Category: science fiction
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Subverting Stereotypes on the Fury Road
I just finished rewatching Mad Max: Fury Road. I have to say, I can understand why the film earned the online ire of the so-called men’s rights activists (MRAs). It takes all the high-octane testosterone-drenched tropes of the typical action flick, ramps them up to 11 and, in so doing, exposes the madness that lies at…
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Review: The Man in the High Castle (TV)
amazon’s The Man in the High Castle (2015) Insta-score: 4 out of 5. Short form: After a slow start, this builds to an excellent show. Spoilers below the fold.
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Review: Agents of SHIELD season finale
I caught up on the end of the season for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. (Yes, it’s that time of summer when I get to catch up on the shows I missed.) The first season ended with the fallout from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when the entire Marvel universe was scrambled. Could Season Two match it? Short…
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Review: Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 9: Flatline
Oh, heaven above, Steve Moffat is just determined that we all love Clara, and he’s going to keep forcing tripe like this on us until we give and accept she’s the bestest, most wonderful Companion ever, isn;’t he? Spoilers below.
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Review: Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Meh. Haven’t we been here before?
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Review: Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 7: “Kill the Moon”
Ugh. This hasn’t been a great season, and this is far from the best. Let’s begin with the very-overused flash forward. It’s getting kind of old. Used well, it can be very effective. But Doctor Who isn’t using it very well. They’ve used it as a cheap dramatic tool. Actually the episode was full of…
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Review: Doctor Who Season 8 Episode 1 “Deep Breath”
I finally got around to watching Season 8 Episode 1 (“Deep Breath”) of the revived Doctor Who. It’s the first one with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. (What do we call him, anyway? Is he the 12th Doctor, even though we know that Matt Smith‘s 11 was really the twelfth?) So it’s probably worth a…
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All good things may come to an end, but you can sometimes revisit them
Today (2014 May 23) is the 20th anniversary of the airing of “All Good Things…”, the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It cannot be denied that this series is directly responsible for the resurgence of American sci-fi on television – without the Enterprise-D, there would have been no Babylon 5, no Stargate,…
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Lunacon 2014 (1c): Firefly the Game
I was excited to attend this game demo. I am a fan of all things Firefly, and actually have a copy of this game but hadn’t had a chance to play it yet. So when a game got underway in the gaming room, I dropped by to check it out.
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Lunacon 2014 (1b): Alternate Technologies in Historical Fiction
Panelists: Russ Handelman, James Cambias, Paul Calhoun And here he is, That Annoying Guy From One Seat Over. This archetype shows up at every con, like a restless spirit. One of the panelists pointed out that, more or less by definition, this would actually have to be about alternate historical fiction. Examples of a missed…