Mel Brooks is hit and miss with me, I love Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, but Spaceballs, no matter how quotable it is, and how much it delightfully skewers the Star Wars universe (with George Lucas’ blessing, and some special effects by ILM) has never done it for me. There are moments I like, but…
Tag: star wars
Indiana Jones 4K – 40th Anniversary Celebration!
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Paramount Pictures has remastered the original four films into a gorgeous 4K collection that is as crystal clear as my memories of seeing each and every one of them in the theatre… In 1981, I remember seeing television ads for Raiders on the television,…
Rivers of London (2011) – Ben Aaronovitch
Rivers of London, originally released as Midnight Riot before it was retitled to launch the continuing series of novels it spawned, was a wonderful surprise and a complete joy to read, and a fantastic introduction into the genre of urban fantasy. PC Peter Grant is afraid he’s going to end up doing administrative duty once…
Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia (1994) – Dave Wolverton
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Set four years after the events of The Return of the Jedi, this story just never sat well with me. I picked up a lot of the original Expanded Universe novels as they came out, and I can remember bits and pieces of them, and…
Fanboys (2009) – Kyle Newman
Featuring a story and script partially penned by Ernest Cline, the author of Ready Player One (and Two) and Armada, Kyle Newman’s film, which gestated for awhile, and had some distribution issues hit the screens in 2009, and while it may not have found its audience then, watching it at home, this film has always…
Star Wars: Jedi Search (1994) – Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson launches his Jedi Academy trilogy this week as I travel back to 1994, and the original Star Wars Expanded Universe. I’m exploring each book by publication date, and there were a couple of things I loved right off the bat, which I either didn’t notice the first time I read it (I…
The X-Files (1997) – Small Potatoes, and Zero Sum
Small Potatoes brings back fan favourite writer Darin Morgan, this time in an acting role, in a script penned for him by Vince Gilligan. First debuting on 20 April, 1997, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) get to delve into a comic episode that sees them encountering Eddie Van Blundht (Morgan) after they investigate…
Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World (1978) – Glen Larson and Robert Thurston
“There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. They may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilisations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who…
Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura (1993) – Kathy Tyers
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Kathy Tyers pens the first stand alone novel in the Expanded Universe, following on the tail of Timothy Zahn’s trilogy. The events in this story take place right after the events depicted in The Return of the Jedi, Han Solo and Leia Organa know they…
Star Wars: The Last Command (1993) – Timothy Zahn
Five years after the events of The Return of the Jedi, the battle against the Empire continues, as the blossoming New Republic gears up for a final encounter with Grand Admiral Thrawn in the third volume of Timothy Zahn’s trilogy that truly launched the original Star Wars Expanded Universe. While Thrawn plans to cripple the…
Star Wars: Prophets of the Dark Side (1993) – Paul Davids and Hollace Davids
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… The young adult/tween series christened The Jedi Prince comes to a conclusion with its sixth book this week, that sees the culmination of the Alliance’s conflict with Kadaan the Dark Side Prophet who has installed himself as the new Emperor after doing away with the…
Star Wars: Queen of the Empire (1993) – Paul Davids and Hollace Davids
The young adult Star Wars series, christened the Jedi Prince Saga, continues this week in a galaxy far, far away with book five, Queen of the Empire. Not quite as silly as some of the previous entries, this one still has its moments, as well as a bit of an environmental message as Han Solo…
