The Sniper (2021) – Chang Kuo-Li

Taiwanese author Chang Kou-Li delivers an action thriller this week. With its North American debut, The Sniper, is available now from House of Anansi Press, features a translation by Roddy Flagg and reads like the best of Hong Kong cinema. There are action beats, police investigations, involving characters and a weaving story that takes you…

M*A*S*H (1974) – Check-Up, Life with Father, and Alcoholics Unanimous

Laurence Marks pens a great Trapper (Wayne Rogers) episode. First debuting on 22 October, 1974, the episode opens with the announcement that is time for the camp’s yearly physical, so everyone is getting checked out, but Trap is unwilling to let Frank Burns (Larry Linville) examine him. In a conversation with Hawkeye (Alan Alda) they…

Millennium (1997) – The Beginning and the End, and Beware of the Dog

Glen Morgan and James Wong plunge Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) further into turmoil, darkness and mystery as he desperately attempts to recover his abducted wife, Catherine (Megan Gallagher) in the season two opener, which first aired on 19 September, 1997. The opening credits have changed, as has the text contained within it. ‘Wait. Worry. Who…

Mission: Impossible (1967) – The Legacy, and The Reluctant Dragon

Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series on blu-ray continues to entertain as I explore more of the first season of the iconic season. First up this week is The Legacy, written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, it debuted on 7 January, 1967. Dan (Steven Hill) and his IMF team, including Rollin…

Millennium (1997) – Sacrament, and Covenant

Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) confronts the darkness again this week, and this time in Sacrament, it strikes a little too close to home, and reveals that perhaps his daughter, Jordan (Brittany Tiplady) may have a bit of his dark gift to see into the mind of a criminal. Written by Frank Spotnitz, and first airing…

Event Horizon (1997) – Paul W.S. Anderson

I have always dug this movie, since I saw it on the big screen in 1997. I love the cast, I love the score (Micheal Kamen), and I love the ideas at work in this science fiction horror film, and like all fans of the film I lament the fact that we will never get…

Millennium (1997) – Wide Open, and The Wild and The Innocent

Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) steps back into the darkness this week as Charles D. Holland pens Wide Open, which first aired on 3 January, 1997. Frank is called in to assist on a case that seems to defy logic, a series of murders taking place in homes with top of the line security systems. Cathy…

Millennium (1996) – 5-2-2-6-6-6, and Kingdom Come

Writers James Wong and Glen Morgan pit Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group against a serial bomber in 5-2-2-6-6-6 (which entered into a phone pad spells K-A-B-O-O-M), which first aired on 22 November, 1996. Raymond Dees (Joe Chrest) is a bomber, there is sexual transference involved, as well as the desire to be…

Star Trek: Sarek (1994) – A.C. Crispin

A.C. Crispin, who delivered the wonderful Yesterday’s Son saga early in the Pocket Books series cranked out a giant Trek novel for 1994 that gave us insight into Spock’s father, Sarek. While also continuing the story of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701A. This adventure takes place shortly after the events of The Undiscovered Country, so despite…