Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989) – Manhunt, and The Emissary

Captain’s log: stardate 42859.2 Between last week’s episode Up the Long Ladder, and the first episode this week, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier opened on 9 June, 1989. It was also the only Trek movie I never saw in the theatre. ten days later, on 19 June, (days after I graduated high school) Manhunt aired…

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989) – Pen Pals, and Q Who

Captain’s log: stardate 42695.3 Melinda M, Snodgrass writes the teleplay for this episode, based on a story by Hannah Louise Shearer. Pen Pals first aired on 1 May, 1989. There are some good ideas at work in the episode. Data (Brent Spiner) answers a distress call from a young being on a planet in an…

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989) – Contagion, and The Royale

Captain’s log: stardate 42609.1 Airing on 27 March, 1989, Contagion is a fairly solid story written by Steve Gerber and Beth Woods. In response to a distress call from their sister ship, the U.S.S. Yamato, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) orders the Enterprise to violate the Romulan Neutral Zone. Racing towards the ship, the Enterprise downloads…

The Little Mermaid (1989) – Ron Clements and John Musker

Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairy tale gets the Disney makeover in this the first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Lion King. While Lion King is undeniably more popular, The Little Mermaid was the film that more or less launched the Disney renaissance. Prior to…

Back to the Future: Part II (1989) – Robert Zemeckis

My time with the Sci-Fi Chronicles is coming to a close, and I made sure it ended with a couple of my fave films, from one of my favourite trilogies… Back to the Future: Part II. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd bring the beloved time travelling pair of Marty McFly and Doc Brown to…