The short-lived spinoff from The X-Files, The Lone Gumen, aired its series finale, All About Yves, on 11 May, 2001 (though they aired The ‘Cap’n Toby’ Show after it – the series had already been cancelled). Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz, the episode sees Michael McKean’s Man In Black, Morris Fletcher,…
Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964) – Ishiro Honda
UFOs, political assassinations, alien possession, the Shobijin (Emi and Yumi Ito) and alien monsters see the known kaiju on Earth, all located around Japan, unite for the first time to combat King Ghidorah, a three-headed space beast which destroyed an alien civilization on Venus centuries ago, and has now arrived on Earth via meteor. This…
The Puppet Masters (1994) – Stuart Orme
Somewhere in The Puppet Masters, despite its continuity errors, its plot holes and poor performance by its lead actor (who is surrounded by some fantastic character actors and recognizable faces) is probably a decent film, I mean it’s based on Heinlein’s novel, so it had a great starting point. When something comes down in the…
M*A*S*H (1978/1979) – An Eye for a Tooth, Dear Sis, and B.J. Papa San
Ronny Graham pens the first episode up this week, An Eye for a Tooth, which first aired on 11 December, 1978. While Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) ruminates on why he’s been passed over for promotion, again, Charles (David Ogden Stiers) pushes the prank war between Houlihan (Loretta Swit) and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike…
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – John Hughes
My journey through some classic John Hughes continues with this 1986 classic that, like so many of his films, came along at just the right time for me. Matthew Broderick is the titular Ferris Bueller, and despite already hitting his quota of sick days for the year, he’s taking a day off to show his…
The X-Files (2001) – Existence, and Nothing Important Happened Today
Series creator Chris Carter closed out the eighth season with Existence, which debuted on 20 May, 2001. Picking up where the previous episode left off, we see the metallic skeletal frame of the alien replicant/super soldier version of Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley) reforming itself so it can continue its pursuit of the pregnant Scully (Gillian…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – Robot, and The Double Circle
Barney (Greg Morris) shows a talent for robotics, Leonard Nimoy gets to wear a number of disguises and prosthetics, not only as Paris, but other characters, Lee Meriwether continues her work with the IMF as Tracey, and Larry Linville makes another appearance as a baddie in The Robot. Written by Howard Berk, this episode debuted…
Nightmare Alley (1946) – William Lindsay Gresham
Before I see del Toro’s new film, which is an adaptation of this novel, I wanted to visit the source material, because I do love me a good noir story, and this one is a classic. And perhaps because the beats and the tropes of the noir genre are so familiar it’s easy to suss…
Star Trek: Discovery – Fear Itself (2018) – James Swallow
Simon & Schuster send me back to the final frontier, where I boldly go to explore the third novel in the Discovery series, Fear Itself. This one made me feel like the series was back on track. As interesting an idea as the previous novel, Drastic Measures, was, it didn’t pull me in like Desperate…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – The Lying Game, and The ‘Cap’n Toby’ Show
Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) shows up in The Lying Game, written by Nandi Bowe. This episode first debuted on 4 May, 2001. Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Byers (Bruce Harwood), and Langly (Dean Haglund) get pulled into a murder case, immersed in secrets, a government investigation and lies. And at the heart of it, Walter Skinner…
