Television | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”, and Saying Goodbye to Old Friends…

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the passing of Christopher Plummer recently, and with the film celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, I thought it might be worth taking a look at Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

The Undiscovered Country was the last Star Trek film to focus on the entire cast of the original show. However, it is not an entirely celebratory farewell. Instead, it’s a movie that makes a valid and convincing argument for the need to move on, for characters like Kirk and Spock to get out of history’s way and to surrender the stage to Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s an introspective (and occasionally even acerbic) rejection of nostalgia that is particularly hard to imagine today, particularly in the era of films like Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought, The Original Series | Tagged: change, christopher plummer, continuity, end of history, fandom, fear, growth, history, klingons, nostalgia, star trek, star trek vi: the undiscovered country | 3 Comments »

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Agnes is More…

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Darren

With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series. I’ll be joining the wonderful Jack Packard and the fantastic KC Nwosu to break down WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki as they come out.

This week, we take a look at the seventh episode of WandaVision, with a large focus on the reveal towards the end of the episode and how that changes the nature of the story being told, arguably transforming it into something a lot less interesting.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: a marvelous escape, agatha harkness, agnes, continuity, culpability, Vision, wanda, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 6, Episode 11 (“Two Fathers”)

Posted on February 19, 2021 by Darren

Coinciding with The X-Files‘ move from Vancouver to Los Angeles, there has also been a shift at The X-Cast. Tony Black is no longer running the show, but it is instead now being run by Sarah Blair, Kurt North and Carl Sweeney. I was thrilled to join Carl to talk about one of the most important episodes in the show’s history: Two Fathers.

Following the release of The X-Files: Fight the Future over the summer, and with the move to California, the show was in a clear state of transition. There was a strong sense that things were winding down; even with David Duchovny’s contract extension, the expectation was that the show would be wrapping up in its seventh season. As a result, there was a clear desire to begin wrapping up story threads. Two Fathers was something of a television event, promising to bring the show’s internal mythology to a satisfying conclusion. The results were more complicated.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: carl sweeney, conspiracy, dad stuff, fight the future, mythology, the x-cast, the x-files, two fathers | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! Wanda to the Maximoff…

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Darren

This week, we take a look at the sixth episode of WandaVision, which is mostly about how much we love Malcolm in the Middle, whether the series has the courage to hold Wanda to account for her transgressions, and the level of meta-awareness playing over the story.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: a marvelous escape, jack packard, kc nwosu, malcolm in the middle, podcast, Television, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Enterprising Individuals – “The Immunity Syndrome”

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Darren

I am always thrilled to get a chance to talk about Star Trek with other fans, so I was thrilled at the invitation to join the wonderful Aaron Coker on Enterprising Individuals to talk about The Immunity Syndrome.

The reason that I picked The Immunity Syndrome is because I think it’s somewhat under-appreciated in the grand Star Trek canon. It represents the culmination of a number of themes running through the original Star Trek that are often overlooked in assessing the history of the show and the franchise: the way in which Star Trek was anchored in sixties counter-culture, the recurring themes of existential dread and chaos underpinning the original show, and the series’ recurring fascination with consciousness expansion.

You can listen to the episode here, back episodes of the podcast here, click the link below or even listen directly.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The Original Series | Tagged: 1960, aaron coker, counterculture, enterprising individuals, podcast, psychedelia, sixties, star trek, the immunity syndrome | Leave a comment »

221. Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country (#—)

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a weekly journey through the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. And sometimes, because we can, a movie not on the list.

This week, to mark the passing Christopher Plummer, a special midweek bonus episode covering Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

An explosion on the Klingon moon of Praxis sends the Klingon Empire into disarray, and forces the warrior race to consider an unlikely alliance with their old enemies in the Federation. The Enterprise is sent to meet the Klingon Chancellor, under the command of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. However, things do not go to plan.

At time of recording, it was not ranked the list of best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250, The Original Series | Tagged: Chang, christopher plummer, Cold War, death, hamlet, kirk, klingons, McCoy, metaphor, Nicholas Meyer, praxis, racism, Russia, Soviet Union, spock, star trek, star trek vi: the undiscovered, the future, the undiscovered country | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Wanda-Full Tonight”…

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Darren

This week, we take a look at the fifth episode of WandaVision, including the tropes and conventions of eighties sitcoms, the Full House allusions, who the real bad guy is, and – of course – that universe-cracking closing cameo.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: a marvellous escape, cameo, conspiracy, continuity, marvel, mcu, Quicksilver, Sword, wanda maximoff, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On Paralleling “The Expanse” with “Game of Thrones”…

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with the Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with the penultimate season of The Expanse winding down and with the frequent comparisons to Game of Thrones, I took a look at what the two shows have in common – and where they differ from one another.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Game of Thrones, the escapist, the expanse, video, youtube | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 3, Episode 13 (“Antipas”)

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Darren

Last year, I was thrilled to spend a lot of time on The Time is Now discussing the second season of Millennium. Since the podcast has moved on to the third season, I have taken something of a step back as a guest. That said, I was flattered to get an invitation to discuss Antipas with guest host Tony Black.

Antipas is an interesting piece of television. It’s effectively a grabbag of the familiar horror movie tropes and clichés that writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz love: it’s The Omen, Don’t Look Now, The Shining and a few others. It’s effectively a gigantic homage to the huge influences on Carter’s work with both Millennium and The X-Files, even if it doesn’t exactly cohere as a story in its own right.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: antipas, don't look now, lucy butler, millennium, podcast, the omen, the shining, the time is now, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On What “The Expanse” Learned from “Game of Thrones”…

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Since I binged The Expanse and since the season finale is out this week, I figured it was worth taking a look at the show in comparison to Game of Thrones.

From its launch, The Expanse has been likened and compared to Game of Thrones. Part of this is simply down to the show being an epic within a familiar genre framework, but there is something to the comparison. While the comparison might be somewhat obvious and straightforward, it is also informative: not only in the ways that The Expanse evokes Game of Thrones, but the ways in which The Expanse differs from Game of Thrones.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.