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Edith Keeler: And you, um, don’t want to talk about it? Why? Oh. Did you… did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something? Whatever it is, let me help. Capt. Kirk: “Let me help.” A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words even over “I love you.” Fifty years ago today, “The City on the Edge of Forever” aired for the first time. This episode of Star Trek is, for me, not only the best episode of any Trek series ever filmed,Down the rabbit hole….

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So there’s a new STAR WARS movie in town. Yup, we finally saw Rogue One, on the day after New Year’s. This was not due to any lack of enthusiasm, mind you, but simply the travails and tribulations of trying to find large blocks of time for seeing movies around the Holiday season. Rogue One thus turns out to be the first Star Wars movie that I did not see in its opening weekend since The Empire Strikes Back. No, none of that matters or has any bearing on what I thought about the movie. So, what did I thinkDown the rabbit hole….

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Some geeky stuff! :: Star Wars Episode VIII has itself a title: I honestly don’t have an opinion of this as a title. Star Wars titles tend to be greeted as events, and then…well, they’re titles. OK, The Last Jedi. It does break a little with previous “middle installment” titles from previous Star Wars trilogies. The opening films generally have three-word titles that suggest a story beginning: A New Hope, The Phantom Menace, The Force Awakens. Then, previously, we’re had four-word titles that indicate a middle installment based on action: The Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones. But this breaks thatDown the rabbit hole….

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And you people, you’re all astronauts on…some kind of star trek? –Zefram Cochrane, Star Trek First Contact Wow. Star Trek made its official US debut fifty years ago today. That’s…amazing. (The show aired for the first time anywhere on September 6, 1966, in Canada.) Star Trek came and went and was already in syndication when I was born, but my sister loved it, so I quite literally do not remember a time when Star Trek wasn’t a thing. One of my earliest teevee memories is, in fact, the brief bit at the end of the episode “Friday’s Child”, when Dr.Down the rabbit hole….

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I recently read a fascinating book about the Star Wars phenomenon, titled How STAR WARS Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise. Written by journalist Chris Taylor, the book traces the history of Star Wars, not as purely a “making of” story, but as a cultural phenomenon. It’s a terrific book that I reviewed on Goodreads, but I wanted to revise and extend those remarks a bit. This book is one of the most even-handed accounts of Star Wars and the work of George Lucas that I have read. There isn’t much axe-grinding here,Down the rabbit hole….

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So, the first trailer for ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY dropped last week, and…well, it looks good. How good? I won’t hazard a guess, but it does look like a Star Wars movie. Felicity Jones as the heroine looks fine, although the trope of the good guys having to trust everything to a rogue whose methods or motivations are questionable isn’t the freshest thing in the universe. Also, I’m a little turned off by the apparent gritty tone of the film, which looks to me like Star Wars melded with Battlestar Galatica. Maybe it’s not full-on grimdark, but the film’s producersDown the rabbit hole….

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The Force Awakens review, parts one, two, three, and four By this point, it probably sounds like I hate The Force Awakens and want to excise its memory from every human mind. Not so. My complaints are real, and they frustrate me to no end, because…dammit, there is just so much that this movie gets right. The Force Awakens feels to me like the filming of the third draft of a script, when it really needed a fourth. I also suspect, in terms of the film’s refusal to explain things, that this is part of a New Media strategy for StarDown the rabbit hole….

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The Force Awakens review, parts one, two, and three Continuing my examination of The Force Awakens, from the standpoint of character, my stance continues to be that the film does some things well, but not all of them, and not enough. This also applies to character. (First, let me just get this out of the way: General Hux is terrible. Seriously, every time he’s on screen in this movie, I find myself wincing, worst of all during his Space Hitler speech before unleashing the Starkiller weapon. I don’t know what happened there, but Hux sux.) (Oh wait: Captain Phasma also sucks.Down the rabbit hole….

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The Force Awakens review, parts one and two So, if I found the basic story bones of The Force Awakens unsatisfying on a lot of levels, what about the other area where the film has been picking up major praise: its characters? Well…it’s actually a lot better in that regard than its main story. But I still have problems. Let’s start with our new hotshot pilot, Poe Dameron. We meet him very early in the film, since he’s the one General Leia Organa has sent to fetch the map from the old dude whose name is never mentioned. (Yes, I knowDown the rabbit hole….

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The Force Awakens review, part one Might as well jump in with my biggest problem with The Force Awakens, right? Well, as I watched the movie the first time, and again the second time, and again still the third time, I found myself saying the same two words over and over and over again: “Wait, what?” Take it from me, folks: in any kind of storytelling endeavor, be it a movie or a novel or a teevee show or comic book or anything at all, you do not want your audience saying “What, what?” a lot. If you can avoid itDown the rabbit hole….