It’s time to venture further into The Twilight Zone, as I delve deeper into season 4 of The Complete Series on blu-ray now available from Paramount Pictures. First up this week is Valley of the Shadow. Written by Charles Beaumont, this story sees reporter, Philip Redfield (Ed Nelson) finding himself stuck in a strange small…
Tag: control
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965) – Martin Ritt
Richard Burton turns in a solid, and believable performance in this adaptation of John le Carre’s classic thriller novel. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Dr. Strangelove. Burton is Alec Leamas, a spy in charge…
The Twilight Zone (1960) – The After Hours, The Mighty Casey and A World of His Own
It’s back to the Twilight Zone with Paramount’s Complete Series on blu-ray. The first season of this iconic and seminal show ends this week with this trio of episodes. First up is The After Hours, penned by Rod Serling, this story originally aired on 10 June, 1960. Anne Francis stars as Marsha White, who is…
Doctor Who (Christoper Eccleston) – The Unquiet Dead and Aliens of London
The Doctor (Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) travel back to Cardiff (an in-joke because that is where the series shoots), 1869. There they quickly find themselves embroiled in alien mystery, and chatting with Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) in The Unquiet Dead. Written by Mark Gatiss, with an original airdate of 9 April, 2005, this episode…
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…
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) – Bryan Spicer
I never quite got into the Power Rangers, nor understood the appeal, but they are my next stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. I never really saw much of the television show, and anything I did see, seemed fairly low-end, but the film tries to embrace a big budget theatrical look with a Point Break…
Batman: The Animated Series (1998) – Mean Seasons, The Demon Within and Over the Edge
The youth of Gotham are in the target sights in the first episode this week, as we continue the New Batman Adventures. Mean Season aired 25 April, 1998, and sees Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Batgirl (Tara Strong) taking on the mysterious Calendar Girl (Sela Ward), who is attacking youth media events all over the…
Doctor Who (Peter Davison) – Frontios
The Doctor (Davison) takes on an almost good old-fashioned monster story in Frontios, written by Christopher H. Bidmead. This four part tale ran from 26 January to 3 February, 1984. The Time Lord, and his Companions, Teagan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) are forced to land the TARDIS on the remote world of…
A Boy and His Dog (1975) – L.Q. Jones
Harlan Ellison’s classic novella comes to life in this adaptation that is my next stop on the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Vic (a very young Don Johnson) is wandering the post-apocalyptic world, accompanied by his dog, Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire), with whom he can communicate telepathically. Together they navigate the barbarity, the cruelty and…
Village of the Damned (1995) – John Carpenter
John Carpenter’s take on the Midwich Cuckoo’s tale is next up in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, and boasts a pretty fine cast in the form of Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Marlk Hamill, Linda Kozlowski and Michael Pare. The location has been changed to small town America, but the basis of the story remains the…
The Mind Reels 