Station log: stardate unknown Robert Hewitt Wolfe pens this Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer) episode that first aired on 10 February, 1999. There’s a murderer aboard the station, and the bodies are piling up. To understand, and to solve the crimes, Ezri summons the memories and the personality of one of the Dax symbiote’s most…
Tag: nightmares
War of the Worlds (1989) – Loving the Alien, and Night Moves
Debi (Rachel Blanchard) gets a little more of the limelight in this episode written by Janet MacLean. It first aired on 13 November, 1989. The morthren seem to be increasing their ground assaults, or at least in this episode they seem to be more in to waging a shooting war, and they also seem to…
Space: 1999 (1975) – Alpha Child, and Dragon’s Domain
Moonbase Alpha continues it’s not exactly lonely journey through space – there is a lot of life out there apparently, and all so conveniently close for storytelling purposes. First up this week, Koenig (Martin Landau), Dr. Russell (Barbara Bain) and Professor Bergman (Barry Morse) meet the Alpha Child. Written by Christopher Penfold and Edward di…
Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky (1987) – Margaret Wander Bonanno
This week’s visit to the Book Shelf brings me the second Giant Star Trek novel from Pocket Books, and gives us a a different look at the first contact between Humans and Vulcans, a plot point that would later be visited in Star Trek: First Contact, though it could be argued that this book complements…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993) – Gambit Part II, and Phantasms
Captain’s log: stardate 47160.1 Ronald D. Moore pens the second part of this two-parter, based on a story by Naren Shankar. Airing on 18 October, 1993, it completes the story of Picard (Patrick Stewart) posing as Galen with a gang of intergalactic pirates who pillage archaeological sites. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is still held by Baran…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992) – Hero Worship, and Violations
Captain’s log: stardate 45397.3 Airing on 27 January, 1992, this Data (Brent Spiner) episode is a little dull. And once again, it feels like the series could have done something really good if they hadn’t played it safe. Written by Joe Menosky from a story by Hilary Bader, the episode sees the Enterprise responding to…
The Twilight Zone (1962) – The Gift, The Dummy, and Young Man’s Fancy
Buckle up, there’s the sign post up ahead! It’s time to return to The Twilight Zone, courtesy of Paramount Pictures The Complete Series on blu-ray. First up is The Gift. Written by series creator Rod Serling, this episode debuted on 27 April, 1962. Williams (Geoffrey Horne) is an alien. He just crashed south of the…
Secrets of a Soul (1926) – G.W. Pabst
The next film in the What Else to Watch category for the fantastic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as featured in the massive The Movie Book from DK Books is the 1926 silent film, Secrets of a Soul. A dark and moody film, taken from events in real life, the story follows a husband, Martin…
Batman: The Animated Series (1992) – Eternal Youth & Two-Face Parts I & II
The Dark Knight (Kevin Conroy) wings into more action this week in this trio of episodes that aired on 23, 25 and 28 of September, 1992. Eternal Youth, Batman investigates a health resort that promises its clients youth and vitality. But the price is too high! When Brice Wayne gets an invite to the…
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) – Andy and Lana Wachowski
Having previously stepped into The Matrix, I was delighted that the Sci-Fi Chronicles would give me a chance to revisit the two sequels from 2003. Once again written by the Wachowski’s the first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, was set 6 months after the events of the first film, and Neo (Keanu Reeves) is settling…
Hot Docs 2015: The Nightmare – Rodney Ascher
Eschewing objectivity, or any real investigation into the phenomena and instead focussing on sharing the experience, The Nightmare is quite possibly the first true horror documentary. Director Rodney Ascher sits down and chats with 8 people, Jeff, Ana, Kate, Korinne, Stephen, Chris, Connie and Forrest, people who suffer from the terrifying phenomena of sleep paralysis. I’ve been…
Echoes (2014) – Nils Timm
Releasing today from Anchor Bay is Echoes, a film that was an official selection of both the New York City International Film Festival and the FilmQuest Film Festival where it garnered awards for best actress, best director and best screenplay. This well-produced and acted supernatural thriller ends up being fairly predictable, but its pacing and acting balance out a…
