Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in the follow up to the blockbuster hit, Die Hard. Two years after the first film changed the action film game, Twentieth Century Fox delivered a sequel, one with just as solid a story as the first, something that started to slip after the the third entry. In this…
Tag: hostage
Deep Rising (1998) – Stephen Sommers
Writer/director Stephen Sommers delivers a fun creature feature romp that, even with some dated VFX, is still a lot of fun. Treat Williams leads a cast that includes Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng, Anthony Heald, and Kevin O’Connor. Williams plays Finnegan, a kind of Han Solo of the high seas. He and his crew…
The X-Files (1994) – Duane Barry, and Ascension
In its second season, The X-Files really got to show us what it could do, and the first two episodes up this week form a pair of my favourites, in a season packed with standout episodes (and a couple of clunkers). Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Krycek (Nicholas Lea) are called in on a hostage…
Licence Renewed (1981)- John Gardner
In the early 80s, the estate of Ian Fleming reached out to author John Gardner to continue telling stories about James Bond, 007, and to perchance, bring him into the 80s. This involved a bit of a retcon moving the events of the previous novels from the 50s/60s to the 60s/70s. Gardner’s first effort, Licence…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2005) – Terra Prime, and These Are The Voyages…
Captain’s log: 22 January, 2155 The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Enterprise brings the Terra Prime two-parter to a close in this story written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Manny Coto, from a story developed by the Reeves-Stevens and Andre Bormanis. It debuted on 13 May, 2005. Paxton (Peter Weller) is holding the solar…
Chuck (2008) – Versus the DeLorean, and Versus Santa Claus
Matthew Miller gives us our first Chuck (Zachary Levi) episode this week, Chuck Versus the DeLorean, which originally aired on 8 December, 2008. Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) con artist father, Jack Burton (Gary Cole) – another Big Trouble in Little China reference – rolls into town, in the midst of a long con on a sheik…
Star Trek: Renegade (1991) – Gene DeWeese
Gene DeWeese delivers a pretty standard Trek tale for this week’s instalment of the Book Shelf. This is his third Trek novel, and while it’s not a horrible tale, it’s just a run of the mill story. Set during The Original Series, the Enterprise is called to a pair of warring planets to mediate their…
Star Trek: The Lost Years (1989) – J.M. Dillard
So what happened to James T. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest after the close of their five year mission and before the events depicted in The Motion Picture? This week, I start to find out with the next instalment in the Pocket Books series. I think I have read this one before, as I…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011) – Carnage of Krell, Kidnapped, and Slaves of the Republic
“Our actions define our legacy.” The story arc of Jedi Master Krell (Dave Dennoy) comes to a conclusion this week with this episode penned by Matt Michnovetz. It originally aired on 18 November, 2011. Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and the rest of the 501st are shocked at Krell’s orders to execute Fives (Baker) and…
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) – J.M. Dillard
The next novel that I picked up on the Star Trek list, was the adaptation of the fifth film, The Final Frontier. The film was much maligned and slighted, and some of it for good cause, though one could argue that there is a Trek story in there, and it does have some of the…
The Mountain Master of Sha Tin (2019) – Ian Hamilton
I’ve been hooked on Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee books since I first discovered them. I devour them voraciously as I follow the brilliant, and brave young woman on her adventures. She continues to work, somewhat, as a forensic accountant, but her life has changed a lot since I first met her, and she has become…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1997) – You Are Cordially Invited, and Resurrection
Station log: stardate 51247.5 With a title like You Are Cordially Invited, it’s fairly easy to figure out what most of this episode is about – Worf (Micheal Dorn) and Dax’s (Terry Farrell) wedding. Written by Ronald D. Moore, the episode first debuted on 10 November, 1997. As the celebrations of reclaiming DS9 continue, thoughts…
