In Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls there’s a scene where Ace is driving a Jeep through a land teeming with wildebeests. He’s being violently jostled as he negotiates the rugged terrain. But as the camera pulls out, we see that his passenger is comfortably stationary. As the camera pulls out further, we see that they’re […]
In a YouTube interview, Jonathan Frakes (who played Lieutenant Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation) stated that the cast of that show had supplanted the cast of the original Star Trek series as the recognized guardians of the Star Trek legacy. Blasphemy! The original series (TOS) ran from 1966 to 1969. The Next Generation […]
The movie Blade Runner was based on the short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published in 1968 by important science-fiction author Philip K. Dick. The film deviated from the original story, but even if you hadn’t read it, the movie’s plot stands on its own. It takes place in a dark future on […]
At Star Trek’s military service Star Fleet Command, there’s a strict code of conduct for its captains. Officers have to play nice with others, no matter how many ridges or spots or off-putting facial features other Federation of Planets species may have. In other words: fairness to all, no matter the discomfort it may cause […]
When I was a kid, I aspired to be like my heroes; most of us did. I liked the superheroes, but I also liked those without any supernormal abilities too, such as The Lone Ranger. He proved that one didn’t have to be born on the planet Krypton to be something special; ambition and training […]
In 1979 I graduated college, so to all outward appearances I was an adult. However, seething under the surface of this grownup was a rabid Star Trek fan who had closely followed the rumors of a big-screen production of the old show. Several of my classmates anticipated reliving the wonders of life in Starfleet ten […]
In college, I rediscovered recreational reading (that wasn’t comic book science fiction) when I learned to buy books that appealed to me instead of my English teachers. A friend suggested the book that kicked off this newfound hobby: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. No, wait; that’s not right. What was it? Oh yes, it […]
On one of my co-hosting gigs on the Jordan Rich show, we received a call from a listener who asked about rights for future individuals who wouldn’t be human or robot, but something in-between. He cited the term singularity, coined in a book by Ray Kurzweil where the line between man and machine will blur. […]
A few years ago I saw a movie called Hollywoodland. It was the story of the actor George Reeves, who played Superman in the 1950s television show. The story presented the mystery of his death in 1959. Was it suicide, homicide, or accidental? The question remains to this day, but the movie presented some well-envisioned […]
Do you know where the title of this piece comes from? No, it wasn’t Star Trek. It was first uttered by Sir John Dalberg-Acton, a European Baronet from 1837 to 1869. But in my opinion, it was never uttered more powerfully than in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode Where No Man Has Gone […]
