A Look Back: Star Trek – The Motion Picture
Before looking back at Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), I have to go back even further for context. The original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 – 69), “The Cage” didn’t sell because it was considered too cerebral. Out went Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) as the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise 1701, and in came Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) for the new pilot as the series became a little more action-oriented. The struggles of The Original Series – including the letter-writing campaign that resurrected it after it had been axed following season two – have been well documented. But it lasted only one…
Space Force
This is going to be a review in two halves. Originally, I was going to watch only a handful of episodes of Space Force to be fair in providing a review. But then it became one of those shows where I was hooked to see what storytelling atrocity it would commit next. I hadn’t seen anything so bad on television since Star Trek: Picard (and Star Trek: Discovery before it). I couldn’t look away … Guess what, though? Halfway through its first season, the show ate itself, and reincarnated as something better. (I only wish Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery could do the same.) The Pilot Steve Carell…