Hill Street Blues (1982) – Invasion of the Third World Body Snatchers, and Trial by Fury

Season two of Hill Street Blues came to a close on 13 May, 1982 with Invasion of the Third World Body Snatchers which was written by Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael Wagner. Renko (Charles Haid) is left reeling upon learning his father has died, but matters are complicated when the vehicle the…

Parable of the Sower (1993) – Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction tale, that follows a young woman of colour on her quest to understand herself, the ideas of god, and the destiny of humanity. Within pages of this novel, I was completely swept up in Butler’s storytelling style, her characters, and the world she created. And here’s the thing, the world…

Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) – James Baldwin

This week sees me reading something a little different from my usual escapist fare. Recently LeVar Burton began a reading club on Fable, and while I can’t access it in Canada, they did list the first three books he was recommending, and Go Tell It on the Mountain was at the top of his list….

Millennium (1997) – Weeds, and Loin Like a Hunting Flame

Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) steps back into the darkness with another pair of episodes of Millennium this week. First up is Weeds. Written by Frank Spotnitz this story first aired on 24 January, 1997. Frank heads to a small gated community, joined by Cheryl Andrews (Cch Pounder in a return appearance), where a series of…

Chuck (2011) – Versus the Hack Off, and Versus the Curse

Zachary Levi directs this episode of Chuck, which was written by Craig DiGregorio and Alex Katsnelson. It debuted on 9 December, 2011. Both Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Lester (Vik Sahay) are in prison for their individual crimes, though Lester has the place more wired (literally) than Casey who has to deal with some problems. Meanwhile,…

Shivers (1975) – David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg’s first feature film is the next entry in the Mad Scientist chapter of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book. That being said the mad scientist in this film doesn’t survive the opening credits, though his foul plan does. Set in a lone apartment building, the Starliner, which owns the island it is…

Dumbo (2019) – Tim Burton

I’m not sure how I feel yet about Disney’s apparent need to revisit their classic animated films and turn them into live-action films with computer-generated animation. Are they worried that the relevance of their classic films has reached an end and want to revitalize what they see as diminishing returns on them? I’m not sure….

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1996) – Body Parts, and Broken Link

Station log: stardate 49930.3 Avery Brooks directs the penultimate episode of the season, which was written by Hans Beimler from a story by Louis P. DeSantis and Robert J. Boliver. It had its premiere on 10 June, 1996. Quark (Armin Shimerman) learns he is (apparently) going to die soon he and Rom (Max Grodenchik) decide…

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1994) – Firstborn, and Bloodlines

Captain’s log: stardate 47779.4 Rene Echevarria writes the teleplay for this episode from a story by Mark Kalbfeld and it first aired on 25 April, 1994. This is a Worf (Micheal Dorn) and Alexander (Brian Bonsall) story that sees the pair attending a Klingon ceremony where Worf is advised to encourage his son to become…