I normally dislike all sci-fi stories involving time-travel but this episode softened my bias. First off, it involves La'an Noonien-Singh and Captain Kirk travelling back to twenty-first century Earth to prevent a change in La'an Noonien-Singh's timeline. Kirk's first line is "this must be New York". Noonien-Singh's response is "no, this is Toronto; a city that used to be part of Canada". Priceless! The majority of the episode is filmed on the streets of Toronto, a city I know well. Anyway, this might be the first time we see Captain Kirk not behave as a womanizer, and it appears to have the desired effect on La'an Noonien-Singh who contacts the real Captain Kirk once she returns to her originals time line. Future romantic relationship? Perhaps.
Reviews
17 Reviews
The Strain
(2014–2017)
This is a thinking person's vampire story
2 February 2023
"The Strain" is a thinking person's vampire story. I have watched the complete 46-episode series several times on FX (DVDs can also be purchased everywhere including Amazon) and can inform the reader of this review that "The Strain it is the best vampire story of all time". Now I should point out that the tie-in with science, along with characters from the CDC, shift this story from the category of fantasy-horror toward the direction of science-fiction-horror but adding NAZIs to the storyline was pure genius. We have all heard the writer's rule: "if it doesn't work on the page then it will not work on the stage". "I think" that many production companies increase CGI to compensate for bad writing so know this: "The Strain" only employs sufficient CGI to tell the story. One last point, I know his might anger some BUT "The Strain" is better than "The Walking Dead" along with all their associated spin offs (I have seen them all)
Brave New World
(2020)
A new story-twist for 2020?
28 October 2020
I first read this story in a Canadian secondary school in 1968 (35-years after Huxley's first publication in 1932) but I have reread the story a few times -and- watched every on-screen reinterpretation. Perhaps it's just me, but each new movie or video series seems to be more relevant for humanity "at that time" and the same is true of this offering. I shouldn't need to mention that there were no computers, internet or A.I. (artificial intelligence) in Huxley's original story but that is not the case for current-day humanity in 2020. One way humanity connects "in this story" is via personalized optical interfaces each transmitting to the INDRA network (or is it the INDRA Artificial Intelligence?). INDRA is an acronym for "Integrated Neuro Driven Random Architecture" BTW. But are the people keeping track of each other for social reasons or is it just INDRA? (you could ask the same question in 2020 with Google and Facebook seeming to know our every whereabouts). To continue, in this version of the story, John's mother, Linda, is dispatched a little earlier than usual which allows us to more complicated relationship to develop between "John and Lenina" and "Lenia and Bernard" to only name two of many. The observant viewer will notice many secondary and tertiary relationships as well. For me, "this production" seems to excel at examining "the human condition" in this possible futuristic sci-fi extrapolation.
The Witcher
(2019– )
Refreshing while Spectacular (and better than GoT
24 January 2020
I know I'm going to receive some flack over this review BUT I am finding "The Witcher" more enjoyable than "Game of Thrones" (which I loved, BTW). Now I know that GoT had a much bigger budget and employed a lot of people (both are good things) but the GoT story line seems, at times, to suffer from the "too many chefs" syndrome. "The Witcher" TV show seems to stick much closer to the author's original books than did GoT (at least as far as the last two seasons). One final point: people who played "The Witcher" video games by "CD Projekt" (Poland) will find all the story characters and locations familiar.
Star Trek: Discovery
(2017–2024)
Where are the stories?
3 February 2019
Where are the stories? Both ST:TOS and ST:TNG offered a decent sci-fi story in one, or occasionally two, episodes but ST:DIS took a whole season to tell a crappy science-fantasy story based upon "a tardigrade" combined with some technobable and a lot of CGI. When is Hollywood going to realize that you can't replace a lousy story with CGI? If that were true then we'd all just wait for the next Transformer movie. An artsy friend of my often repeats this phrase: "If it doesn't work on the page then it will not work on the stage". So let me ask the producers of ST:DIS (or the latest Star Wars offerings: "did it ever work on the page?". comment: has anyone wondered why programs like "Breaking Bad" or "Better Call Saul" get such high ratings? Answer: it is all about story telling. Human beings are a story-telling species. We have been telling stories for tens of thousands of years. Time to minimize the CGI and get back to story telling.
The Expanse
(2015–2022)
Star Trek and Star Wars are now officially obsolete
17 July 2018
Have you noticed lately that Star Trek (here I am talking about Discovery) cannot tell a story even when provided the time of one whole season. Meanwhile, ever since Star Wars ended up at Disney, they always want to tell variations on the same story. I just finished watching the last episode of season 3 of The Expanse then thought to myself "that production company knows how to tell a story". Thank you to Alcon. Thank you to SyFy in the US. Thank you to Space in Canada.
p.s. As one reviewer has already mentioned, the political intrigue is very reminiscent of Babylon 5
The X-Files: Re-Opened
(2015 TV Movie)
Episode-1 was fantastic
1 February 2016
I am not sure what is going on with broadcast network programmers but I think some are out to kill the sci-fi genre. Over the years I have been shocked by networks, like Fox, where new programming was offered after sporting events. Many times new programs were placed after GOLF (anyone remember hearing "now joining the regularly scheduled programming already in progress"?). Anyone wishing to investigate network shenanigans further should begin by visiting the "FireFly" article at Wikipedia (Fox killed the series claiming low ratings but the series went on break sale records at Amazon). Okay so when I noticed that episode-1 of "X-Files: Re-Opened" would air just after the AFC-NFC playoffs, I recorded everything from 7 PM to midnight. I was previously a fan of the original X-files as well as "The Lone Gunmen" so watched the first episode of Re-Opened expecting to be disappointed. I was wrong. This episode was everything I wanted to see in the previous series "and more". Now here's the kicker: I appear to be the only person in North America who watched episode-1 because no one I know was able to watch it or record it. The situation in Canada is a tiny bit different since episode-1 was shown 5 days later on Friday night on the SPACE channel. If you are able to do so, try to catch up by watching episode-1 online.
SW7 is worth watching
2 January 2016
First a little history. The first three movies (SW1-3 :: 1977-1983) are about episodes 4-6. The second three movies (SW4-SW6 :: 1999-2005) are about episodes 1-3. Got that? In my world Star Wars fans are split down the middle: some prefer the first three movies while others prefer the second three. There is no right or wrong here it's just a matter of preference (eg. some people hate Jar Jar Binks while others hate the Ewoks; some loved watching Yoda training Luke on Dagobah while others preferred the martial arts of Darth Maul; some thought the first three were targeted at kids while others thought the politics of the second three made them more appropriate for adults). IMHO, SW7 is better than the first three and at least on par with the second three.
Sense8
(2015–2018)
View from a Babylon-5 fan
11 June 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Okay so this is my 2-cents worth after having watched just the first two episodes.
Babylon-5 creator J. Michael Straczynski wove a complex tale in B5 involving religion and science fiction with one species (the Vorlons) being treated as angels by the other species in the universe while another species (the Shadows) are treated as devils. I was especially intrigued by his other ideas surrounding: the psi-corps and psi-cops who dealt with telepathic humans; a telepathic gene in most species which could be pushed (with training) to do other things like telekinesis (or more); or be activated/amplified by certain recreational drugs (which other species like the Narn are trying to procure as a military weapon). Okay, enough about B5.
J. Michael Straczynski is listed as a co-writer of "Sense8" so I watched the first 2 episodes as a fan of B5. It appeared to me that the first episode begins with the suicide of an apparent Angel with, perhaps, god (or an archangel) and the devil on each of her shoulders urging her to do something. She decides to act by taking her own life.
This event is part of a shared vision affecting 8 people around the planet. We learn from one of the conversations that drug-abuse is thought to be enhancing telepathic abilities of some people. Another states that there are small amounts of this drug everywhere in the environment. In episode two we learn that another person has a tumour growing in her brain; the doctor tells her that she will hallucinate so she does not know if her visions of the angel are real or imagined.
And then there is the troubled Chicago cop who is also having visions. Did I mention psi-cop yet? :-)
More to come...
Babylon-5 creator J. Michael Straczynski wove a complex tale in B5 involving religion and science fiction with one species (the Vorlons) being treated as angels by the other species in the universe while another species (the Shadows) are treated as devils. I was especially intrigued by his other ideas surrounding: the psi-corps and psi-cops who dealt with telepathic humans; a telepathic gene in most species which could be pushed (with training) to do other things like telekinesis (or more); or be activated/amplified by certain recreational drugs (which other species like the Narn are trying to procure as a military weapon). Okay, enough about B5.
J. Michael Straczynski is listed as a co-writer of "Sense8" so I watched the first 2 episodes as a fan of B5. It appeared to me that the first episode begins with the suicide of an apparent Angel with, perhaps, god (or an archangel) and the devil on each of her shoulders urging her to do something. She decides to act by taking her own life.
This event is part of a shared vision affecting 8 people around the planet. We learn from one of the conversations that drug-abuse is thought to be enhancing telepathic abilities of some people. Another states that there are small amounts of this drug everywhere in the environment. In episode two we learn that another person has a tumour growing in her brain; the doctor tells her that she will hallucinate so she does not know if her visions of the angel are real or imagined.
And then there is the troubled Chicago cop who is also having visions. Did I mention psi-cop yet? :-)
More to come...
Prometheus
(I) (2012)
Most movie critics know nothing.
9 June 2012
Don't believe anything you hear from know-nothing critics because this movie is better than most "Alien" movies including "Alien vs. Predator" which I happened to love.
Okay so I am a huge sci-fi fan who has been waiting two years for this film (it is part one of two, BTW) and would have seen it last night except I have been out of town on business. What is really sad is that every review I have read has been mediocre to bad with one review (Toronto Globe & Mail) actually containing some spoilers. So, my wife and I decided to see it today (IMAX 3D version) and can tell you all that this movie is great. It is better than "Alien vs. Predator" which I loved, and at least as good as the original "Alien" or any of of the Alien sequels (number 3 was a real stinker). Now the person who wrote the review in the Toronto Globe & Mail must have seen a different movie than us because all the spoilers he described were different than what we watched. But I have seen this before with sci-fi movies; Many patrons and critics hated "2001: A Space Odyssey" (some walked out; some demanded refunds; prompting Kubrick to cut scenes "in the theatre") and it was never fully accepted by the public until about a year later (many complained that it had a weak plot which may be true; thank deity I had read the book before watching it). Even still, many people today consider 2001 the best sci-fi movie ever. But not me, for my money it has always been "Blade Runner" which was also not liked by the public for quite some time. Let's face it. Only sci-fi people can fully appreciate this stuff.
"Just my 2-cents"
Okay so I am a huge sci-fi fan who has been waiting two years for this film (it is part one of two, BTW) and would have seen it last night except I have been out of town on business. What is really sad is that every review I have read has been mediocre to bad with one review (Toronto Globe & Mail) actually containing some spoilers. So, my wife and I decided to see it today (IMAX 3D version) and can tell you all that this movie is great. It is better than "Alien vs. Predator" which I loved, and at least as good as the original "Alien" or any of of the Alien sequels (number 3 was a real stinker). Now the person who wrote the review in the Toronto Globe & Mail must have seen a different movie than us because all the spoilers he described were different than what we watched. But I have seen this before with sci-fi movies; Many patrons and critics hated "2001: A Space Odyssey" (some walked out; some demanded refunds; prompting Kubrick to cut scenes "in the theatre") and it was never fully accepted by the public until about a year later (many complained that it had a weak plot which may be true; thank deity I had read the book before watching it). Even still, many people today consider 2001 the best sci-fi movie ever. But not me, for my money it has always been "Blade Runner" which was also not liked by the public for quite some time. Let's face it. Only sci-fi people can fully appreciate this stuff.
"Just my 2-cents"
Green Lantern
(2011)
Comic Book People Will Love This.
26 June 2011
This movie is the best DC Comic to make it to the big screen (better than any Superman or Batman). Comparing to Marvel for a moment, it is at least as good as "Iron Man" and better than "Fantastic Four" and "X-Men". Be sure to stay after the first set of credits to see a surprising extra minute which (I believe) will lead into a sequel.
Now I have heard some stories about a few people walking out. That did not happen in the theatre I attended so I can only assume that those people probably would also hate the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" or would not ever read a comic book. (I'm a 58-year old software developer working for a large Canadian telecommunications company and I still read comics; although I've never read an issue of "Green Lantern" in 40 years, I'll bet I would still find it a experience pleasurable)
Now I have heard some stories about a few people walking out. That did not happen in the theatre I attended so I can only assume that those people probably would also hate the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" or would not ever read a comic book. (I'm a 58-year old software developer working for a large Canadian telecommunications company and I still read comics; although I've never read an issue of "Green Lantern" in 40 years, I'll bet I would still find it a experience pleasurable)
Skins
(2011)
I can't stop watching
16 February 2011
I have only viewed 4 episodes but I can't stop watching. It might be because non-professional actors make this program appear to be so much like real life. Every one of the characters represents someone in my own teenage years. Back then there were a few jocks, a few space-cadets, and a few girls with questionable morals, with all the rest of us just being carried along in the wake of their actions. We all thought we were so damned smart, and that adults were so so weird, or stupid, or socially inept. (in reality we weren't so smart and the adults weren't so stupid) "Skins" appears to be written from the perspective of these teens. Most appear to be working through their problems while the adults behave badly and are not working through theirs.
And where did the program name come from? In the first episode the name "Skins" is mentioned in a reference to rolling paper.
And where did the program name come from? In the first episode the name "Skins" is mentioned in a reference to rolling paper.
Tron: Legacy
(2010)
Not as good as TRON
18 December 2010
I was a huge fan of the original movie but was somewhat disappointed by this sequel. The graphics are stunning but Hollywood doesn't seem to understand that story quality is more important than special effects (including 3d CGI). The story quality of "TRON:Legacy" is NOT consistent and there are a few places where it makes very little sense in hind-sight. These places should have been replaced with better scenes. Was this because of "poor editing" or did the editor not have very much to work with? Not sure but with so much money invested you would think the investors would have expected a better product (which would maximize ROI)
Moon
(2009)
Two Thumbs Up (me and my wife)
2 August 2009
At first I thought this was going to be a horror flick but it turned out to be a mystery-in-space film targeted toward an adult audience (eg. if you disliked Transformers then you might enjoy this). Based only upon the previews and advertisements, my wife and I probably would not have looked for this movie "except" for a very compelling interview with the movie's director, Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), on NPR's "Science Friday". In this interview, Mr Jones told the story of how he drew the story from current NASA research projects then showed his partially completed film to NASA scientists for their comments and feedback. Totally off topic: did anyone else notice that Trudy Styler (wife of Sting) co-produced this film?
Star Trek
(2009)
It was OK (spoliers)
18 May 2009
I am a huge Star Trek fan and have been watching it since 1966. I am also a huge fan of sci-fi so you'll have to trust me when i say that this movie was "just OK". I liked everything about this movie except the basic story plot which means the writers are to blame. Just what did I dislike? "A small group of Romulan dissidents travel back in time to get revenge against the Vulcans because one of them was late in helping Romulus avoid destruction". Logically, time-travel should have been used to go back in time to prevent the destruction of Romulus so that 6 billion lives would not be lost and revenge would not necessary.
And what is it about every sci-fi being centered around time-travel? This is one of the reasons why ST:Enterprise failed. On the whole, the story behind this movie is not as good as the ST:TNG episode "Sins of the Father" involving the discommendation of Warf to save the Klingon empire. In fact, many TNG stories are better than most ST movies. TNG is the series which gave us The Borg, The Cardasians, The Bajorans, The Ferngi, so why can't movie writers come up with anything new? I am hoping that time-travel in this movie will only be used to enable a reboot into a different universe of stories.
And what is it about every sci-fi being centered around time-travel? This is one of the reasons why ST:Enterprise failed. On the whole, the story behind this movie is not as good as the ST:TNG episode "Sins of the Father" involving the discommendation of Warf to save the Klingon empire. In fact, many TNG stories are better than most ST movies. TNG is the series which gave us The Borg, The Cardasians, The Bajorans, The Ferngi, so why can't movie writers come up with anything new? I am hoping that time-travel in this movie will only be used to enable a reboot into a different universe of stories.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
(2008–2009)
Are They Already Trying To Kill This Show?
13 January 2008
Are They Already Trying To Kill This Show?
The program aired tonight but it was hard to find on my guide since it was listed as "Chronicles" rather than "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".
Also, the genre was listed as "Drama" rather than "Sci-fi".
I haven't seen promotional stupidity like this since "Star Trek: Enterprise" was listed as "Enterpirse" for the first few seasons.
As for the show, I liked this show and will tune in tomorrow night for part 2. It kind of reminds me of the X-files with the government out to get Sarah an John. (along with the robot).
Let's hope they can continue this for the whole season.
The program aired tonight but it was hard to find on my guide since it was listed as "Chronicles" rather than "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".
Also, the genre was listed as "Drama" rather than "Sci-fi".
I haven't seen promotional stupidity like this since "Star Trek: Enterprise" was listed as "Enterpirse" for the first few seasons.
As for the show, I liked this show and will tune in tomorrow night for part 2. It kind of reminds me of the X-files with the government out to get Sarah an John. (along with the robot).
Let's hope they can continue this for the whole season.
Alien vs. Predator
(2004)
I did a 180...
12 June 2006
When I first saw the trailers, my knee-jerk reaction was "this is just a reason to suck money out of my pocket while show casing advances in special effects technology". (special effects with no story).
I was really wrong.
This is a well written and produced movie with tie-ins to all previous movies, especially, "Aliens". For example, there are reasons why Lance Henriksen plays the part of a wealthy Robotics and Electronics manufacturer in this movie and also plays a robot in "Aliens" (which is in the future). There are many other such examples but I won't spoil the movie for you by listing them here.
A sequel is rumored and I can hardly wait.
I was really wrong.
This is a well written and produced movie with tie-ins to all previous movies, especially, "Aliens". For example, there are reasons why Lance Henriksen plays the part of a wealthy Robotics and Electronics manufacturer in this movie and also plays a robot in "Aliens" (which is in the future). There are many other such examples but I won't spoil the movie for you by listing them here.
A sequel is rumored and I can hardly wait.
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