By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com May 22, 2022
Author’s note: This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This post also contains a very vague spoiler for the final episode of the fifth season of the fifth season of The Expanse. MEM
My march through the Marvel Cinematic Universe continued recently with my first viewing of Captain America: Civil War, the 13th MCU entry according to this list. The 2016 movie further expands on the roster of Marvel Comics superheroes, incorporating Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), the subject of the previous year’s Ant-Man, and introducing Tom Holland as the third person to portray a live-action Spider-Man on the big screen in the 21st century.
Despite the title, this is very much a sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron, which preceded Ant-Man by just a few months and itself was a sequel to 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the events of which play a major role here. Civil War revolves around a global manhunt for the Winter Soldier, a.k.a. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), a cryogenically preserved childhood buddy of long-frozen super-soldier Captain America, known to his pals as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
The highly trained Barnes and his metal arm has documented links to a number of deadly terrorist operations over the decades. The most recent one is a bombing of a United Nations meeting at which the Avengers pledged to submit to international oversight, an attack that killed the king of the mysterious African nation of Wakanda. As a result, most of the world wants to take Barnes into custody.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Aug. 2, 2020
Original Star Trek stories returned to the TV screen in September 1987 when Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second live-action TV series in the franchise, made its debut in syndication.
In contrast with the first Star Trek series, and in common with the next three series, The Next Generation’s pilot episode shows us what is essentially the first mission of the heroes’ ship. “Encounter at Farpoint” was as much about getting the characters in place and introducing them and the starship to each other and the audience as it was about showing people grappling with futuristic concepts and adversaries.
The story takes place in the middle of the 24th century, nearly a century after the events of what is now called Star Trek: The Original Series. The protagonists command and crew another version of the Enterprise, a brand-new Galaxy-class starship with the registration number NCC-1701-D, with the D suggesting that this is the fifth Starfleet iteration of the Enterprise.
(This suggestion was incorrect, as fans would learn toward the beginning of the 21st century. Starfleet’s first Enterprise, shown in the series of that name, bore the registration number NX-01. The NCC-1701 Enterprise from The Original Series was the fleet’s second vessel with that name.)
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com March 30, 2020
One of the things I’ve been doing to pass the time during my Covid-19 quarantine is streaming Andromeda, the syndicated science-fiction series that aired 110 episodes from October 2000 through May 2005. I watched the 22nd and final installment of the first season last night.
The show centers on Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo), a member of the High Guard, a military service that patrols three galaxies united under the banner of the peaceful Systems Commonwealth. Near the beginning of the pilot episode, Hunt’s starship, Andromeda Ascendant, stumbles upon a covert rebel fleet that’s about to launch a surprise attack. Hunt orders his hopelessly outnumbered crew to abandon ship but stays at the helm in an effort to save his damaged vessel by maneuvering around the edge of a black hole.
Hunt’s gambit fails because he’s forced to confront a traitorous officer. Because of Einsteinian time dilation, three centuries pass in the rest of the galaxy during the second that it takes the battered captain to blink his eyes.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
July 24, 2015
John Scalzi’s 2012 novel, Redshirts, is a wonderful comic exploration of what life might be like for the crew of a spaceship featured in a campy television series.
Scalzi’s protagonist is Ensign Andrew Dahl, a 25th-century xenobiologist who has just been assigned to the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union. He’s one of five new junior crew members who quickly become aware that their new starship is, well, a little unusual.
For instance, take Dahl’s first away mission, to a space station overrun by deadly robots:
Dahl screamed McGregor’s name, stood and unholstered his pulse gun, and fired into the center of the pulpy red haze where he knew the killer machine to be. The pulse beam glanced harmlessly off the machine’s surface. Hester yelled and pushed Dahl down the corridor, away from the machine, which was already resetting its harpoon. They turned a corner and raced away into another corridor, which led to the mess hall. They burst through the doors and closed them behind them.
“These doors aren’t going to keep that thing out,” Hester said breathlessly.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 11, 2015
Star Trek Generations, the seventh feature film in that science fiction franchise, opened in theaters in November 1994, a few months after the end of the seventh and final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The movie, which was written by TNG producers Rick Berman, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, was explicitly intended to springboard the newer cast into a cinematic series.
Generations did so in part by transporting a character from the original show and movie series into a 24th-century adventure. The Next Generation had largely avoided this kind of crossover, at least partly out of deference to the wishes of Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 at age 70.
(Dear readers: There be spoilers ahead. I mean, they’re for a 21-year-old movie, but still, you’ve been warned!)
The movie starts in the 23rd century as Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and two of his former crewmen participate in the maiden voyage of the fourth starship Enterprise. This time around, Kirk isn’t in charge — he’s just a guest aboard the Excelsior-class vessel, registration number NCC-1701-B. The crew includes a young ensign named Demora Sulu (Jacqueline Kim), the daughter of Kirk’s old helmsman. Kirk wonders aloud how Sulu was able to start a family. “If something’s important, you make the time,” Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) reproachfully tells his former commanding officer.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 10, 2015
Author’s note: I know the blog has been Star Trek–heavy lately, thanks to all the musings prompted by the recent death of actor Leonard Nimoy. As it happens, I recently acquired DVDs of the four movies starring the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast, and I watched one of them the other night. But before I wrote about the film proper, I wanted to put it in the context of the Star Trek franchise.
Creator Gene Roddenberry envisioned the television show now known as Star Trek: The Original Series as being a “Wagon Train to the stars.” Despite its status now as a pop-culture icon, the program — which chronicled the 23rd-century adventures of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and the crew of the starship Enterprise — got off to a rocky start. In 1968, two years after its debut, NBC executives decided to commission a third season only after fans mounted a letter-writing campaign. But the show was canceled for good in 1969.
The franchise limped along over the next decade. A cartoon version featuring most of the original cast, which is now called Star Trek: The Animated Series, was produced for the 1973-74 TV season.
But Trek survived mainly in the form of reruns; this was how (and when) I first came to know the show as a young child. Trek fans were also able to enjoy print adaptations of the TV episodes, original stories told in novel and comic-book form, and a variety of franchise-themed toys and clothing. After the cartoon show was scuttled, however, there were no new television or cinematic adventures to be seen.
(Note: As with my previous post, this blog entry contains mild spoilers. Of course, it’s for a 33-year-old movie, but anyway, you’ve been warned: There be spoilers ahead.)
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 6, 2015
After hearing that actor Leonard Nimoy, famous for portraying Mr. Spock from Star Trek, had died last week at age 83, I did the same thing as many thousands of others, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of others: I watched this clip from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
If you’ve never seen that movie, and if you care nothing for the Star Trek franchise, then move on; this blog post will be of no interest to you. If you like Star Trek but haven’t seen The Wrath of Khan, then by all means bookmark this page and put off reading the rest of this blog entry until you’ve watched the entire film.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 4, 2015
Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, died Friday morning. That sad occasion prompted me to mull the first time I watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which many (including me) consider to be the best of all the Star Trek films.
The Star Trek universe is largely a positive place, especially as depicted in the original TV series, which aired from 1966 through 1969. Yes, conflict exists, but in general, Star Trek was a much more family-friendly milieu than that depicted in landmark 1970s science-fiction entertainment such as Alien, Outland, Capricorn One, Saturn 3 or even Star Wars. (Granted, George Lucas’s universe is pretty PG-friendly. But there’s very little in early Star Trek that approaches the seediness that the first Star Wars film displayed in the scenes at the Mos Eisley cantina and the Death Star trash compactor.)
Star Trek II takes a very different approach from earlier Trek. In many ways, the film — written by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards and directed by Nicholas Meyer — is a rehearsal of mortality. In the opening scene, the Enterprise is brutally attacked by Klingons while on a rescue mission; Spock, chief communications officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), helmsman Sulu (George Takei) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) are killed before the ship’s master, a fresh-faced female Vulcan named Saavik (Kirstie Alley) gives the order to abandon ship.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 20, 2013
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Vegas in Space — Season 1, Episode 5
Synopsis
The episode opens with Buck Rogers and Col. Wilma Deering unsuccessfully battling “hatchet fighters,” which confound the starfighters’ automatic targeting systems. Rogers’ vessel sustains a direct hit, but this turns out to be only a training exercise.
The Earth squadron having been supposedly demolished by what are described as the remarkably speedy and maneuverable hatchet fighters, a discouraged Deering orders all ships to return to base. En route, Rogers tries to persuade the colonel that the Terran pilots can destroy their enemies if the computer initiates targeting but humans actually pull the trigger. Deering is skeptical, saying that the Earthlings are unable to do so.
In New Chicago, a young woman named Felina returns home and reviews her video messages. (Rather charmingly and quaintly, these appear to have been recorded on some kind of linear tape device — there’s a tell-tale squeal when Felina hits the rewind button.) The second of two messages is an urgent warning from the woman’s boss, who tells her to leave her apartment immediately because she is in danger. Just after a perplexed Felina finishes watching the message, she is surprised by something off-screen that has been stalking her since she arrived home. Read the rest of this entry »
As the episode opens, Buck Rogers and Col. Wilma Deering are approaching Earth after a scouting and/or training flight that has evidently lasted some days. A scanner on their starfighter, which Rogers is piloting, calls their attention to an Earth Directorate starfighter that is being attacked by two pirate ships. Rogers successfully engages the pirates, thereby sparing the life of Cadet Regus Saroyan, who has fallen out of formation from a training flight led by Major Duke Danton.
Danton is annoyed both that Saroyan fell behind and that Rogers intervened. Rogers is annoyed that Danton is annoyed, and they spar verbally. Deering comes on the channel to say that Rogers’ actions were fully warranted. (“Wilma!” Danton exclaims when Earth’s top military officer first joins the radio exchange. “I mean, Col. Deering.” “Right on both counts,” she replies.)
After the starfighters land, Saroyan collapses and is sent to a health clinic. Rogers and Danton exchange more heated words. Deering asks Danton to have Rogers as a guest lecturer on 20th century battle tactics; when Danton balks, she orders him to follow through.
Deering then checks on Saroyan, who is among a huge number of starfighter pilots who have fallen ill while she and Rogers have been away. Deering and Dr. Huer visit Dr. Mallory; he and a computer named Carl are researching the illness. They’ve discovered that the disease stems from contaminated food discs, all of which were manufactured on the agricultural planet Vistula.
Rogers’ turn as a guest lecturer for Danton is a fiasco. The major, obviously irked by his guest, goads his class to laugh as Rogers discusses battle strategies in terms of the ancient game of football. The class devolves into Rogers and Danton tackling each other.
Vistula turns out to be home to a very charismatic and belligerent rabble-rouser named Kaleel. He tells his followers that soon they will go into battle and take their revenge on the Earthlings who have enslaved them. Kaleel has the ability to make his hands glow red and kill a person with the barest touch; he demonstrates this ability on a man whose wife calls him out as being skeptical of the leader. The adoring crowd chants Kaleel’s name.
In the late 1970s, there appeared a genius who made many exciting science fiction adventures. His initials were GL, and his name, of course, was — Glen Larson?!
Larson is hardly as famous or successful as filmmaker cum Disney sellout George Lucas, creator of the iconic Star Wars saga. But Larson had some high-flying space opera of his own. In a short span of time in the late nineteen-seventies, Larson produced both the cheesy second-tier Star Wars knockoff Battlestar Galactica (which was revived to critical and popular success a decade ago) as well as an incarnation of 1928 pulp scifi hero Buck Rogers.
The 90-minute pilot for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which also received a theatrical release, debuted in 1979. It kicked off a two-year, 37-episode run (per, yes, the Internet Movie Database) that lingered in reruns and memory for a while. Then Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987 and it, along with wholly new science fiction franchises such as Stargate and Independence Day, started to push BRit25thC — as no one, to the best of my knowledge, actually calls it — into obscurity.
Recently while browsing through videos at my favorite second-hand entertainment store, I discovered a pristine-seeming box set of the entire Buck Rogers series, priced at just $10. After some hemming and hawing, I carried it to the checkout counter with my selections.
I recently watched the extended pilot episode/theatrical movie, and… Well, I suppose it’s fitting that Buck Rogers in the 25th Century remains a distant memory for most.
From concept to execution, Buck Rogers is a thoroughly middlebrow operation. Some stuff is done well, but very little could be called great. (One exception would be the very cool design of the Terran starfighters flown by the good guys.) There are some jarringly bad notes, such as the embarrassing title sequence with a close-lidded Rogers languidly embracing scantily clad space babes and the hokey spaceman adventure song that accompanies. (Imagine a song in the style of the Muppets classic “The Rainbow Connection,” only about the original Battlestar Galactica and sung by a third-rate John Denver imitator, and you begin to get a sense of how bad the song is.)
Sadly, there’s never enough of the well-done stuff to make this adventure soar, alas. And there was never quite enough of the jarringly bad stuff to motivate any mildly friendly BR25C (as no one to my knowledge dubs it) to turn off the film and do something else — which isn’t to say that I didn’t contemplate doing so… Read the rest of this entry »
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