be in good hands: THR (aka The Hollywood Reporter) has scooped that the film opened this past weekend and globally took the number two spot for the highest grossing films to open in December.  Some might find that number two spot alarming, but considering that the number one spot is retained by Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens I think that Disney is still writing checks that'll definitely clear at the bank.

​Now, some analysts always argue that it isn't opening box office performance but 'legs' for how long a film can maintain its hold on our collective imagination (and wallets), so we'll keep our eyes peeled for the days ahead to see just how Rogue can stand on its own.  I think it's probably going to do just fine, and that's great news for the franchise: these standalone films are fertile for not only taking us back to that galaxy far, far away but also keeping us right there where we'd all love to live.

​As always, thanks for reading ... live long and prosper ... and May the Force be with you!

Stardate 12.19.2016.B: Sonequa Martin-Green Is Boldly Going ...

12/19/2016

 
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Apologies to my faithful readers that I'm so late in getting around to this announcement (hey, it's the holidays, and we're all busy!), but I wanted to give a congratulatory shout-out to the lovely Sonequa Martin-Green: word on the street is that she's been cast "as the lead" for the newest incarnation of the Gene Roddenberry juggernaut, Star Trek: Discovery.

​For those born and raised on an island, Ms. Martin-Green has been chewing scenery as one of the regulars aboard AMC's The Walking Dead since 2012.  Now (that I've been able to find), there's no "news" relating to what effect this new role might have on her appearances aboard TWD, but as the impending war with Negan will no doubt escalate into a bloody body count once that show returns for the latter half of its season, might viewers be treated to yet another death of a semi-regular?  Who knows?  I suspect there may be some doom on the horizon for the talented lady.

In any event, kudos to Ms. Martin-Green in joining the Trek family.

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

Stardate 12.19.2016.A: Happy Blade Runner Monday!

12/19/2016

 
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Well, what a difference a weekend makes!

​I think I'd read as soon as last Friday (or so) that studio executives were treated last week to some new footage promoting one of the biggest SciFi releases for 2017 -- that being Blade Runner 2049 -- at some Hollywood gala of some sort.  Well, lo and behold, this morning I find that the sneak trailer has been released for mass consumption and approval.  As is often the case with these things, it's hard to make much of it -- there's a Harrison Ford voiceover (a curious decision especially given how maligned the voiceover version of Blade Runner has been over the years by even director Ridley Scott) and some footage of what looks to be a destroyed city along with Ryan Gosling in a trench coat.

​Still, I'll take what I can get if it comes to another visit to one of the more interesting urban dystoia epics to come along.

​Here's the trailer:

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

Stardate 12.16.2016.B: SciFi-Shoutout - SK Handcrafted Books display Fandom Loudly And Proudly!

12/16/2016

 
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Being myself a SciFi junkie much older than dirt (well, some dirt, anyway), I'm always on the prowl for some fellow soul to give a SciFi-Shoutout; and today's goes out to Etsy shop owner Sarah Klein as her SK Handcrafted Books expresses the kind of sentiments near and dear to those 'in the know.'

​Rather than have me try to explain the delightful journals she creates, I've copied and pasted her own words for posterity's sake (otherwise, I'd probably just monkey it up):

"All of my books are hand crafted start to finish: From cutting and trimming the pages to stitching or gluing on the cover! I use a variety of materials including different fabrics, leathers, and papers for a better variety of books. Writing and drawing is so important, and so much fun too! I just want to share that with others, and I work to make my books inspire as many people as possible!"

​I stumbled across her shop myself only the other day, and I was dutifully impressed by the work she offers up at modest pricing.  Also, it looks like she's happy to pursue 'custom jobs,' should any of you smilers out there which to engage her in business.  Take a gander at what she has to share right here, as I'm certain she'd love to hear from anyone as smitten with her work as I was.

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

Stardate 12.16.2016.A: How Rogue Can You Go?

12/16/2016

 
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No, no, and no: this is not a review of today's big release, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  But I wanted to take the occasion to offer up a few words.  (NOTE: I will offer up a review once I've seen it, but I'm so busy with the holidays that won't be for a week or so.)

​For all intents and purposes, I think the real experiment in Walt Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm from George Lucas truly begins today with the opening of this film, and I'll tell you why.  Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens was a bit of a continuation, building on characters and circumstances some of which had already been established; this gives storytellers some greater foundation upon which to build a story and flesh out newly incorporated characters.  By comparison, Rogue One seeks to carve out a piece of that galaxy far, far away that will understandably bring familiar names and places to the table while potentially "trying something different."

​The reviews have been on-the-web for a few days now, and it seems to me that there's some minor controversy about just how well Rogue fits into the greater Star Wars universe.  Certainly, many who've seen it have pointed out (positively and negatively) that the Gareth Edwards' picture feels more like a 'war movie' than it does a 'Star Wars movie,' and it's those sentiments I tried to express in my own way above: I could be wrong, but I've said before that the Prequel Trilogy alone demonstrates that all you have to do is slap "Star Wars" in a title and people will come, but Rogue One really seeks to show once and for all that there's more than one way to skin a Bantha ... if one were indeed crazy enough to attempt such a feat.

​Here's hoping that Rogue One really does stake out new territory as I think that will always be the future for not only good storytelling but also for a franchise that felt a bit too familiar for my tastes with A Force Awakens.  (Sorry, JJ, but I wasn't much a fan of your fan film.)

​As always, thanks for reading ... live long and prosper ... and May the Force be with you!

Stardate 12.9.2016.C: Who's In THe Christmas Spirit?

12/9/2016

 
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Like so many, I'm always looking forward to the Doctor Who Holiday Adventures as a highlight to the entire silly season.  Granted, I may not have always been thrilled with what the BBC comes up with by way of a story; but it's still a great way to spend the day in anticipation of how the signature time traveler will save Christmas once more for some wayward creations, be they human or alien.

​A new trailer highlighting "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" has found its way onto the Information Superhighway today, and I wanted to share to keep all of you up to snuff on developments.  Here it is, compliments of the good ol' YouTube.com:
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As always, thanks for reading, live long and prosper ... and Merry Christmas to one and all!

Stardate 12.9.2016.B: Spider-Man Swings Into Homecoming With New Trailer

12/9/2016

 
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Those who know me well know that I've never been much of a 'Marvel guy.'  Oh, I can appreciate superhero action as much as the next longtime comic book reader (and watcher); but Marvel's pantheon of characters always left me a little bit cold with some of their more personal idiosyncracies.  I tend to prefer DC Comics, but (as they say) "to each his own."

​In any event, I've struggled with the greater Spider-man franchise largely because it seems like the creative powers that be behind the scenes have never been quite happy with what they've got.  The suits seems to want to reboot the thing every time someone turns around.  I don't know if that has to do with the actors wanting to move along or the studio wants to try something different, and this latest go'round looks to be the youngest setting yet for the webbed wallclimber.

Here's the trailer that dropped recently, compliments of the post at YouTube.com:
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As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!
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