It’s time to dive back into The Twilight Zone with The Complete Series collection from Paramount Pictures. First up this week is Five Characters in Search of an Exit. Series creator Rod Serling writes the teleplay using Marvin Petal’s short story as his source material. Airing on 22 December, 1961 the tale finds an army…
Dune Messiah (1969) – Frank Herbert
A substantially shorter novel than the first book in the series, Dune Messiah is on the Book Shelf this week. Published four years after Dune, Messiah is set twelve years after the events that saw Paul Atreides become Emperor, marry a princess in name only, and his Fremen launched their jihad on the galaxy. Paul…
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973/1974) – The Slaver Weapon, The Eye of the Beholder, and The Jihad
Captain’s log: stardate 4187.3 Larry Niven adapts his story The Soft Weapon to become a Star Trek episode in this tale that first aired 15 December 1973. The race is on when Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Sulu (George Takei) discover an ancient weapon. The come up against the cat-like Kzinti who want…
A Hard Day’s Night (1964) – Richard Lester
Before Richard Lester ruined the Superman franchise he brought one of the best and most enduring music groups to the screen not once, but twice. His first entry the mockumentary A Hard Day’s Night is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Jailhouse Rock. Re-watching this…
Strike (1925) – Sergei M. Eisenstein
DK Book’s The Movie Book guides me through What Else to Watch following Battleship Potemkin. The first film up is Eisenstein’s silent film, Strike. During the rule of the Czar, the workers of a factory organise a strike after one of their own hangs himself having being falsely accused of theft. However, neither staff nor…
Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Utopia, and The Sound of Drums
We begin the race to the season finale this week with Utopia. Written by Russell T. Davies and airing on 16 June, 2017, the more I reflect on this one, the more I think it merely serves as just an extended prologue for the two-part finale. The Doctor (Tennant), Martha (Freema Agyeman) and Captain Jack…
The Girl Can’t Help It (1956) – Frank Tashlin
The first recommendation following my screening of Jailhouse Rock for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is the very enjoyable The Girl Can’t Help It starring the stunning Jayne Mansfield. The film follows an alcoholic PR man, Tom Miller (Tom Ewell) who used to the top of his game, and could find the…
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) – The Terratin Incident, The Time Trap, and The Ambergris Element
Captain’s log: stardate 5577.3 The Terratin Incident was written by Paul Schneider and was first broadcast on 17 November, 1973. The Enterprise receives a transmission from Celephus, following the transmission is a flash of light, which disables all the dilithium aboard ship. Added to the problem that the ship is losing power is the fact…
The Twilight Zone (1961) – Still Valley, The Jungle, and Once Upon a Time
My journey through Paramount Pictures’ The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series continue with another trio of episodes this week. Up first is Still Valley. Series creator and showrunner Rod Serling adapted Manly Wade Welmman’s short story for this episode that first aired on 24 November, 1961. The tale, set in 1863, follows Sgt. Joseph Paradine…
Star Trek: Mindshadow (1986) – J.M. Dillard
The Human Adventure continues on the Book Shelf this week with some more non-canon Star Trek adventures. And for the first time in a long time, this was a Trek book I enjoyed. Dillard has a knack for the characters, and while some of the beats may not have been completely inline with Trek, I…
The Mind Reels 