Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi) – Knock Knock, and Oxygen

Mike Bartlett pens this episode, Knock Knock, that first debuted on 6 May, 2017. The Doctor (Capaldi) gets pulled into investigating Bill’s (Pearl Mackie) new, rather expansive, and cheap new house, she shares with six others. The house is overseen by a creepy old Landlord (David Suchet), and the house, while beautiful isn’t without its…

La Strada (1954) – Federico Fellini

Anthony Quinn and Giulletta Masina star in this Fellini classic that is a recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Thelma & Louise. A road movie, the film follows Masina as a young, innocent and naive woman, Gelsomina, who can’t think for herself, while Quinn is the…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) – Cardassians, and Melora

Station log: stardate 47177.2 Written by James Crocker from a story by Gene Wolande and John Wright, this episode first debuted on 24 October, 1993. Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and the Cardassian tailor (and possibly spy) Garak (Andrew Robinson) investigate Cardassian war orphans left behind on Bajor after the occupation, and those that have been…

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1993) – Winds of Change

The Great War is over, and the life of Indiana Jones (Sean Patrick Flanery) is about to change again in this movie edited together from two episodes, one of them unaired. Paris, May 1919 Written by Jonathan Hales, this episode was first broadcast on 24 July, 1993, and sees Indy reunited with his old friend,…

Solo: A Star Wars Story – The Official Guide (2018) – Pablo Hidalgo

As a Star Wars fan, hell, as a pop culture fan, DK Canada gets me. Their constantly growing library of books, no matter what the subject, are always fun, informative, filled with trivia, gorgeous photos and illustrations, and always seem to be designed to give us a closer look at the subject matter. The official…

Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky (1987) – Margaret Wander Bonanno

This week’s visit to the Book Shelf brings me the second Giant Star Trek novel from Pocket Books, and gives us a a different look at the first contact between Humans and Vulcans, a plot point that would later be visited in Star Trek: First Contact, though it could be argued that this book complements…

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993) – Gambit Part II, and Phantasms

Captain’s log: stardate 47160.1 Ronald D. Moore pens the second part of this two-parter, based on a story by Naren Shankar. Airing on 18 October, 1993, it completes the story of Picard (Patrick Stewart) posing as Galen with a gang of intergalactic pirates who pillage archaeological sites. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is still held by Baran…

Annihilation (2018): Blu-Ray Review

Releasing from Paramount Pictures to blu-ray and DVD today is Annihilation a slow burn of a science fiction film from director Alex Garland. Based, subjectively, on the trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer, it’s a gorgeous looking film A strange, possibly extra-terrestrial incursion in a swamp in Florida has claimed an untold number of teams…

Thelma & Louise (1991) – Ridley Scott

My return to the Romance and Melodrama section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book brings me this Ridley Scott classic from the early nineties that pairs Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in an all-star extravaganza that details the adventures of a pair of best friends as they plan a bit of…