Echoes from the Satellite

 The penultimate episode of season two of The Mandalorian just gave us the big turning point for Mando. Before we go any further, I'll plant a big SPOILER WARNING here -if you haven't seen episode 15, go no further. Episode 15: The Believer gave us that bit of character growth I had been craving (see my post  Run, Shoot, Repeat: Mando Keeps on Kicking ). We see the extent of Din Djarin's resolve and the depth of his feelings for Grogu, as he breaks with his Mandalorian creed in order to get the information he needs to track down Moff Gideon.  It was a huge step for Mando, and shows what he will do to get Grogu back. I don't think he's ready to step away from his creed yet, but he certainly has placed his connection to the child above all else, and that tells us a lot about him as a person. I don't think the man we see in episode 15 is the same man we met in episode 1, and that's a good thing. Of course, it was telegraphed by the speech by Mayfeld, played by...

 Like everyone else, I am still reeling from the latest episode of The Mandalorian ! So... SPOILERS .... Boba Fett!! Jedi temple!! Force energy fields!! Death Troopers!! Moff Gideon!! Bye bye Razorcrest!! By the Maker, can we take any more shocks? Well, we have two more episodes to go to the end of season two, and one of the big questions is, did Grogu make contact with any Jedi when he was on the seeing stone? And if so, who? There are a number of candidates being tossed around: Mace Windu, Ezra Bridger, Cal Kestis. But the one possibility that I am truly excited about is Luke Skywalker.  As someone who was there at the beginning, who remembers a film called  Star Wars and not A New Hope , I've been a big fan of Luke for a long time, and without getting too much into the new trilogy, I was among the many who were less than thrilled with his fate in The Last Jedi.  Bringing a young Luke who is still optimistic into The Mandalorian , even in a cameo role, would do a ...

  In my last post, I discussed how the two major science fiction franchises, Star Trek and Star Wars, now had live action TV series  that were carrying on their legacies. I dissected Star Trek Discovery in that post. In this one, I turn my eye to the Star Wars series, The Mandalorian . When I heard the initial premise for The Mandalorian , I was not particularly enthused. A bounty hunter? In the Outer Rim, dealing with low-life criminal types? This was an aspect of the Star Wars universe that didn't feel compelling to me. But the first season was a revelation. It had the feel of the original trilogy, but it took us to new places and expanded upon existing concepts. And of course, there was Baby Yoda. The second season began airing on October 30, 2020, and as of this writing, there have been five episodes released. This season is so far notable for giving viewers a look at the larger Star Wars universe, providing greater insight into how things are shaping up since the death o...

 Both Star Trek Discovery and The Mandalorian have returned to our screens in recent weeks. These shows, rightly or wrongly, carry the weight of their respective franchises on their shoulders. Decades of films and TV episodes have created rich mythologies for writers to mine and fans to enjoy. I am a fan of both Star Trek and Star Wars, and I am happy to see them continue. But the two franchises are taking very different paths, and as a viewer and fan, I find myself reacting quite differently to these two approaches.  In this post I'll look at Star Trek Discovery. The next post I'll follow up with my take on The Mandalorian. Star Trek Discovery was a show whose production I followed eagerly. For years I had been hoping that Trek would return to TV, its first, and best, home. Everything I heard about the show ratcheted up my excitement for it. And then it premiered and...I wasn't sure what to think. The main character mutineed and started a war, because her captain didn...

OK, we're halfway through October, so I'm running late on this, but there's still plenty of time to cram in some scary movies.  I've put together a list of some films I think you might enjoy. I tried to come up with some more unusual choices, hopefully a few things you might not have seen yet. They are spread across several categories. My tastes lean towards monsters and sci fi, and I'm not a gore or slasher fan, so keep that in mind. The Universal Horrors : 1) The Wolf Man (1941):  It seems like every Halloween people are fond of pointing to the Universal Dracula, Frankenstein , and certainly Bride of Frankenstein as classics of horror. But The Wolf Man is every bit as good as those films. With its tragic story, eerie forest scenes. and iconic Jack Pierce makeup, it's still a compelling movie. 2) The Black Cat (1934): This story of revenge, black magic, and twisted souls features Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and is a pre-Code horror film, with some truly d...

In my last post, I discussed a film, Quatermass and the Pit , which dealt with aliens altering human evolution in the distant past. This time, I'm going to talk about another film that focuses heavily on this concept, Ridley Scott's Prometheus .  I am a huge fan of the original Alien . I saw it in the theater when it came out in 1979 -I had an older brother who took me - and it made an impact on me, not only for the bizarre yet beautiful  H.R. Giger creature designs, but also because of the intriguing lifecycle of the alien, and the mystery of the  derelict  alien spaceship. Like many people, I wondered about how the alien eggs got on that ship, what happened to the space jockey, and who were these people who wound up crashed on LV-426? There were so many questions that were left unanswered. When Prometheus was announced, I was filled with a great sense of anticipation and excitement, because it was going to be a prequel to Alien , and would provide answers to so ma...

 One of the most basic questions humanity has always had is, How did we come into being? For some, this question is answered by religion. For others, science reveals the truth. But regardless, the origins of mankind, of our rise to prominence as a species on planet Earth, is fascinating to consider. Human beings as individual organisms are not very impressive compared to other creatures. We are not especially strong or fast, we don't have claws or fangs, and our skin is soft. The advantages we have though, are our intelligence, and our ability to work together, to cooperate. Over many thousands of centuries, we were able to develop societies and cultures and advance ourselves to a point where we were able to take our first steps off the planet. But what if we owe  our intellect, our drive, our ability to work together, to the intercession of an outside intelligence? The idea that aliens could have interfered with mankind's evolution is one that has been around for some time, c...

 Well, the dreaded deadline doom (aka work) has caught up to me, so just a short piece this week. I'm still unpacking from my move from a year ago, and I came across my ancient 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons books. Those books have a lot of history. I began playing D&D when I was in junior high, and it was a part of my life up to college. I never played any of the other editions until recently; right before Covid took over our lives, I found a local group and began playing fifth edition. Certainly the details had changed (how many races are there? how is a sorcerer different from a warlock or a wizard?), but the basic mechanics, and of course the role-playing, were pretty much the same. I was able to slip into it relatively easily. But then the pandemic changed things. We stopped playing for a couple of months. We tried online. And then the guys (it was all guys except for me) decided to play in person again. That's when I tossed in my sword, so to speak. I used to pore o...

  This post is not a review but just an appreciation of a writer that I fear is getting lost in the mists of time -Roger Zelazny. If you've not read any Zelazny, it's hard to find another writer to compare him to, because he had a unique style and voice. He wrote both science fiction and fantasy, but his work often blurred the two. He was one of the SF/F writers that emerged from the 60s who focused not on the hard SF of Asimov and his ilk, but more on the human psyche. His books featured protagonists that were often conflicted, perhaps leaning more towards anti-hero status, but always intriguing. He had an interest in legends and mythology which plays throughout his works. Zelazny had a way with language and words -although he often favored a sort of stripped down style of dialog, he could also weave dreamlike imagery. As a reader, I always felt transported by his writing, effortlessly, to new places, new ideas, new states of being. If you are wondering where to start, I would...

It was a crisp Saturday evening in April 1975 when my older brother Steve and I stopped at The Book Nook store and I made my way to the comic book section, where I spotted one that immediately stood out. A group of super-heroes were bursting through the cover, tearing it open and charging straight at me. I was a sucker for group books and this one featured heroes I didn't recognize, although I recognized the team name: X-Men. It was Giant-Size X-Men #1, and it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. I had been reading comics, and specifically Marvel comics, for about four years at that point, and I knew of the X-Men, although only from reprints and the occasional guest appearance. But other than Wolverine, who had recently appeared in The Hulk, and Cyclops, these characters were unknown to me. From the start, I found myself gravitating to them like no other super-hero comic. I always liked team books the best. I suppose it had to do with all the character interactio...

I had been working on a long post about Ripley from Alien , but unfortunately real world work has gotten in the way and I haven't found the time needed to finish it. Instead, about all I can handle today is this: how the heck did the writers of Star Trek Picard think it was a good idea for our dear captain to wind up as an android? Jean-Luc, who had always proclaimed so proudly his humanity, who was so deeply traumatized by being borgi-fied, is fine and happy that he's been reduced to a computer copy plugged into an android body? Hopefully a good chunk of season two will focus on some existential angst over this situation. I mean, is he even actually Jean-Luc Picard any more, or just an AI copy? What is his perception of himself? How do his friends look at him? What is his status in the Federation? It could be good fodder for episodes, but honestly, I can't really see a way that it ends happily. I guess it's obvious that I don't believe this is truly Jean-...

Earlier this week I saw a tweet by @deanetts about the 70s era Marvel Comics character Killraven (featured in the title Amazing Adventures ) and it got me thinking about that series. As a 70s kid (a Bronze Age Baby, as I was once called), I have an unabashed love of Marvel's output from 1970 to about 1977. That's the sweet spot of comics for me. As a SF fan, I was always excited to see SF elements worked into super-hero fare, but books with straight up science fiction premises were a real treat. I came late to Killraven. Going back through my collection, I can tell the difference between the issues I picked up off the stands and the ones I bought as back issues (I bet most of you can do this too). It looks like I started reading the series with issue 29, which, since it started with issue 18, was a fair way into the run.  But I recall that it wasn't too hard to understand what was going on. The series took H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds and imagined that the ...

"The gun is good. The penis is evil." That statement is made by a giant floating stone head very early in Zardoz , a 1974 film by writer-director-producer John Boorman. That, and seeing the late Bond-era Sean Connery running around in essentially a red loin cloth should help set expectations for this film: that it's basically completely nuts. But lord help me, I do find this film enjoyable. Part of it is the sheer goofy spectacle, but the more I've watched it, the more I've come to understand it. Maybe I should be concerned for my mental health. But honestly, Zardoz is not a terrible movie. It's a victim of over-reach.There are some interesting science fiction concepts here, but they are buried under a sea of weird choices. It's a mess, but in the same way a plate of nachos is a mess - deliciously so. I'm not going to give a detailed description of the plot; I'm assuming many of you may have seen it, and if not, rather than re-invent ...