Star Trek: The Next Generation (1990) – The Hunted, and The High Ground

Captain’s log: stardate 43489.2 Airing on 8 January, 1990, this episode featured the first appearance of James Cromwell in the Trek universe. Here he plays Prime Minister Nayrok in an episode written by Robin Bernheim. An escaped prisoner,  Danar (Jeff McCarthy) gives Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise a run for its money after he…

Zero de Conduite (1933) – Jean Vigo

The next stop in DK Canada’s brilliant, and highly enjoyable, The Movie Book is a collection of films by French auteur Jean Vigo. The first one highlighted and serving as gateway to the rest of his work is the short, Zero de Conduite, or Zero for Conduct. Running at a brisk forty-one minutes the film…

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) – John Frankenheimer

The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Dr. Strangelove is Frankenheimer’s incredible thriller that still has the power to chill to this very day. In fact, it seems even more relevant today than when it was released. It’s 1952, during the Korean War. An American…

JFK (1991) – Oliver Stone

The final film in the What Else to Watch list of DK Canada’s The Movie Book, following my viewing of Battleship Potemkin is Oliver Stone’s three hour historical, and dramatic exploration of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. The film follows Jim Garrison’s (Kevin Costner) real-life investigation into the case, perhaps compiling the most comprehensive look…

Star Trek: Crisis On Centaurus (1986) – Brad Ferguson

Well, except for the product placement, the implication that the Earth isn’t under a one government rule, and that the economics of the future are a little different (according to Picard) which is not followed here, most of this tale is fairly enjoyable. In fact, of it had been rewritten and edited a little more…

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: Dwellers in the Crucible (1985) – Margaret Wander Bonanno

Before Star Trek V: The Final Frontier came along four years later with the concept of the Planet of Galactic Peace, Margaret Wander Bonanno presented a similar idea in her non-canon Star Trek novel, Dwellers in the Crucible, which finds its way onto the Book Shelf this week. Set before the events of Star Trek…

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…