Another Timeless Plea….
The showrunners of NBC’s Timeless are asking our help this Sunday, May 6th. I think we should give it to them.
Category: Science Fiction
‘Battle Beyond the Stars’ – The ‘Citizen Kane’ of Schlock Sci-fi
When Star Wars exploded on movie screens in 1977, it elevated sci-fi out of the low-budget B-movie ghetto in a way that 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes had tried to do and didn’t quite achieve. While those two films had the spectacular visuals, humanist allegories, and deep thoughts about the meaning of man, they lacked the slam-bang action of a great 1940s Flash Gordon movie. Star Wars showed that people would go for big dumb fun, and the race was on for the next one. In the years that followed, many studios attempted to join the “Me Too” Chorus, with Star Trek grabbing the high-end market and the original Battlestar Galactica locking up the TV audience. The low end was filled with cheesy movies featuring clumsy alien make-up and iffy blue-screen effects. 30-odd years later, one movie stands above them all as the greatest film in the crowded “cheap Star Wars knockoff” genre: ‘Battle Beyond the Stars.’
Byron Preiss: An Appreciation
Byron Preiss was a writer, compiler, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and graphic novels. As a fan of those genres, as well as comics and pulp fiction, among other things, he tried to innovate ways to present and publish similar materials for a wider reading public – something he did throughout his life.
Which Episodes of STAR TREK Are In Continuity?
It’s an interesting question: What episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series are explicitly in continuity because they were referenced in the Trek movies? Could you state that, say, “A Taste Of Armageddon” definitely happened to our heroes because it was referenced in one of the films? Could you find references to the entire television series if you looked hard enough?
It seemed like an interesting challenge. And since I was going through a bout of insomnia when I first read the question, I decided to find out.
‘The Imago Sequence and Other Stories’ by Laird Barron
Travis takes a look at The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron, who writes weird fiction in the vein of Lovecraft.
The Case For DISCOVERY
A lot of old-school Trek fans seem to really, really hate Star Trek Discovery. As it happens, I’m an old-school Trek fan myself and I like it better than any of the new Trek shows in the last twenty-some years. Here’s why.
Thoughts on THE ORVILLE and STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
Two shows, two premieres: THE ORVILLE and STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. So which one is the better STAR TREK?