The first episode up this week, L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel) gets it right. Written by Carl Kleinschmitt, series developer Larry Gelbart, and Laurence Marks, from a story by Kleinschmitt. It first aired on 27 October, 1973. While Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is trying to make some time with Lt. Regina Hopkins (Corinne Camacho), one of the…
The Quest (1986) – Brian Trenchard-Smith, and Russell Hagg
I remember the first time I saw this film, and how the idea of it resonated inside me. There was just so many things I could relate to in it. I was living in a foreign country, like Cody (Henry Thomas), I was fascinated by the possibility of lake and sea monsters (still kinda am),…
The X-Files (1996/1997) – Paper Hearts, and El Mundo Gira
Vince Gilligan pens Paper Hearts, one of the best episodes of season four according to stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. It first aired on 15 December, 1996, and earned composer Mark Snow an Emmy nomination. Mulder (Duchovny) has been having very vivid dreams, dreams that lead him to the unmarked grave of a little…
Mission: Impossible (1966) – Pilot, and Memory
Your mission, should you choose to accept it… This week I begin my travels with the original Impossible Mission Force, as I explore The Complete Series on blu-ray available now from Paramount Pictures. The series originally debuted on 17 September, 1966 with the Pilot episode written by the series creator Bruce Geller. We are introduced…
Star Wars: The Last Command (1993) – Timothy Zahn
Five years after the events of The Return of the Jedi, the battle against the Empire continues, as the blossoming New Republic gears up for a final encounter with Grand Admiral Thrawn in the third volume of Timothy Zahn’s trilogy that truly launched the original Star Wars Expanded Universe. While Thrawn plans to cripple the…
Licence to Kill (1989) – John Gardner
James Bond returns this week in John Gardner’s adaptation of the 1989 film, Licence to Kill. This is probably the most disjointed of his novels as he tries to marry his version of the literary 007 to the big screen version, and it doesn’t always work. In fact, throughout the book Bond thinks he must…
Millennium (1996) – Blood Relatives, and The Well-Worn Lock
Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) investigates a series of brutal murders that have a tie-in with a pretender who attempts to connect to people at funerals. Written by Chip Johanessen, Blood Relatives first aired on 6 December, 1996. James Dickerson (Sean Six) attends funerals, pretending to be a friend of the deceased in order to be…
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) – Doug Liman
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson and Bill Paxton star in this fun sci-fi action film that plays like an alien war version of Groundhog Day. Cruise stars as Cage, a major in the American army, working as a media adviser, following the beginnings of an alien attack that has taken over most of Europe….
Uncommon Valor (1983) – Ted Kotcheff
Before Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone did it, while it was still a bit of a taboo subject for American society, Gene Hackman, to the strains of a James Horner score gathered to him Robert Stack, Patrick Swayze, Harold Sylvester, Fred Ward, Tim Thomerson, Randall Cobb, Reb Brown and Kwan Hi Lim to his side,…
M*A*S*H* (1973) – For the Good of the Outfit, Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde, and Kim
Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) attempt to take on Army bureaucracy in For the Good of the Outfit. Written by Jerry Mayer, this episode debuted on 6 October, 1973. When the surgeons learn that the civilians they are operating on were bombed by the U.S. Army, Hawk and Trap file a report expecting…
