1984. A few short months before my family would be posted to a new home in the middle of the ocean, I was of an age that I was allowed to go see movies in the theatre with my friends (despite the fact that the theatres were in the city proper and not on the…
M*A*S*H (1979) – Hot Lips is Back in Town, C*A*V*E, and Rally ‘Round the Flagg, Boys
Houlihan’s (Loretta Swit) final divorce papers come through, and she gets a new perspective on her life, and what she wants to do with it in Hot Lips is Back in Town. Written by Larry Balmagia and Bernard Dilbert from a story by Dilbert and Gary Markowitz, this episode first debuted on 29 January, 1979….
She’s Having a Baby (1988) – John Hughes
Kevin Bacon is Jake Briggs, in She’s Having a Baby, which was produced, written and directed by John Hughes, and is arguably one of his most personal projects, as Bacon plays a variation of an everyman, someone who is trying to find his way, trying to discover whether he’s happy in his life, if this…
The X-Files (2002) – Trust No 1, and John Doe
Series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz pen Trust No 1, a mythology episode that first aired on 6 January, 2002. Scully (Gillian Anderson), Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) find themselves being used in a plot to flush Mulder out of hiding. It seems there is a super-soldier element working within the NSA…
Mission: Impossible (1969/1970) – The Amnesiac, and The Falcon: Part 1
Robert Malcolm Young and Ken Pettus pen the teleplay for The Amnesiac from a story developed by Young. It first aired on 28 December, 1969, and features a few return guest stars, including Steve Inhat in his third and final M:I appearance, and Anthony Zerbe in his third of five appearances! Phelps (Peter Graves) IMF…
Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War (2019) – John Jackson Miller
Where was the U.S.S. Enterprise during the Klingon war (2256-2257) as depicted in Season One of Star Trek: Discovery? Miller’s novel, The Enterprise War, available now from Simon & Schuster through their Gallery Books imprint, answers that question. Tying itself in with the events of the television series, as well as the previously released novels,…
The X-Files (2001) – 4-D, and The Lord of the Flies
Steven Maeda pens 4-D which makes Reyes (Annabeth Gish) put the idea of parallel universe to the test. First airing on 9 December, 2001, the episode opens with a bit of a shocker when Reyes has her throat slit and dies in the pursuit of a serial killer, Lukesh (Dylan Haggerty), and Doggett (Robert Patrick)…
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) – Ishiro Honda
Godzilla is back! But he almost takes a backseat to the rest of the story, which sees an expansion of the Godzilla universe by bringing in aliens, flying saucers, and seeing the return of Rodan and King Ghidorah. When a new planet, Planet X, is discovered in orbit around Jupiter, a joint Japanese/American mission is…
That Thing You Do! (1996) – Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks wrote and directed this joyful, song-filled film that took us inside the lives of the band members of a one hit wonder. It’s 1964, and popular music is the thing, and for a young band calling themselves the Oneders (the Wonders – like 1 ders) they are about to find that fame isn’t…
M*A*S*H (1979) – Inga, The Price, and The Young and the Restless
Alan Alda writes and directs this episode, Inga, which first aired on 8 January, 1979, and definitely sees a bit of a course adjustment for Hawkeye’s (also Alda) sexist attitudes towards women. When Hawkeye hears about a Swedish female doctor coming to camp for a brief tour, he gets ready to turn on the charm,…
The Mind Reels 