Acid Tests moves Leslie Bohem’s Taken miniseries into the 1970s. Bohem guides the characters through another feature length episode that first aired on 5 December, 2002. We’re entering the era of crop circles, and Crawford (Joel Gretsch) is joined by his grown son, Eric (Andy Powers) and Marty (John Hawkes) as he investigates them. One…
Get Smart (1969) – Physician Impossible, The Apes of Rath, and Age Before Duty
Physician Impossible first aired on 21 November, 1969. It was written by Lloyd Turner and Gordon Mitchell. Early in the day, while working undercover, Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) shoots and injures a high profile criminal, Big Eddie Little (Henry Corden). Later, when he goes to visit 99 (Barbara Feldon) and the twins in the hospital,…
Firefly: The Magnificent Nine (2019) – James Lovegrove
James Lovegrove takes us back out into the Black with his second Firefly novel, The Magnificent Nine. Once again, he has an ear for the dialogue and the pacing of the series and translated it nicely to a novel. As the title hints at, the story is a bit of a riff on the classic…
Taken (2002) – High Hopes
The Taken miniseries aired over ten consecutive weekday nights. High Hopes, the third feature-length episode, aired on 4 December, 2002. Leslie Bohem continues to script the narrative, interweaving his fictional families around alleged UFO encounters and historical events. Set in October of 1962, things are developing for both the Keys family, the Crawfords and the…
Red Sonja (1985) – Richard Fleischer
It’s too bad this one wasn’t better. It could have been a lot of fun. Insttead, it’s releegated to cult status and is a delightful, but flawed romp. Arnold Schwarzenegger is obviously playing Conan, but they can’t call him Conan in this sword and sorcery adventure that introduced the world to Brigitte Nielsen, the towering,…
Seed of Chucky (2004) – Don Mancini
Don Mancini, the driving force behind the Chucky movies, having written all the scripts, finally gets to settle in to the director’s chair as he continues to take the series in fun and interesting directions. This one definitely plays a little more meta than other entries. Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) are back,…
Smallville (2004) – Bound, and Scare
The episode Bound first debuted on 17 November, 2004. It was written by Luke Schelhaas. There’s a lot of character stuff going on in this one as Lex (Michaeal Rosenbaum) finds himself caught up in a sex/murder scandal. He wakes up next to a murdered woman, Shannon (Cobie Smulders), whom he met the previous night….
Star Trek: #8 Blood Fever (1984)
DC Comcs Star Trek title continues to boldly go with it’s eighth issue, that was up and about until November of 1984. Mike W. Barr continues to guide the Enterprise’s journey with his script. Tom Sutton is still on pencils, while Ricardo Villagran continues to deliver on inks. And the cover was created by Sutton…
Bride of Chucky (1998) – Ronny Yu
Don Mancini pens a script that takes Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) in a whole new direction. This one definitely leans into comedy and is very self-aware. Directed by Ronny Yu, who would direct Freddy vs. Jason a few short years later, there is a lot of fun to be had in this entry. The…
Taken (2002) – Jacob and Jesse
The second feature-length episode of Taken, presented by Steven Spielberg, first debuted on 3 December, 2002. It was written by series creator Leslie Bohem. The story opens during the winter of ’57 and guides us through 1958. Russel Keys (Steve Burton) has left his wife, Kate (Julie Benz), who has remarried, in an effort to…
The Mind Reels 