So, my favorite show is finally on DVD. I’d say I can die happy, but I think I’ll wait until the release of the fourth season, and then I’ll die happy after rewatching the whole thing. The series in question is the much-missed and often unfairly maligned Blake’s 7 (1978-1981), a show which I didn’t catch until it began airing in the States circa 1985. I still, in fact, remember the first time I saw it – it replaced Oklahoma PBS’ Saturday night airings of Doctor Who, and I was pissed. Somehow, though, that first episode gripped me enough to break through that and I stuck with it for the remainder of the series. (more…)

featuring the episodes The Changeling and The Apple

One of the most bizarrely-named episodes of the entire Star Trek pantheon, The Changeling (no relation to Odo) is the immortal episode in which wayward space probe Nomad boards the Enterprise, kills Scotty, puts him right back together again, and then gets talked into self-destructing by Kirk thanks to some clever logic (even Spock is impressed). (more…)

featuring the episodes The Doomsday Machine and A Wolf In The Fold

The Doomsday Machine is, quite simply, one of Classic Trek’s finest hours. It boasts one of the best plots of the entire series, with a scope affording examination of both the big, action-packed science fiction picture, and the much smaller (but equally absorbing) examination of a man destroyed. (more…)

In View primarily serves as a collection of the videos for 16 tracks on the In Time CD, arranged in reverse chronological order. (“All The Right Friends” and “Animal” are video-less.) Given the ordering, and the fact that you can see the band get visibly younger as the clips progress, In View works much better as a sort of time capsule of the band. I had a lot of fun just watching Bill Berry show up, or seeing Mike Mills’ hair get darker and shorter while Michael Stipe’s reappeared and got longer. Beyond that, these are some great songs and some innovative, interesting videos. (more…)

featuring the episodes Who Mourns For Adonis? and Amok Time

It’s an intriguing enough concept, you know, an alien impersonating God or another deity. But what in the exact heck does God need with a starship? Or has that been asked already? At least, in Who Mourns For Adonais?, it was a reasonably new concept, especially for TV SF, and it’s handled well…for about twelve minutes. At that point in the episode, when the would-be god suddenly makes himself look big, it gets rather silly – the underlying mystery is blown away with a lot of stuff that always struck me as hokey, even when I was a lot younger and less analytical about it. (more…)