This week I dove into Matt Ruff’s brilliantly entertaining Lovecraft Country, which takes all the things you love about a good Lovecraft story; otherworldly horror, science fiction mixed with horror, and some other familiar horror tropes, the creepy doll, the haunted house, and deliver it without Lovecraft’s far too prominent racism. As much as I…
Tag: slavery
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1992/1996) – My First Adventure
I remember when I first heard about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles coming along in the early 90s. I was excited by what I heard about it, it would tell the story of Indy’s youth, both as a child and a teen as it played out against the backdrop of the early 20th century and…
12 Years a Slave (2013) – Steve McQueen
What kind of species are we that we can enslave our fellows? There are two scenes in McQueen’s masterpiece 12 Years a Slave, that shook me to my core. The first was a scene in which Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Solomon Northup is left to hang, while life goes on around him, and another when Solomon is…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989) – The Measure of a Man, and The Dauphin
Captain’s log: stardate 42523.7 The Measure of a Man, definitely in the top ten Trek episodes of all time, this gem was written by Melinda M. Snodgrass this classic first aired on 13 February, 1989. Data (Brent Spiner) is on trial for his synthetic life as the debate on whether or not he is a…
Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Planet of the Ood, and The Sontaran Stratagem
The mysterious Ood return this week in Planet of the Ood. Written by Keith Temple, this episode had an airdate of 19 April 2008, and updated the Ood mythology a bit, as the Doctor (Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) find themselves on an ice planet that serves as a factory for the Ood. It seems…
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) – Anthony Mann
An incredible cast fills out this recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of Spartacus. Alec Guinness is Marcus Aurelius, whose death begins the downfall of the great empire, as his son, Commodus (Christopher Plummer) assumes leadership, and is unwilling to let anything stand in his way. They…
Morning Star (2016) – Pierce Brown
Pierce Brown’s epic science fiction trilogy comes to an explosive, and emotionally satisfying conclusion with Morning Star, this week’s title on The Book Shelf. After the stunning cliffhanger of Golden Son, I was left to wonder what Brown would do to finish off the story, and what would the cost be to characters I’ve…
Ride with the Devil (1999) – Ang Lee
We get a look at the other side of the Civil War, as we join a Confederate guerrilla campaign in Ang Lee’s Ride with the Devil, the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Red Badge of Courage. With a top tier cast including…
Star Wars: Lost Stars (2015) – Claudia Gray
Another step towards Star Wars: The Force Awakens… Claudia Gray’s novel, positioned as a Young Adult title, is highly enjoyable book, and a welcome addition to the new canon of the Star Wars universe. Starting just before the beginning of the original trilogy, and ending shortly after it, at the much rumored about Battle…
Turn: Washington’s Spies – Season 1
The third title releasing from Anchor Bay today is AMC’s first season of the smart, tightly paced character drama set during the American Revolutionary War. Taking its cues from actual historical figures and events, the series charts the creation and implementation of a spy ring that served as Washington’s source of information on the British. Leading…
Cabiria (1914) – Giovanni Pastrone
The first recommended title following my screening of Intolerance for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is this epic tale set during the Punic Wars. Apparently the director of Intolerance, D.W. Griffith, was highly influenced by this film when he saw it, and created Intolerance to tell his own epic. The film…
Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) – The Krotons
The next journey of the TARDIS is this four-part story written by Robert Holmes that ran from 28 December, 1968 to 18 January, 1969. The Doctor, Zoe (Wendy Padbury) and Jamie (Frazer Hines), find themselves on a planet inhabited by the Gond, who seem to be in some sort of slavery to machines known…
