Review of "It’s A Good Life, season 3, episode 8" of The Twilight Zone

 Review of

It’s A Good Life, season 3, episode 8 of The Twilight Zone

Five out of five stars

Great rendition of a classic science fiction short story

 This episode is based on a short science fiction story by Jerome Bixby. When I started watching the episode, I immediately recalled having read the story in a collection of classic science fiction short stories. It is based on the premise that a baby with powerful mental powers is born in a small farming community.

 In the original story, the physician attending the birth immediately recognizes the baby’s power and tries to kill him. However, the baby also has enormous instincts for self-preservation and kills the doctor and somehow isolates the community from the rest of the world and perhaps universe. It is never resolved whether the baby simply deleted the rest of the world (universe) or somehow transported the community away from the rest of the world.

 The boy (Anthony Fremont) is now six years old and there are apparently few people left in the community. Everyone, and that includes his parents, is terrified of him. He has the normal inability of a six-year-old in separating his wishes from the reality of others. He can, with a simple thought, end a life, change the weather or make a television work without electricity. The community is completely cut off from everything else, so they must produce their food and make do with the other diminishing resources.

 Anthony is capable of reading thoughts and detecting disapproval, so everyone must always tell him that what he has done is good, even when someone is killed. Other than his incredible power, Anthony is a normal six-year-old with the emotional immaturity and impulsiveness. It is a powerful episode with the moral ambiguity of perhaps killing a dangerous child.

 Fans of the original Star Trek series will no doubt recognize the seeds for the episode, “Charlie X.” When Charlie is being taken away, Captain Kirk is told, “He would destroy you or force you to destroy him in order to save yourselves.” It is clear that the people around Anthony are in the same position, for it is likely he will get worse if they survive until he reaches adolescence.

Review of "Bitch Planet #2," comic by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro

 Review of

Bitch Planet #2, comic by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro

Five out of five stars

 Another bizarre dystopia where “noncompliant” females are sent “elsewhere”

 The story opens with the location being Earth with some form of catered cocktail party in progress. The first scene of the party shows what appears to be all men in suits with women in short dresses walking though carrying trays of refreshments. The speaker at the podium is engaged in an extended statement about creating another us versus them scenario. He closes with a classic profiting from misery statement, “To peace my friends . . . and God bless the bloodthirsty rites that help us to keep it.”

 In this dystopia, noncompliant females are sent to an off-Earth location formally called “A. C. O.,” but known colloquially as “Bitch Planet.” The next location after the cocktail party is a closed room where a single woman is being bombarded by visual and aural messages demanding that she issue a confession for a murder.

 When the woman shows some serious fight, her overseers express their approval, and she is recruited to fight other woman in some kind of arena. She is asked by other women to form a team that would be known as Megaton Team. The process is a strange one, with seeming relentless sensory bombardment. At the end, it is all about the video engagement metrics.

 This is a very dark comic; women are largely depicted as simple vessels to be used by the white men in suits to achieve their entertainment and economic ends. While opportunities for freedom are dangled, it is clear that very few women will ever achieve that. Like the gladiators of ancient Rome, the successful ones are forced to fight until they encounter someone that is either lucky or has more skills.

Review of "50 Years of Star Trek," DVD from the History Channel

 Review of

50 Years of Star Trek, DVD from the History Channel

Five out of five stars

A look back on how revolutionary Star Trek was

 As a long-time and intense fan of Star Trek, I am familiar with many of the breakthroughs that the original series carried out. It was the first network show where diversity was the norm, there were stations in the south that refused to air episodes or blacked out the first, famous interracial kiss to appear on network television. Using the cover of being science fiction, Gene Roddenberry dealt with social and political issues that no one else would touch.

 One very important point that is made here that has often been lost in the history of Star Trek is the role of Lucille Ball in the development of Star Trek. The two pilots were both shot at the Desilu Studios, owned at the time by Lucille Ball. She was very instrumental in getting the series off the ground. Once again, proving that people that play wacky characters are often very astute entertainers in real life.

 It was very enjoyable to listen to the people that played some of the major characters in all of the Star Trek series talk about their experiences. From the original series, we hear from Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols. Jonathan Frakes, John de Lancie, Whoopi Goldberg and Gates McFadden are from The Next Generation and Michael Dorn covers The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Other people part of the interview process worked on the production or were inspired into space work by watching Star Trek.

By far, the most interesting was of Dorothy Fontana, known in the early credits as D. C. Fontana. She wrote the scripts for several episodes of the Star Trek original series and adopted the gender neutral pen name to avoid gender bias. At the time of the original series, Fontana was one of the few females working on writing and production.

 The only thing wrong with this video is that it is much too short and doesn’t include interviews with more of the major characters in the various series. Subsequent generations may find the original series tame relative to modern entertainment, but it truly broke new ground, challenging norms.

Review of "Zorro Rides Again Volume 2," DVD of classic serial

 Review of

Zorro Rides Again Volume 2, DVD of classic serial

Five out of five stars

Classic entertainment worthy of a look

 The action/adventure serials were a staple of entertainment in the early twentieth century. Based on a simple hero/villain concept, the story moved sequentially through a series of episodes. With the exception of the final episode, they all ended with a cliff hanger where there seemed to be no way the hero could survive. Of course, they did, although the reason was not always completely plausible.

 This DVD contains the second group of chapters in a retelling of the folk hero of Zorro, created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley. He is a masked vigilante who defended the poor and downtrodden from the evil clutches of tyrannical officials and other villains. The viewer familiar with comic book heroes will recognize the features “borrowed” by other writers when they created their heroes.

 In this case, the villain is a big city unscrupulous financier named J. A. Marsden. His goal is to take control of the California-Yucatan Railroad and he is employing El Lobo, the leader of a gang of outlaws that will engage in murder and sabotage in order to bankrupt the railroad so that he can buy it for nearly nothing.

 Zorro is his main opponent, he is in fact one of the owners of the railroad, his secret identity is known only to his boyhood friend. He has a cave hideout and a very smart horse. Roy Rogers fans will recognize many of the tricks as the same ones that Trigger performed. Coming at the sound of a whistle and holding off a villain or two.

 While much of the action is that of the wild west western with guns and horse transportation, the environment is very modern. There is electricity, cars, telephones, primitive radios and a lot of gunfire. As was typical of the serials, the action moves deliberately slowly. In order to prevent an early resolution, both sides often give up their pursuit far too quickly.

 Although the action is nowhere near as slick as the modern videos with high-quality special effects, this remains a fun video story. When I watched it, I had the same thought that I had when I first saw it on a late afternoon children’s show when I was young. The stunt man playing Zorro really had to be careful when he jumped from a height into the saddle of his horse.

Review of "Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event in Seven Parts, 7" by Mark Millar et. al.

 Review of

Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event in Seven Parts, 7 by Mark Millar et. al.

Five out of five stars

Two factions of heroes face off

An increasingly paranoid United States government passes a law that all people with superhuman powers must register with the government. It does not matter if the powers are inherent or due to mechanical means. If you have superhuman powers and do not register, you are labeled as a dangerous criminal and incarcerated.

 One side, led by Tony Stark as Iron Man, is in favor of the registration, while there is another side, led by Captain America, that is not. The tensions are so strong that they flare up in open battle between the two factions. Those led by Captain America are imprisoned in the Negative Zone.

 This story opens with the imprisoned heroes being freed from the Zone and returned to normal Earth. This leads to a massive battle between the two factions near the Baxter Building, with blood flowing from the powerful punches being landed from hero to hero.

 I remain a staunch fan of the concept of the Civil War between the heroes. Having seen so much public paranoia in society, it seems odd that even the best intentioned of powerful heroes would be feared by a large percentage of the population. The registration concept with the incarceration of the non-compliant is a logical move. The story of hero versus hero with some changing sides based on the events is one that I read over and over again.

Review of "Robocop versus Terminator," comic by Frank Miller and Walter Simonson

 Review of

Robocop versus Terminator, comic by Frank Miller and Walter Simonson

Five out of five stars

A natural pairing of adversaries

 Robocop is a powerful cyborg, capable of inflicting and absorbing an enormous amount of punishment. The first terminator was a human skin over a robot body, so the same could be said about it. Since Robocop is an officer of the law and ostensibly one of the good guys and Skynet, the controller of the terminators wants to obliterate the human species, the two of them are naturally at odds. Furthermore, Robocop is an entity capable of going one-one-one with a terminator.

 A group of terminators is in town amidst the same timeframe and they are there to kill a woman in a hospital bed that knows of their existence. Robocop meets her, hears her story and becomes convinced that they exist and will be coming for her. Understanding that, Robocop enlists the aid of one of the police robots and they make their stand at the hospital.

 There is a violent battle with powerful weapons as well as hand-to-hand combat. Robocop understands that he must defend the woman at all costs, the very survival of the human species is at stake. It is a great battle, just made for a screen version.

 One of the problems with the terminator movies is that the humans are at such a disadvantage, for they cannot physically stand against a terminator. Most of the time, all they can do is run. In this case, the cyborg Robocop can, making the fight equivalent to the popular superhero-against-supervillain staple of comics and a series of popular movies. It is a great story.

Review of "Prophecy Book One," comic written by Ron Marz

 Review of

Prophecy Book One, comic written by Ron Marz

Five out of five stars

Massive amount of varied background context

 This comic opens with a man murdered in a museum after hours. He is a full-blood Mayan and he was attempting to steal a ceremonial dagger that is ancient Mayan when he was shot and killed by another person. The location is London in 1890 and the people on the scene of the crime are Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Inspector Lestrade.

 From that location, focus is immediately shifted to the Yucatan Peninsula in 632 A. D. where a human sacrifice is taking place. The priest is about to kill a man with what appears to be the same dagger. When the next person is brought forward to be sacrificed, it turns out to be Sonja, a fellow time traveler to the priest Kulan Gath. She battles hard and when Gath uses the power of the dagger to move forward in time, she latches on and is projected forward to the Yucatan Peninsula in 2012. It is here where she meets a black panther, the female Vampirella and Dracula himself.  

 All this introduction of major characters and different points in time creates a lot of anchor locations for a lengthy and involved story. For those unfamiliar with the two female leads, short biographies of Red Sonja and Vampirella appear at the end. A solid start to what is likely to be a dynamic story.