Mandalorian Fever

When the Disney Plus service was announced last year, it seemed like a no brainer given the low price point and my two young kids who both enjoy their offerings. But the killer app for me, and apparently many others, was the new Mandalorian series. Here is one of the few Star Wars offerings that Disney made some good decision on - and let's face it - they had to. They needed a big draw to compete with Netflix on their new service. My hook was not just the preview material, but the fact that Clone Wars and Rebels series director Dave Filoni was on board. He is really the only director that completely understands what the older Star Wars fan base wants to see. I later found out that, in classic Disney style, they had thrown a ton of money in to hire top talent - 7 well known directors who would be in charge of different episodes with Avengers producer John Favreau at the helm. This included Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnarok), Peyton Reed (Ant Man), and of course Mr. Filoni.

The investment paid off, and the series won popular appeal, especially thanks to the "baby Yoda" character. It seems like that would be a tough gimmick to base an entire series on, but it was smart for many reasons. First, despite the central prominence of Yoda in the entire Star Wars franchise, there has never been an exploration of his native origins or race. This was a good way to emphasize Yoda's uniqueness during his character arc, but that has largely played out now, and so this idea provides an intriguing air of mystery to Mando's package. Second, they held off revealing much information on this character in the first season (second season may prove different). Third, they added the cuteness factor which brought in new fans to the franchise, especially from the female population. This provided an avenue for Disney's traditional merchandising engine to focus on without upsetting the fan base.

My 12-year-old son watched the series with me in parallel which was kind of cool and led to a fun gift idea. We have a 3-D printer at my work and one of the younger guys got hold of a baby Yoda model that he wanted to print for his wife for Christmas. Soon other people were asking for it, including one of my co-workers who bought matched paint colors so he could paint it for his girlfriend. So I asked for one also and decided to borrow my friends paints so I could give it to my son. It came out pretty good (see image) and it ended up in stocking on Christmas day.

The series takes place between the fall of the Empire (Return of this Jedi) and the rise of the First Order (The Force Awakens). As with all of the Filoni projects, much care has been taken to maintain historical consistency within the Star Wars universe and timeline. Just one example of an ingenious fan tribute character was Kuill. He is an Ugnaught, a character normally appearing in Star Wars in background roles as equipment operators and such. In early season one, we encounter Kuill as a wise and skilled nomad who assists Mando on his quest. He is somehow played by Nick Nolte who does a wonderful portrayal, and gives new life to old familiar face.

So the second season has already arrived on Disney Plus and I am looking forward to seeing it. I've heard they will have the first live action Ahsoka Tano character. That sounds cool but I hope Rosario Dawson can pull it off. And the Jedi community will be somehow connected. I hope to add an update soon.

Danger, Will Robinson

Although I remember the campy 1960's TV series known as Lost In Space, I never spent much time on it. Compared to Star Trek TOS from the same time period, it really wasn't anywhere close to serious sci-fi. So when Netflix started advertising its reboot of this show in 2018, I figured it wasn't worth checking into, despite the intriguing poster art shown here. With the exception of the Star Wars franchise, most attempts at sci-fi serials were generally of poor quality. It was my 12-year old son and his friends who began to watch it and describe to me the initial plot lines. My son asked if I would watch it so we could discuss and he has generally good taste so I did. To my surprise, I was hooked in after the very first episode and ended up eagerly awaiting each offering for two seasons now.

The new series is not just a re-make. The basic cast and situation is preserved, but that is about where it ends. The entire serial was given a makeover as a serious drama, and the characters fleshed out into real people with complex relationships. In fact, almost 50% of the story is dedicated to the interactions between various family members, and the other to creative world building, all to great effect. There are story arcs that were thought out from the beginning. It plays like a Robinson Caruso in space, which I believe was the original intention behind the show in the 1960's.

On that note, after the first season I researched the original show a bit further and found that Season 1, which was in black and white and never seen in my youth, was a much more serious drama that actually parallels much of the original story line elements in the new series. You can see in the original pilot episode the remarkable elements of 60's sci-fi era films. In the new series, the changes they make are also signs of the times but well integrated. The mother Maureen is the strong scientific genius of the family, and Dr. Smith is now a woman, although just as clever and shifty as in the the original pilot (Dr. Smith becomes something of a caricature in later seasons of the original series - "Oh the pain, the pain!"). And the robot and Will still share a bond but this robot is a lot cooler and is actually part of an alien race. The only thing he still says from the old series is "Danger, Will Robinson". Just enough tribute without the cheese.

So I have to thank my son for this one and hope they come up with a third season as I don't watch too many sci-fi serials these days.

Ad Astra

When I first saw the trailer for Jim Gray's Ad Astra I had a sort of deja vu. It seemed like some old sci-fi novel from the Asimov era or something. But it was in fact an original script. It might be that this project has been talked about since 2013 and was officially announced by Gray in 2016. His aim was to create a very realistic project of man's push into the outer solar system, with a story experience something akin to Heart of Darkness. And the title phrase, which means "to the stars" in Latin, has been used by a few other authors like Jack Campbell and Kevin McLaughlin to create anthologies within the same general framework. So when I recently rented the film I found myself delighted that it was living up to its reputation.

There is a lot to take in over the course of this film. I am not a huge fan of the ominous psychological sci-fi (see Solaris). But in this film it works decently for several reasons. First, the psychology is not alien - it is grounded in family relationships and universal struggles that many of us face in life, especially that between fathers and sons. Second, the near future world that the story lives in is grounded in all the promised realism. A lot of thought went into what that world might actually look like. As I describe some of it I think I should put in the spoiler warning here.
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We have colonized the moon, but instead of the pristine look of Space 1999, we have a typical airport with shops and conveyer belts. And there are war zones representing territorial disputes over whatever mining resources are in play. Trips to the moon are like airline flights, the only difference being the huge price tags for amenities due to inflation. Launches from the moon take you to Mars which is more of a research facility. All this technology is beautifully re-created on screen without using any distracting futuristic gadgetry. The attention to detail is impressive.

There are some really memorable sequences that are integral to the story but that I've never quite seen done before. The opening includes an accident on a giant space antenna which is designed for a long wave type of SETI effort. The way it plays out on screen is spectacular. There is also chase sequence on the moon where space pirates use fast moving rovers for their attack but the low gravity environment is still represented nicely.

But I have to put just as much credit on how the story points move the narrative along with urgency, mystery, and heart. Brad Pitt's character, astronaut McBride, comes across as outwardly stoic but inwardly extremely compassionate toward all those he encounters. He slowly makes contact with his inner feelings at the same rate as he approaches his long lost father near the planet Uranus. It will move slowly for some, but for me, it was just enough to take it all in.

There are a few places where the physics doesn't quite add up, but they are generally peripheral save for the one that forms the basis for the entire journey. This is the idea that a particle surge in the outer solar systems can travel all the way to earth and cause any significant damage. I mean, if the reason his father went out there was to get away from solar wind interference, how could any "surge" travel all the way back against that wind and still be stronger than the sun's own radiation when it reaches earth enough to puncture the magnetic shield? If you can forgive that story point then I believe sci-fi fans will be treated to one of the few real efforts to do science fiction on film in a long time.

The Reboot Master

I decided not to try to add to the litany of lamentations regarding the final Star Wars trilogy installment, The Rise of Skywalker, but instead to comment on some aspects of the work of director J.J. Abrams that have been running through my head of late. It feels odd to focus on a director when most of the problem is with the script, but I have a friend I saw recently who works at Disney that gave me some insights with a touch of insider viewpoint. Apparently, there were contractual obligations to give the directors of this trilogy full creative control. Since George had spent his career fighting for this for his movies, I would not be surprised if that came from his side of the deal. But it does explain why the story went in such different directions under different directors, and why we can focus on those directors when we critique those stories. On that topic I will only point to Disney's own biggest mistake, which was that they did not map out the story on paper for all three movies before they started, as Mr. Lucas had always done. My friend tells me they rushed into The Force Awakens production in order to make the merchandising schedule for Christmas. If true, then that fact alone solidifies the accusation that Disney put the cash value of the franchise before the artistic integrity. But I digress - let's get back to Mr. Abrams.

I've always believed that Abrams is a bona fide fan of certain science fiction franchises, including Star Trek and Star Wars. But in his efforts to continue those franchises, it seems he does not have a good understanding of what constitutes good science fiction. He insists on taking old stories and retelling them again in a different context. Something he himself has referred to as the "reboot". Let's look at the Star Trek movies. In the first film, he takes elements and characters from the original series and changes the timeline so that he can start over with them. It is in some ways a clever script that tries to fill in gaps about Christopher Pike and the Kobyashi Maru test, but that came from other writers. The second installment, Into Darkness, tries to create a parallel story to The Wrath of Khan, even introducing Khan himself in a different timeline. The legendary exchange between Kirk and Spock at the end of the original movie is also duplicated to some extent, but with the essential emotional cost removed. I don't understand the point of this type of parallelism other than some cheap nostalgia, or even creative laziness. But it does illustrate my point about Abrams. He may be a fan of the work of others in this genre, but he just doesn't get it as a creator in the genre. One of the most essential aspects of good science fiction is that it introduces new ideas and concepts. It makes us think and look at things in ways we never may have thought of. This kind of story telling takes real effort and imagination and is why I love it so much. It is tougher even than the fantasy genre because it must remain grounded in reality in order to work its magic. Simply re-telling old stories in a different way is not creating science fiction. It is only trampling on the work of those that came before.

This leads up to the inevitable result of putting J.J. Abrams in charge of the final Star Wars trilogy. Some will fault Disney for switching directors mid stream, and rightly so, but we should also point out that even if Abrams had done all three films, they would have just been "reboots" of the original trilogy. We know this now that the final movie has been released under his wing. The Force Awakens is an obvious rework of A New Hope. You can see that Abrams intention for the second movie was to have Rey train under Luke in a remote location, just like Luke trained under Yoda in the second act of ESB. And when he returns for the third movie, Abrams brings back Emperor Palpatine for the third act final conflict, just as he was there to oversee the final act in ROTJ. One official interview revealed that idea as coming straight from Abrams, thus proving that his only contribution to the story is to re-tell the originals. At the end of the day, Disney put the story in the hands of someone who couldn't deliver. His track record in the genre should have clued them in.

I feel a bit sad to post a mostly negative entry without a lot of substance, but I also hope it can add to the rest of the voices out there trying to process it all. If you are not a Star Wars fan then just ignore and move on to then next post.