What’s Been Watched This Month – January 2019 – Sci-Fi Month Special

Here’s what that hairy man watched during his science fiction month special of January 2019.

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What To Expect This Year. A little Delve Into The Notebook

After falling asleep on a bench, I stagger home. Science fiction mission completed. Shaking the space dust from my fur as I pack my trusty spacesuit away. Clamber into my hammock with a giant glass of Long Island Iced Tea. Yep, it’s got an umbrella and a slice of lemon. Dressing gown and slippers, check! Time to chill. I grab the notepad off the sideboard. OK let’s look at this years “to watch list!”  It’s monstrous. Haha

Enemy Mine (1985) The Defiant Ones Battle It Out Like Hell In The Pacific

Science fiction often finds the ability to tackle prejudice and racial discrimination through the medium of film. Brother From Another Planet tackled many race and slavery issues, District 9 had the theme of apartheid running throughout. Racial segregation swapped to species segregation. Even the X-Men series touched on prejudice with the oppression of mutants. It runs through many story lines from film to television and on the whole is played out thoughtfully with a deep underlying message. One of my favourite genres that tackles racist behaviour has been with the classic buddy movie trope. Like Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis battling it out in 1958s The Defiant Ones but lets flip it into space or something.

Gattaca (1997) Only Genetic Perfection To Fly To The Stars

The future is here. Eugenics will change the world! No more lottery on your unborn baby having some form of deformity, however minor. Or even lets say, a lesser intelligence! Why would you take a gamble on your child’s future? Why not have some genetic selection cross referenced to ensure the best quality hereditary traits are met. Why roll the dice with a high percentage of heart disease when a little tweaking of the DNA code could almost guarantee a piston like pump into old age. To be able to eradicate certain unthinkable horrific life changing disorders like Motor Neurone Disease before a child is even born. But wait! Then no Stephen Hawking or at least a different Stephen Hawking. Yeah I know, that is an extreme case.

THX 1138 (1971) George Orwell Lucas Science Fiction Dystopian Future

Oh I do love a good dystopian future portrayed in film. THX 1138 is one of my all time favourites. Having caught it sometime in the late 80’s. Randomly switching the telly on after returning from a night on the tiles. Oblivious to its director being that bearded guy who blew my mind with his spectacular space romp as a kid. Just sat, fuzzy headed on the sofa. Transfixed by this white claustrophobic contained city! What the hell was I watching? No internet to search out what this film with the baldies was. Lucky I did know two of the actors. Still it was some years before I got to watch it again and discover it was directed by George Lucas.

Wolfman’s Hot Ladies Of Sci-Fi – Lieutenant Uhura

Communications officer Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) not only could translate the language of thousands of different alien dialects, she also wore the most wonderful shortest skirts in the universe. Well she did have the most delectable thighs for it. And she drove this young wolf cub wild!

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) Gerry Anderson Pulls Away The Strings

The incredible had happened. The mindblowing discovery of a new planet in our solar system! How can that be? Hidden behind the sun, following our own Earth’s orbital pathway, was another celestial body. Always hidden. The year is 2069. With data being processed from a returning Sun Probe, the shock findings throw intrigued and mild panic through the European Space Exploration Council. EUROSEC’s director Jason Webb (Patrick Wymark) mind goes into overdrive. They need to urgently send a manned mission to the mysterious new planet immediately.

Retroactive (1997) Blues Brothers Brother Baddie Belushi Battles Back In Time

Wanted something pretty rubbish to add to my science fiction month of January. Something I hadn’t seen before. Retroactive popped up on a few lists. Umm what was I getting myself involved with? Well! Time travel on a dusty Texas dirt road with Jim Belushi looking more like Andrew Dice Clay. It’s a road movie with added murder, mayhem and a whole heap of bullets.

Black Moon (1975) Science Fiction Fantasy French Fruit Loop Mind Wibble Wobble

Is this science fiction? It certainly starts that way! Kind of post-apocalyptic. Maybe not following a nuclear war but some other world-wide disaster has probably happened. I got a sense and feeling of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 sci-fi thriller Children Of Men to start with. The bleak and the gloom, the underlying air of sadness. Yes that was soon to change and oh, how we all laughed that I could have thought such a thing! Hehe. But first……

The Magnetic Monster (1953) Lock Away Your Spoons! Earth Is Doomed!

One thing that might just go against this 50’s movie, The Magnetic Monster is the fact there’s no monster as such. Still the impact of this, is something more terrifying and devastating for the whole world than anything you can imagine. So where we may not find a ginormous Godzilla type monster stealing all your spoons and saucepans with its magnetic powers. We are in fact terrorised by an invisible foe, so destructive, so catastrophic and fatal that Earth is likely to be thrown out of orbit!