Spock's Pickled Brain

 Okay, so although I love the original Stargate movie and the Stargate: SG-1 series, Stargate: Atlantis is my one true love in the Stargate diaspora. So in the normal way of blogs, I tried to compile a list of my favorite episodes. It got kind of long. The Loonatic told me to cut it down. In a fit of perverse rage I cut it into two posts instead. Anyway, this is the first of those posts, covering the first two seasons of Stargate: Atlantis. And again, this is a favorites post, so these episodes don't necessarily have an plot-based value. To give any newcomers a little help, I given each entry a summary and an explanation of what overarching relevance each episode has (if any). Rising (s1e1 and s1e2) All screencaps come from the lovely GateWorld.net Summary: A multi-national, scientist-led expedition boldly goes through the Stargate (a wormhole-harnessing device allowing for instantaneous travel across vast interstellar distances) on a mission to the lost city of...

Space opera and "raypunk" have a lot of overlap, with the most prominent examples being Star Wars and Flash Gordon . But if you're really looking for the penultimate space-based retro-futuristic intrigue-filled masterpiece it is difficult to beat Frank Herbert's Dune . Star Wars and Flash Gordon are campy and largely simplistic, relying heavily on action and spectacle and then making up the web of the universe as they go along. In reverse, the universe of the Dune series is intricate and hard-hitting from the start, thoughtful and deep in the nerdy weeds of science fiction. In fact it boggles my mind that such a cerebral book managed to make it out of the pages and onto the screen. But it has, not once but now heading into three times. 1. The Book Dune was originally published back in 1965, an immediate critical success which earned the first ever Nebula Award for best science fiction novel. As with the best of science fiction, it uses the medium to thoughtfu...

Just so you know, The Loonatic and I have some serious differences in how we think about raypunk, despite the fact that we agree on many of the movies and books that we consider raypunk. This post is a discussion of how I think about raypunk, including a little information about many of the movies that I think epitomize the aesthetic. The Loonatic has a more in depth discussion of the individual merit of some of these movies. Okay, so my aesthetic sense of raypunk comes from two inter-related but still somewhat unique themes. The first theme comes from, of course, the seminal 1950's science fiction greats, like Forbidden Planet and Cat-Women of the Moon . Like the superhero comics of the day, these movies rely on bright colors and clean, geometric shapes to convey sleek futuristic scenes. In general, morality was fairly simple in these movies. However, the plots often chose to tell stories of exploration, wonder, and sometimes tragedy, rather than simple good versus evil confron...

With the debut of the Disney+ streaming service came an original live-action Star Wars series called The Mandalorian . When it was announced I did a heckuva a lot of speculating, and I'd say most of my safe assumptions were correct. The Mandalorian follows the adventures of a...er...well a Mandalorian, of course. Some years after the defeat of the Empire, the Mandalorian earns his keep and builds his reputation as a bounty hunter without peer. When hired by a mysterious client for an unusually vague assignment, things begin to shift sideways. The reward is what his people covet most, the rare metal beskar which vital for making traditional armor. But to what lengths will the Mandalorian go to obtain such as a prize? To go more into it would spoil the story, but from what I've seen so far it's all I could have wanted. It keeps itself solidly in the Star Wars universe, but ventures deeper into the realm of a "space western". Star Wars already has flavors of ...

Alright, buckle up kids, because I am going into full rant mode. So The Clone Wars had a lot of problems, there's no denying it. There were weird timeline breaks where episodes were aired out of order, some truly terrible dialogue, the entire Mortis thing , an unhealthy amount of Jar Jar Binks... But there were good things as well, and more beauty and horror and joy than could reasonably be expected from it. Narrative Complexity First and foremost, the thing I admire most about The Clone Wars was its dedication to telling complex stories. The prequel movies in general tried really, really hard to do a lot of world-building (galaxy-building?) and throw in a lot of background information that wasn't available in the stream-lined story-telling of the original movies. Some of it worked, a lot of it didn't. But The Clone Wars made a valiant attempt to stay in line with that increased narrative complexity, introducing new characters and keeping up with the ol...

The new movie is out, all rejoice! This is not really a review per se, more of just some impressions I got watching it. Stuff to like, stuff to scratch your head for. All around an entertaining chapter that fits with the films that came before it. Obviously, spoilers ahead! All right, let's get the weird stuff out of the way. I loved seeing this movie, but there were some things that struck me the wrong way. Maybe it was because it was different than I figured the arc was going? And maybe multiple viewings would change my mind? Anyway here goes: 1. Rey is a Palpatine? To be honest this feels forced (pun unintended but I'll keep it anyway). Yes, it makes narratively make sense to revisit Palpatine as a villain. He's the underlying threat of the previous trilogies, maneuvering the Jedi and the Separatists in 1 through 3 and the big bad with Vader on his leash in 4 through 6. But in 7 and 8 we've had not even a hint of him, and without build up this seems rushed t...

1. Darth Maul: Apprentice - A Star Wars Fan-Film (T7Pro) There are a fair number of Star Wars fan films. Now I know what you're thinking, what the heck would a bunch of random fans be able to do to even put a video in the same altitude as a blockbuster film made by hundreds of talented professionals? And the answer is, in many cases, that talented fans can knock it out into a neighboring asteroid belt. This one in particular struck me, it has a very simple premise that would absolutely fit in the canon of Star Wars films. In this short story, Darth Maul ambushes a group of Jedi on a distant outpost, and what follows is a series of lightsaber battles to satiate the geek craving. And you wouldn't think it, but it even generates some pathos and depth in what you'd expect to be purely a martial arts and special effects exercise. Add that with great locations, costumes, choreography, effects, and apparently way more time and effort than you'd expect for a free-to-watch vid...

Okay people, time for another round-up of movies that I wouldn't say are great art, but they are great. The flavor of the week is classic movie monsters, as they are transcribed into modern movies and settings. The Loonatic already put together a list with this same theme, so bear with me as we go a little Halloween-crazy. 1. Ginger Snaps Honestly, who needs Teen Wolf ? Sure, the 80s take on the wolf-man story is pure, wacky, cocaine-driven camp, and the new series, uh...well, it pretends that lacrosse is a normal American sport. Just kidding, I actually enjoy some parts of the man-pain-powered modern TV series. But if you're looking for a  modern retelling of the classic wolf-man story that retains the emotional tension of one person slowly being driven from gentle humanity to visceral beastliness, I would direct you instead to the glorious Ginger Snaps . It's a classic tale of teenage angst, using the lens of lycanthropy to show the emotional dissonance that teens...

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) In a wasteland ruled by the unforgiving environment and psychotic warlords, life is unpredictable, violent, and usually short. Enter Max, a lone survivor haunted by his dead family and captured by the War Boys of the cruel Immortan Joe. When Furiosa, one of the dictator's commanders, frees Immortan Joe's wives and flees, Max is unwittingly catapulted into the conflict. What follows is a high-octane chase pitting Furiosa's crew against a series of bandits, killers, and weirdos. If they're to succeed it will take as much grit, resourcefulness, and bullets as they can muster. It wouldn't be a list on post-apocalyptic films without including at least one of the Mad Max films. And though I love the western-style siege warfare of Road Warrior and the zany world-building of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome , the most recent film is perhaps my favorite. The plot is tight and streamlined, the characters layered and compelling, and the action...