Edward Woodward’s recovery from his heart attack between seasons necessitated the creation of a story that would cover his absence while he recovered. Mission: McCall: Part 2, is the second half of the storyline to explain his absence. Written by Ed Waters, Scott Shepherd and Robert Eisele from a story by Waters and Coleman Luck,…
Tag: politics
Transporter 3 (2008) – Olivier Megaton
Transporter 3 should work. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is back in Europe, there’s a solid actor, Robert Knepper, as the film’s villain, there’s a solid supporting cast including Jeroen Krabbe and Francois Berleand returning as Tarconi, but this one just feels like it flounders. Part of that problem, sadly, rests on the casting of Natalya…
Lincoln (2012) – Steven Spielberg
Daniel Day-Lewis takes the titular role in Spielberg’s masterful film about the iconic president and his struggle to pass the 13th Amendment in support of his Emancipation Proclamation, even as the Civil War continues to tear the country apart. Filled with themes and ideas that are still sad, and frighteningly relevant, this looks at a…
Hill Street Blues (1982) – The World According to Freedom, and Pestolozzi’s Revenge
Things get pretty dark on the Hill in The World According to Freedom, and Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) is pissed. Written by Michael Wagner, it first aired on 7 January, 1982. A gruesome collection of murders and rapes seems to be gang motivated, and it makes Furillo and the rest of the precinct incredibly angry….
Hill Street Blues (1981) – Jungle Madness, and Hearts and Minds
The two-hour finale to Hill Street Blues inaugural season first aired on 26 May, 1981. It was written by series creators Steven Bochco, Michael Kozell and story editor Anthony Yerkovich. There’s a lot going on, Washington (Taurean Blacque) and LaRue (Kiel Martin) are running up leads and suspects in the shooting by a racist officer,…
Mission: Impossible (1970/1971) – The Hostage, and Takeover
Sometimes, your cover is just too good. Paris (Leonard Nimoy) finds that out in the first few minutes of The Hostage. Written by Harold Livingston, this episode first debuted on 19 December, 1970. The IMF is working south of the border again, and Paris has been posing as a hotel magnate that has agreed to…
Age of Ash (2022) – Daniel Abraham
Orbit Books invited me to take a look at the first novel in The Kithamar Trilogy, a new fantasy series from author Daniel Abraham. Fantasy novels have always been a tough in for me, I enjoy Tolkien, have delved into some Terry Pratchett, and have been known to enjoy some fantasy entries in the ‘Young…
Dune (2021) – 4K Review
Warner Brothers made sure they started my 2022 right by getting a 4K copy of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune into my hands to blow my mind. One of my favorite films of the year, this disc is a that you’re going to want to put on anytime you want to demo the beauty and the sharpness…
Star Trek: Picard – Last Best Hope (2020) – Una McCormack
It has been a while since I slipped into a Star Trek novel. I’m still back on The Original Series, and the last one I read was 1995’s The Ashes of Eden, the first novel that introduced the Shatner-Verse version of Trek novels. But I was eager to see how the newer novels tied in…
Foundation and Empire (1952) – Isaac Asimov
The second book in the foundation series ups the stakes for humanity a bit, as we get a glimpse inside the still crumbling Empire, and the reclusive Foundation and the traders that have sprung from it. We learn that the Foundation is in someways becoming corrupt as well, as some despotism is occuring, and it…
The Mind Reels 