Tag Archives: Science Fiction

May 18 2025

Season Two Of Andor Proves It Is The Greatest Star Wars TV Show Of All

Andor just completed its second and final season on Disney + and it proved beyond question that it is the greatest Star Wars TV show ever presented. Some fans may complain that it is too slow or too adult or too unlike Star Wars, but they are missing the point. Andor demonstrates that Star Wars can be much more than action-oriented, near fantasy stories that are supposedly geared more to children. The IP is much more than that and Andor shows us the potential of what Star Wars can be.

The second season of Andor is broken up into three-episode arcs, with each arc taking place a year apart as the overall narrative counts down to the original Star Wars and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As each arc progresses, we get to see how the complex characters develop and grow.

Among the great things about Andor are its rich characters starting with the title character himself, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a spy for the burgeoning Rebel Alliance. In the early years of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, Andor travels through many worlds on spy missions to undermine the Empire. But in his heart, even though he detests the Empire, he wants to retire to a quiet life with his girlfriend, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), who is suffering from PTSD after being tortured by the Empire in the first season. Sadly, as anyone who has seen Rogue One knows, that is not to be for Cassian. Knowing Andor’s ultimate fate and the impact he will unknowingly have in the fight against the Empire makes his personal growth so compelling. We see that he has grown as a character since the first season. Back then, he largely looked out for himself and only through tragedies did he join the Rebellion. When we see him throughout the second season, Andor is now a polished spy who could blend into several environments as he pulls off capers like stealing advanced Imperial TIE fighters or doing reconnaissance in the tragic world of Ghorman, as it becomes a hotbed for unrest against the Empire.

It turned out that the storyline in Ghorman, which continued through two arcs, was the centerpiece of Andor. We get to see a rich culture that seemed vaguely European and an obvious stand-in for France during World War II with amateur spies and rebels facing a hopeless situation against the Empire. What made matters worse was that the unrest on Ghorman was orchestrated by the Empire just to create a media narrative that the populace was full of terrorists just so the planet could be mined for a mineral needed for the Death Star battle station. The entire storyline was an unsettling mirror and a damning commentary for our current situation where people blindly believe whatever narrative government officials tell them and the misuse of media.

The two-part story arc of Ghorman culminated in the so-called Ghorman massacre in the seventh episode as many brewing subplots came to a head. Several characters had cathartic encounters with each other, notably the Imperial bureaucrat Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), who was obsessed with finding and arresting Andor that was like Inspector Javert chasing after Jean Valjean. While Syril is a sniveling and insecure man, his storyline is quite captivating and is a grounded look at how civilians live in the age of the Galactic Empire. He was basically a nobody who was needled by his mother and only wanted to move up in middle management. What made his story interesting was that we see that he slowly began to sympathize with the Ghormans and that he was being manipulated by his girlfriend Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), an Imperial operative who was equally ambitious.

Deedra herself was obsessed with learning the identity of who she considered to be the mastermind behind the Rebellion: a person she called Axis. This turned out to be none other than Andor’s recruiter and mentor Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), a master spy who runs an antique shop in the Imperial capital world Coruscant and helped fund and coordinate the intelligence network for the Rebellion. Skarsgard gave what is probably the performance of his career as Luthen, a morally complex and mysterious operative who has no boundaries and will use anyone and any means to defeat the Empire. That is incredible considering how perfect the performances are from the other cast members, starting with Luna.

Getting back to the Ghorman Massacre, the incident in the episode “Who Are You?” was very disturbing and hammers home how evil the Empire is; they really are space Nazis who should not be admired. This incident turned out to be a turning point not just with the Galactic Civil War but with the destinies of many characters including Andor. As mentioned before, Andor played a critical role in the early days of the Rebellion. In the second season his most important contribution was when he went to Coruscant and extracted Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), one of the few senators who spoke out against the Empire after the massacre and ended up becoming the leader of the Rebellion. The episode “Welcome to the Rebellion” is where Andor extracts her from Coruscant and it was very intense and rousing, especially in the scenes where she gives her speech to denounce the Empire and afterwards when Andor has to get her to safety. What made everything so heartbreaking for Andor was how everything ended for him personally after he succeeded. These developments helped set him up for his situation when we saw him in Rogue One.

A remarkable thing the second season of Andor did was seamlessly connect to Rogue One. The final episode of the series “Jedha, Kyber, Erso” felt like a countdown as many story arcs concluded and featured characters that would show up in the film. The entire series helps us look at the film in a new way when it comes to Andor as we now understand the strife he went through in life and the level of sacrifice he made for the cause. One story line that was never resolved was that of Cassian looking for his little sister. As shown in the first season, the two siblings were separated as children and his search for her when he was an adult set in place his involvement with the Rebellion and his destiny. In one tragic sequence, in the last moments of the last episode, Andor is still dreaming about her, and he never will find out what happened to his sister. That is how life goes unfortunately.

Grounded moments like Andor’s bitter memories, the tragic deaths of beloved characters, the bitter sacrifices made by most characters, and how characters weave in and out of each other’s lives are what set Andor apart from most television shows. It’s a miracle that the show’s creators like Tony Gilroy were given the freedom and the budget to present this masterpiece. It is also unfortunate that we only got two seasons of Andor as it was originally planned for five seasons, one can only wonder how much greater the series would have been.

But perhaps it is for the best that Gilroy decided to conclude the series as it probably helped him, and the other creators to focus on the complex stories and had the budget to develop these impressive worlds with rich cultures. Yes, the entire production was of movie quality and captivating. It is not known if Lucasfilm will ever greenlight a TV series like Andor again, but it should. It would be great to see other series focusing on other Rogue One characters like Chirrut and Baze or even Bodhi. But we are fortunate that at least we had Andor, which is not only the best Star Wars TV show of all time but one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

José Soto

Apr 27 2025

Commemorating Star Wars Episode III 20 Years Later

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, arguably the best of the Star Wars prequels and the culmination of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side of the Force.

The film starts with a bang as we see Anakin and his mentor, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi rushing to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Galactic Republic who was kidnapped by Separatist forces in the skies above the Republic’s capital world of Coruscant. The opening space battle is a spectacular highlight as we see the Jedi duo flying among enormous capital ships wrecking havoc on one another. This scene is one I’ve rewatched countless times and is a great way to set up the rest of the film. When the Jedi finally reach the Separatist flagship and find the Chancellor, Anakin’s descent to evil is hinted at as he brutally executes Count Dooku at the urging of Palpatine, after an intense lightsaber duel.

His future as a Sith Lord is further orchestrated by Palpatine as he convinces Anakin that his wife, Padme, will die unless he learns the secrets of the Dark Side, and he turns on his fellow Jedi. The final confrontation with his friend Obi-Wan on the lava world of Mustafar is both exhilarating and emotional as a heartbroken Obi-Wan is forced to mortally wound Anakin and leave him to die while castigating him for turning on everything they fought for. Palpatine eventually arrives and finds Anakin on the brink of death and, using medical droids and surgical procedures, turns him into the fearsome and legendary Darth Vader, who is now trapped in a prison of body armor that keeps him alive. Padme’s death due to Anakin’s force choke, her trauma at giving birth to their twins Luke and Leia, and Vader’s reaction to the news of this event, is the emotional high point of the film and sets up the classic original Star Wars trilogy as Obi-Wan and his ally Bail Organa takes the twins to safety on the planets Alderaan and Tatooine.

One of the many strengths of the film is the foreboding tone that is set when we see the manipulation that Anakin is subjected to from Palpatine, as well as the Jedi being set up for their downfall which is shown when Anakin marches on the Jedi temple flanked by Clone Troopers who then kill all the Jedi there, including young Jedi students. The many battlefields of the Clone Wars is another great thing we witness in this movie, such as the clone army battling the separatist droids on the Wookie home world Kashyyyk, re-introducing fan favorite Chewbacca to the Star Wars universe in this era. As well as the conflict on the arid planet Utapau, where Obi-Wan finally eliminates Separatist droid General Grievous. This happened after a thrilling chase scene that has Obi-Wan riding on a gigantic lizard named Boga in pursuit of Grievous who is riding on his personal wheel bike. This is something that Star Wars excels at, blending different genres and circumstances, fantasy and science fiction that somehow works. This imaginative vision of director George Lucas comes to fruition the most in this film as this is the last movie he directed, and it seems he finally was able to shake off the issues that surrounded the first two prequel films. The Phantom Menace when it was released was criticized for what some saw as a childish tone with Jar Jar Binks flailing around. This is completely absent in Revenge of the Sith. The feeling of impending doom for the Republic and the Jedi is palpable as we finally see the events hinted at in the original trilogy: Anakin’s fall, his final duel with Obi-Wan, the extermination of the Jedi Order, and Palpatine’s rise to be the evil Emperor that we first saw in Return of the Jedi. Attack of the Clones was seen as an improvement but still had issues with the somewhat clumsy romantic subplot between Anankin and Padme. Again, this is not the case in Revenge of the Sith, as the focus is on the cruel fate that awaits Padme at the hands of her husband, which is haunting to witness.

The reputation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has only improved in the years since its release on May 19, 2005. It has the reputation of being the best prequel film, which is well deserved and it also led to later Star Wars releases such as the highly regarded Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show and Star Wars: Rebels. I think it is right up there with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back when rating the various Star Wars movies. It has the right balance of being a more sophisticated story while still having the excitement and adventure a Star Wars movie needs to have. The special effects were top notch as always, and we see new ships and vehicles introduced such as ARC-170 starfighters, V-Wing starfighters, Droid Tri-fighters and Clone Turbo tanks. This is something that was missing from the sequel trilogy which basically just had X-Wings and TIE fighters from the original films with new paint jobs. The lightsaber duels were also the best of any of the movies, with Anakin vs. Dooku, Obi-Wan vs. Grievous, and finally the long-awaited duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, which did not disappoint. It was a furious and intense battle with a backdrop of searing lava that is fantastic to witness. The inevitable outcome of it brings the prequel saga to a close and guaranteed that the film earned its place in Star Wars lore as an epic finish to the story that Lucas started so many years ago.

The celebration and acclaim that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is receiving on its 20th anniversary is well deserved, and it will be no surprise to see it get the same kind of praise and acknowledgment on its 30th anniversary and well beyond.

C.S. Link

Jan 25 2025

A Look Back At Star Trek: Voyager

It has been 30 years since the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager debuted, yet it is still fondly remembered today, especially when it is compared to many modern Star Trek TV shows. Let’s take a look back at Star Trek: Voyager as its 30th anniversary is celebrated.

Flagship Show

Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship TV show of the fledgling United Paramount Network (UPN) that launched on January 16, 1995, with the airing of “Caretaker” the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager. When the TV show premiered it was largely anticipated though many fans had reasonable reservations about yet another Star Trek TV show. After a decades-long drought, fans were inundated with TV shows starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), which was followed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), and then Star Trek: Voyager. It was supposed to address complaints Paramount Pictures executives had about DS9 for straying too far from standard Star Trek.

Showrunner Rick Berman, who also ran TNG and DS9, was reportedly hesitant to produce another Star Trek TV show that would run concurrently with DS9. However, the Paramount Pictures executives were adamant about creating another Star Trek TV show that more closely followed the standard starship-visiting-planets formula to help launch UPN. Given this task, Berman and his associates sought to differentiate Star Trek: Voyager from other Star Trek TVshows.

A Lost Crew in Space

The premise was fairly simple, a starship called Voyager from the United Federation of Planets and Earth is flung to the far corner of the galaxy (the Delta Quadrant) with a crew made up of Starfleet officers and renegade Maquis freedom fighters (more on them later). With limited resources and on their own, the Voyager crew has to find a way back home while exploring on the side and encountering strange new worlds, yada yada.  

Kate Mulgrew starred as Captain Kathyrn Janeway, who commanded the Voyager and was dedicated to upholding Starfleet’s ideals while protecting her crew. At the time of her casting, there was a lot of hoopla and celebration because the main character of a Star Trek TV show was a woman. Other characters included the ship’s first officer, Chakotay (Robert Beltran), the leader of the Maquis and a former Starfleet officer, Tuvok (Tim Russ), the ship’s stoic Vulcan security officer, Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), a disgraced former Starfleet officer who gets his chance at redemption by serving as Voyager’s helmsman, B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), a half-Klingon Maquis member who became Voyager’s chief engineer, Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), a young Starfleet ensign on his first assignment, and the Doctor (Robert Picardo), a holographic medical program that performed the duties of the ship’s chief medical officer.

At the end of “Caretaker”, Voyager picked up two alien shipmates who are native to the Delta Quadrant and bring needed knowledge about the local space. They are Neelix (Ethan Phillips), a Talaxian drifter who ends being the ship’s cook and ambassador of sorts, and his girlfriend Kes (Jennifer Lien), an Ocampan who operates as the Doctor’s medical assistant and helps the program develop a personality. As the series progressed, it added Jeri Ryan to the cast as the former cybernetic Borg drone called Seven of Nine while Lien departed the series. Seven of Nine became the show’s breakout character thanks in part to the performance of Ryan as she served as the show’s version of Spock. In other words, a stoic outsider who questioned humanity while discovering her own.

Essentially, the TV show combined aspects of the original Star Trek and Lost in Space, and it worked for the most part. Yet, there was glaring issues with the TV show which turned out to be a harbinger for the creative drought the Star Trek franchise was beginning to suffer from at that time.

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Nov 22 2024

William Shatner Reunites With Leonard Nimoy For One Last Time In 765874: Unification

There have been numerous fan-made and unofficial Star Trek shorts and films made throughout the years that celebrated the legacy of Star Trek. Some of the more memorable efforts featured the actual actors from the Star Trek TV shows who reprised their famous roles. The latest effort, 765874: Unification, stands out from the rest not just for its production values or topnotch CGI special effects, but because it stars William Shatner in what will most likely be his final performance as Captain James T. Kirk as he reunites with the late Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Directed by Carlos Baena, 765874: Unification is produced by the VFX studio OTOY in conjunction with the Roddenberry Archive and was released on the heels of the 30th anniversary of the film Star Trek Generations. It serves as a bookend or an epilogue or a post-credits scene to that film as it finally shows us Kirk and his best friend Spock reuniting after their deaths. It is also a sequel of sorts to OTOY’s previous short film, 765874: Regeneration, which featured Leonard Nimoy as Spock reacting to the death of Captain Kirk.

Taking place in the afterlife, moments after Kirk died in Star Trek Generations, the film stars Shatner and Sam Witwer as Kirk, who is jaw-droppingly rendered with CGI and live-action performances. Basically, Kirk wanders through a heavenly afterlife that is similar to what he experienced in the Nexus from Star Trek Generations. During his journey, he comes across many people from his life including Saavik (reprised by Robin Curtis who was digitally aged into an old woman). The film also features numerous Star Trek Easter eggs and characters such as Gary Mitchell (reprised by Gary Lockwood in a performance that was obviously rendered through CG), who plays a role in guiding Kirk during his first moments after his death.

Eventually, Kirk encounters the alien Starfleet officer Yor, who was briefly featured in the Star Trek: Discovery episode “Terra Firma”. For anyone who hasn’t seen that episode, it was revealed that Yor was originally from the Kelvin Universe (the alternate reality where the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek films take place in) and was stranded in the Star Trek Prime Universe until his death.

As Trek fans know, Spock (as portrayed by Leonard Nimoy) was stranded in the Kelvin Universe and remained there until his death of old age (as noted in Star Trek: Beyond).

Yor serves as a conduit for Kirk to enable him to crossover into the Kelvin Universe. In the final moments of 765874: Unification, Kirk appears at the deathbed of Spock as the two old friends silently watch the sun set with the promise of a new adventure awaiting the both of them in the afterlife.

Aside from the nearly perfect special effects, what made the film stand out was its lack of dialogue, aside from a brief voiceover by Kirk taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But words were not necessary, Shatner and Witwer were able to convey genuine emotions as Kirk explores the afterlife filled with wonder and surprise.

Still, the special effects are just amazing and feature the best use ever of de-aging and CGI to render Kirk as we last saw him in Star Trek Generations and as the more youthful version of the starship captain seen in the original series. The only times the effects falter are in two shots where Kirk walks awkwardly in profile. But other than that bravo to OTOY for their work!

Yes, the use of CGI to bring Spock back to life (through CG and a live-action performance by Lawrence Selleck) and de-aging Shatner and others is controversial for some. But for others, this film is a fitting tribute to the brotherly bond between Kirk and Spock that spans time, space and life itself. Afterall, death cannot destroy relationships or bonds.

More importantly, the short film is a love letter to Star Trek fans, especially those who still appreciate the older more iconic iteration of the sci-fi franchise and have fond memories of those early films and TV shows. After so many years, it feels great to see these two Star Trek legends together for one last time.

Needless to say, whether or not it’s official or canon, 765874: Unification finally gives us the opportunity to say farewell to these two characters as we see the Shatner and Nimoy versions of Kirk and Spock have a final performance together. Using the afterlife as the vessel for their unification is an appropriate and dare say, logical, way to close this chapter of their existence and the landscape for their next great adventure.

José Soto

Jun 30 2024

Dark Matter Is The Multiversal Journey We’ve Been Looking For

Dark Matter, currently streaming on Apple TV+, just concluded its first season as it took viewers on a mind-numbing journey throughout the multiverse.

Based on the novel by Blake Crouch, Dark Matter tells the story of Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), a mild-mannered physics professor who is kidnapped one night by a stranger and left in a world not quite like his own. It is revealed that the stranger is himself. Actually this is an alternate version of Jason from another reality who switches places with Jason. In the alternate reality, Jason is a world-famous scientist who built a machine that lets people travel to other universes. This alternate Jason forced the original Jason to switch places because of his life which he covets. The original Jason is married to Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and has a teenage son, Charlie (Oakes Fegley), which is something the alternate Jason doesn’t have in his universe.

As the alternate Jason tries to fit in to the original Jason’s more mundane life, the original Jason with the help of the alternate Jason’s girlfriend, Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga), goes on a life-altering journey throughout the multiverse as he attempts to find his way home.

The concept of the multiverse was a somewhat obscure subgenre of sci-fi books but has recently gained popularity in mainstream media. The most famous examples were the TV show Sliders and the award-winning film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Whereas both films approached the multiverse concept at different extremes, Dark Matter manages to take a more centered approach that doesn’t go overboard with weird universes of talking rocks or holding back on the multiverse concept.

At first, the TV show takes place in two universes, but soon goes into a wild journey throughout the multiverse as Jason and Amanda explore universes that are either mundanely different, such as Danila having blonde hair or extreme, as seen where the duo are trapped in a world frozen over in an ice age.

Strongly supporting these journeys is the great performance by Joel Edgerton who is able to convey different subtleties to his characters. What was interesting was that while the alternate Jason is the show’s antagonist, he is not some mustache-twirling villain. He only wants a chance to live on the road he did not take. In his world, he let Daniela go years ago and came to regret it. What makes him so much scummier is his inability to let her go and move on with Amanda. We cannot help rooting and sympathizing with the original Jason as he discovers that each world he visits is not his own. It was painful to see him falling apart as he sees alternate versions of his family dying or never existing.

The other actors, especially Connelly and Braga, also turn in memorable performances, as each of them grapple with the consequences of Jasons’ journeys and actions. It was always interesting to see the alternate versions of the people in Jason’s life, which made each episode so watchable.

Equally as enthralling were the journeys themselves. Thankfully, the worlds they visited were not the cliche alternate worlds were the Nazis won World War II or Barack Obama never became the U.S. president. The TV show instead concentrated on having the characters visit worlds with either tiny differences from Jason’s or were wildly different. One brief but terrifying visit had Jason and Amanda nearly killed as they stepped into a world which had no atmosphere. An intriguing twist to these journeys was the realization that each world any character visited was influenced by their state of minds, which made Jason’s goal of getting home that much harder and desperate. Complicating his journey is the growing relationship he has with Amanda, which leads him to recognize his hopeless situation yet he remains committed to his world and Daniela and Charlie.

As fascinating as the journeys were, what made each of them so engaging were Jason’s reactions to them. We sympathize with him as each journey leads to bitter disappointment or pain. We know each heartbreak taxes Jason and we could only hope that the setbacks do not have dire effect on his mind and soul.

Dark Matter took a wild twist in its final episodes that could be confusing to viewers not paying enough attention. But the last episodes were intensely riveting and enthralling for viewers who have followed Jason’s odyssey. It’s not certain if there will be a second season for Dark Matter, even though there were a few potential plot threads that could be followed up if the series continued. Still, Dark Matter concluded in a satisfying manner and whether or not it gets cancelled the series merits watching by fans of multiverse stories and fine sci-fi.