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“Treat others how you wish to be treated,” is a sentiment repeated throughout Christopher Nolan’s epic, The Odyssey. Based on the epic poem attributed to the poet Homer (who may not even have existed), Nolan’s Odyssey takes plenty of modern liberties with the source material. The Greeks speak in modern speech, using colloquialisms such as “dad,” “daddy.” and “f**k.” The costumes are gorgeous but…

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is one of the first cartoons I remember watching as a child. It was formative to my expectations of both science fiction and fantasy, because it was both blended perfectly for 4-year-old me. Unfortunately, the old cartoon doesn’t really hold up these days. Even 20 years ago, I tried watching the Best of He-Man DVDs with my parents. We were all excited…

In 1989, Doctor Who left the airwaves as the BBC cancelled the show after 26 seasons.Now, 37 years later, the BBC is putting the Doctor out to tender as they seek a new production company to take over for the departing Bad Wolf Productions. This process of tender and entering a new phase of production is predicted to take at least two years, if not longer. The good news is that this tender…

This weekend, I watched what I now consider the best time travel movie I have ever seen, Rian Johnson’s critically acclaimed Looper. Starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, and several other notable actors, Looper is the tale of Joe, a special kind of temporal hitman for the mob. When Joe in 2044 finds himself face to face with his future self, he faces an impossible choice:…

Let’s cut to the chase: I loved Superman. It’s hardly a secret to those who know me that Superman and Green Lantern are my two favorite DC heroes, probably my two favorite heroes period. So, we get a Superman movie written and directed by James Gunn (Slither, Guardians of the Galaxy) featuring an extended guest appearance by the most notoriously asinine of the Green Lanterns, Guy Gardner, and it…

There was a lot to like about this episode, but the conflict between the Unholy Trinity and the Doctor’s crew was resolved way too easily. Omega, a complex and terrifying villain from the classic Doctor Who era, is reduced to a single scene where he is handily beaten by the Doctor using a weapon that we didn’t really know could act as a weapon. The Rani is eaten by Omega before that, and the Mrs.…

I’ve spent a great deal of time and energy these last few months talking about Doctor Who and Star Wars. Both are important, formative stories for me. I grew up with them, as well as Star Trek, The Transformers, He-Man, Tolkien, and a dozen or more other properties that still mean something to me. But why spend my time talking about fictitious worlds when ours is slowly going to Hell? The answer…

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Andor and Rogue One are the best part of Star Wars. My son will argue it’s the Clone Wars animated series, and he has a good argument for it. But for me, it will be the depths of despair and heights of hope of the Rebellion vs. the Empire in Andor/Rogue One. These final episodes drive home the cruelty and malice of the Imperial regime while highlighting the many sacrifices…

So, the popular theory this season is that the Doctor would discover he is naught but fiction. And “Wish World” plays with that idea, for sure. But it’s so much more than that. This season makes 15 season of New Who over the course of 20 years, so of course, Russell T. Davies and friends want to give us something big to celebrate that. And boy, do they ever give us something big. There are…

I suppose I should have trusted Russell T. Davies and company a little more than I did going into this episode. After all, I’ve been praising this as the best season of Who since it returned in 2005, if not the best season of Who ever. I was afraid this episode would be a goofy excuse for some musical guests and not much else. I love being wrong about this episode while being right about this…

Following my previous Doctor Who post, I spent a significant amount of time discussing opposing views on the season. It was a great conversation, and it answered for me a significant question: Why do we write so passionately about our favorite media? Why do we pick apart the stories, the acting, the writing, and the production values? Continue reading On Discussing Media

Holy Hannah! I thought Andor could not get any better than it was in its first season, but the Gilroy team and Diego Luna keep turning in masterpiece after masterpiece. Star Wars, at its core, has always been about resisting tyranny and oppression from fascist governments. Lucas was definitely on to something when he started with that little $11 million movie in 1977. Here we are, 48 years later,…

I’ll be honest, given how steeped in the Black Experience this episode is, I don’t know how much I should comment on it. I will say that I loved what it had to say about the importance of stories. I also loved that it continued to hint at the idea that the Doctor is realizing they are a story. This was such a personal episode for the Doctor, bringing back a lot of familiar faces in new ways. All…

Star Wars in the Disney era has been inconsistent most of the time. It’s hit highs such as the first two seasons of the Mandaloria. It’s sunk to terrible lows such as the Rise of Skywalker. I’m an old school fan. I love the Original Trilogy and mostly like the Prequel Trilogy, although it’s a bit clunky. And I despise the mess that was made of the Sequel Trilogy and the wasted potential. The…

It’s another episode that reaffirms for me that this is shaping up to be the best season of Doctor Who since it returned to screens 20 years ago. The timeliness of this episode, the relevance of it showing now, is astounding. Germany, Canada, and Australia have all recently rejected the cries and lies of right-wing politics and personalities. The U.S. is foundering under the strain of an…

I have a new favorite science fiction film, and it’s not even close at this point. In the 1960’s, Jerome Bixby wrote four episodes of the original Star Trek: “Mirror, Mirror”; “By Any Other Name”: “Day of the Dove”; and “Requiem for Methuselah.” These are all considered iconic episodes of Star Trek, and they represent some of the most thoughtful writing to come out of the series. It is Bixby’s…

Russell T. Davies and Ncuti Gatwa dip into the Doctor’s history for what, in my opinion, is the best bottle episode the show has ever done. They do this by revisiting the previous best bottle episode Doctor Who has done, “Midnight,” from the fourth series with David Tennant. Both of these episodes are tense and terrifying in similar ways. They both have much to say about human nature in a crisis,…