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,…
Tag: politics
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…
TIFF 2021: Dune dir. Denis Villeneuve
Magnificent. Triumphant. THIS is the movie I saw in my mind’s eye when I first read Dune in 1984 when I was anticipating the Lynch film (which I love for its own reasons). The visual aesthetic, the sound and production design, the score (I swear Hans Zimmer isn’t the only one throwing a few nods…
SeaFire (1994) – John Gardner
Author John Gardner outs Ian Fleming’s James Bond through his paces again, in SeaFire. Which sees the agent taking on the villainous Max Tarn who has dreams of being Hitler reborn and the restoration of the Nazis. In a globe-trotting adventure that takes Bond, and returning love interest, and potential bride, Flicka across Europe to…
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) – Richard Donner
1989. I graduated high school and was living on my own for the first time, and my movie collecting addiction was swinging into full gear and this film, along with Last Crusade and Batman were some of my purchases that year, making me choose for the first time between proper meals or cinematic confection. It…
Star Trek: The Better Man (1995) – Howard Weinstein
Space, the final frontier… Don’t be fooled by the cover art, this story takes place a couple of years after the events of The Motion Picture, and apparently the burgundy uniform jackets are in place. The story itself, however, if entertaining, well-crafted, and very much a true Trek tale, and it puts Dr. McCoy front…
The Mind Reels 