Simon & Schuster Canada launch their Star Trek: Strange New Worlds book series this week with The High Country by John Jackson Miller. I feel like Miller was inspired by the early-release poster which featured someone mounted on a horse, giving it a western feel, even set against a strange new two-mooned world with alien…
Tag: old west
Doctor Who (Matt Smith) – A Town Called Mercy, and The Power of Three
It’s time for a Western Doctor Who as the Doctor (Smith), Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) travel to A Town Called Mercy. Written by Toby Whithouse, the episode first aired on 15 September, 2012. When the Time Lord and his Companions arrive in the American Old West, they find themselves confronting a town…
Unforgiven (1992) – Clint Eastwood
The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Wild Bunch, is my all-time favourite western, Eastwood’s multi-Oscar winning film (Best Director, Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman). An ageing gunfighter, William Munny (Eastwood) wants to tend to his tiny parcel…
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) – George Roy Hill
The next stop in the recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Wild Bunch, is yet another one of my all time favourite westerns, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. From it’s opening shots, made to look like an early silent film, this movie took me…
The Wild Bunch (1969) – Sam Peckinpah
The next big stop in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book as I return to the Historical chapter, is Peckinpah’s ultra-violent, wonderfully bloody take on the Hollywood Western. A group of professional outlaws out of step and out of time looking for one last score find themselves fatally wandering the line between…
The Twilight Zone (1962) – Showdown with Rance McGrew, Kick the Can, and A Piano in the House
Paramount Pictures has handed me the map, and I continue to explore the depths of The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series on blu-ray this week with another trio of episodes. First up is Showdown with Rance McGrew. Written by series creator Rod Serling from an idea by Frederick Louis Fox, this episode aired on 2…
Star Trek: The Original Series (1968) – Spectre of the Gun and Day of the Dove
Captain’s log: stardate 4385.3 Spectre of the Gun is a bit of an interesting episode. Written by Gene Coon, under a pseudonym the episode premiered on 25 October, 1968. When the Enterprise trespasses into Melkot space, the alien race punishes some of the crew including Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley),…
Back to the Future: Part III (1990) – Robert Zemeckis
My last stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is the final trip with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in Back to the Future: Part III. From the film’s opening credits you know this will be a different adventure, the triumphant theme by Alan Silvestri gives way to a stirring romantic…
Stagecoach (1939) – John Ford
The first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is the 1939 John Ford/John Wayne classic, Stagecoach. Wayne plays the Ringo Kid, and he and a number of fellow travellers including Dallas (Claire Trevor) and Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), a drunk doctor Josiah Boone (Thomas Mitchell), and a dangerous gambler, Hatfield (John…
Batman: The Animated Series (1995) – Showdown, Catwalk and A Bullet for Bullock
The fourth season of Batman: The Animated Series continues this week with this trio of episodes, first up is Showdown, which aired 12 September, 1995. This one is a little different, and may have hinted at what was going to come down the line when the Justice League series started. Batman (Kevin Conroy) and…
The Mind Reels 