Most people remember Lost In Space, if they remember it at all, as a very silly show filled with talking carrots, cyclops, and sexy floating green women. It didn’t start out that way, the first couple of episodes were pretty serious with a lot of Cold War tensions as Dr Smith is clearly an Agent for the Bad Guys. They fairly quickly dropped the Super Villain aspect of Dr Smith since this was a story that had no where to go. Either they killed Smith or they turned him into something less threatening. They chose the latter. He went from…
Author: Jon Herrera
Writer, Photographer, Blogger.
Ready Player One Movie
I read Ready Player One a few years after it came out. It was filled with pop culture references from the 1980s. the heroes were uber nerds that played video games, listened New Wave music, and could recite every episode of School House Rock. In short, this book was written for me. when word came down that Steven Spielberg was going to make the film adaptation, well, who better for the job? No one, that’s who. Ready Player One is a simple Quest story. Our hero spends most of his time in The Oasis, a virtual world along the lines…
Annihilation
Annihilation was an odd film. Much like Inception, the most lasting impression is the incredibly annoying music. A little of this alien thumping goes a long way, and it was pretty much constant. Annihilation tells the story of a woman whose husband has gone missing. He’s in the military and a year or so ago he went off an on a secret mission. She tries to find out what happened, but no one will tell her. Until one night when said husband appears at home. At first she is overjoyed to see him, but then she is a little nervous,…
Netflix’s Mute
Mute is a Science Fiction show that has no reason for being a Science Fiction show. It’s a simple revenge story. The kind that Charles Bronson made in the 1970s and Liam Neeson still makes today. But for some unknown reason, the story is set in some Sci Fi future with flying cars and giant billboards. A sci fi setting does not make a sci fi story, for that, you need some element of the story that has to do with, you know, science. Blade Runner is Science Fiction because it is about cyborgs, a futuristic bit of technology. If…
Altered Carbon
I read Altered Carbon when it first came out. I loved the idea and thought at the time this was one of those unfilmable stories. After all, its the tale of people who hop from body to body the way we change clothes. What actor would want to sign up for a role that would last one or two episodes? What audience could keep track of who was who? Then there was the overarching story with its multiple worlds, its super advanced tech, and its complex morality that no longer looks like morality at all. Netflix solves most of the…
Star Trek Discovery Season 1 Thoughts
The only thing that can happen to make this series make any sense at all is if they reveal the fact that it takes place in yet another parallel universe, and not the one known to fans of Star Trek. The Continuity Errors are through the roof, even if the constant addition of little nods in every episode to some past incarnation of Star Trek. The tech is too advanced, the unifroms are too different, and the Klingons-well, they just aren’t Klingons as we know them, Jim. Each Star Trek series has veered a little farther from the fun, heroic,…
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is fun and wacky and not exactly like those fun and wacky movies of the 50s and 60s that it tries so hard to copy. There’s a lot of swearing and a bit of nudity. There’s also the whole marriage breakup and the over the top Jewishness of most of the characters. Not something you saw a lot of in Doris Day and Cary Grant movies. Then there’s a woman transvestite who may or may not be homosexual. All we know for sure is she likes wearing men’s clothes. The bulk of the story revolves…
The Myth of Memory
“Neo, you’ve been living in a dream world.” Morpheus There was a time when I held the belief that I possessed total recall. I took a bit of pride in recalling all kinds of things. I remain a hoarder of vast stores of useless information. But I no longer completely trust my memories. And neither should you. Countless studies have shown that both short and long term memories can be altered with ease. Like the idea that the Earth is flat, our believes about memory appear simple and obvious. They are not. We like the…
On Going Blind
Well, going blind in one eye anyway. A few weeks back I noticed a smudge at the bottom of my vision. Like a bit of fluff stuck to my eyelash. I couldn’t clear it, so I went to a doctor. Who sent me to another doctor. Who sent me to yet another doctor. Seems to be glaucoma and/or some kind of optic nerve damage. The new Doc prescribed a couple of eye drops. I’m mostly blind in my right eye. Imagine a large bit of cardboard with a fairly large hole in it. The hole is covered with gaze. That’s…
The Bicameral Mind
One my favorite podcasts is Stuff to Blow your Mind. Lots of fun stuff. They had a couple of episodes on the theory of the bicameral mind. The main idea is consciousness is something new. Humans used to function by using both sides of thier brains. The Voice of God was really just a voice in your head. One half of the brain talking to the other. I read a book a couple years back by a man who suffered a brain injury. The Ghost in My Brain was filled with interesting stuff, but the most amazing to me was how the…