I plunge back into Paramount Pictures The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series with another trio of episodes this week. Burgess Meredith returns to the Zone this week in Mr. Dingle, the Strong. Written by series creator, Rod Serling, this episode first aired on 3 March, 1961. Meredith is the titular Dingle, a timid vacuum-salesman, who…
Tag: aliens
Star Trek: The Original Series (1968) – Assignment: Earth and Spock’s Brain
Captain’s log: stardate unknown. Originally written as its own pilot, Assignment: Earth was later rewritten to work it into a Star Trek story. The script was by Art Wallace, and came from a story developed by him and Gene Roddenberry. The episode first aired on 29 March, 1968. 1968. The very year the Enterprise travels…
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987) – Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams is always bound to entertain, and as I dug into the story of Dirk Gently, I knew this one was going to be a ride. I read this one when it first came out, it ended up in my stocking or as a Christmas present. I never understood it, my mom would keep…
Predator 2 (1990) – Stephen Hopkins
Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Bill Paxton, Robert Davi, Maria Conchita Alonso and Ruben Blades are in the sights of an alien in Predator 2, the next stop as I close in on the end of the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Following on the trail of the original 1987 film, Predator 2 is a bit of a…
Star Trek: Uhura’s Song (1985) – Janet Kagan
Evan Wilson. Ugh. The very definition of a Mary Sue. This character joins the U.S.S. Enterprise this week as I continue my non-canon adventures with her crew, exploring the Pocket Book universe based on Gene Roddenberry’s beloved creation. A planet inhabited by bipedal felines is suffering from a seemingly unstoppable disease, and one of Uhura’s…
Doctor Who (Christoper Eccleston) – The Long Game and Father’s Day
The Doctor (Eccleston), Rose (Billie Piper) and Adam (Bruno Langley) travel to the far flung future, to Satellite 5, orbiting the Earth, only to find something has gone dreadfully wrong with future history. The Long Game was written by Russell T. Davies and first aired on 7 May, 2005. The Doctor is sure something has…
Quantum Leap (1992) – Ghost Ship and Roberto!
Sam (Scott Bakula) finds himself in the pilot seat in Ghost Ship, the first episode for review this week. Written by Donald P. Bellisario and Paris Qualles, it first aired on 4 March, 1992 and takes place on 13 August, 1956. En route to Bermuda, Sam is Eddie Brackett, an inexperienced co-pilot, and finds all…
Mostly Harmless (1992) – Douglas Adams
It’s time for one last adventure with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect as I opened the pages of the fifth book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. Within moments I was laughing as I plunged into the familiar world that Adams created. He brings the story full circle and plays with other science…
Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston) – Rose and The End of the World
Almost a decade after the Paul McGann television movie, Russell T. Davies brought the series back to life with Christopher Eccleston taking the role of the Doctor, and this time around the new Time Lord is joined by a new Companion, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). Davies continued to shift the story focus so that Doctor…
Star Trek: The Original Series (1967) -The Doomsday Machine and Catspaw
Captain’s log: stardate unknow The Doomsday Machine sent me on many adventures when I was a child. Written by Norman Spinrad, this episode had an original airdate of 20 October, 1967. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the stalwart crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encounter terror in space. They arrive in a destroyed planetary system, and discover…
The Mind Reels 