Reading/Watching Log #29

If it seems like I got through a lot of stuff this month, it's probably because I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of graphic novels – which obviously take less time to consume than my usual diet of novels and television shows. Among all the comics and movies were plenty of Star Wars, a lot of swords-and-sandals, a couple more children's classics, and at least one more season of Arrow. I'm catching up!

Xena Warrior Princess: The Titans, Prometheus, Death in Chains

We hit maximum camp in these next three Xena episodes, with what is generally considered one of the show's worst episodes, the show's first crossover episode with Hercules (which involves the usual tinkering with Greek mythology) and a strange fairy tale-like episode about the personification of death (the general storyline of which pops up in folktales around the world).

Links and Updates

Yeah, I know it's been slow around here, but working full-time is haaaaaaard. Hang in there till the end of August and I promise I'll start posting more often.

So there's a lot of interesting things happening on the pop-culture front: Solo is apparently a lot better than anyone expected. Brooklyn 99 and The Expanse were saved from cancellation. Once Upon a Time was finally put out of is misery. New promotional pictures were released from How To Train Your Dragon 3. The first trailer for the Sense8 finale is up. Meghan Markle got married.

I'm watching Supergirl and Into the Badlands on a weekly basis, while simultaneously churning through season five of Arrow and Lost in Space. I'm still hoping to see Isle of Dogs at the movies, and looking forward to the Picnic at Hanging Rock miniseries.

I also ended up going on a weird swords-and-sandals spree, watching all three of the Conan films and the two 2014 Hercules movies. Yeah, I'm as confused as you are.

But most excitingly, I've got tickets to Armageddon, which is New Zealand's answer to Comic Con (on a much, much smaller scale). But I've never been before, and Katie McGrath will be there! I'm not that interested in getting a photo or an autograph – to be honest, I hate that sort of thing – but I'll go to the panel she's attending.  I'll post a full report afterwards!

Review: Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within

Sequels are tricky things to manage, and that goes as much for games as for books and films. They have to build on the previous story without repeating it, raise the stakes without overblowing it, and deepen the characters and expand the world-building without getting too convoluted.

The Beast Within finds the right balance, though interestingly enough, it does not raise or lower the stakes in any significant way – it merely changes them. If Sins of the Fathers was about righting an ancient wrong, reclaiming ones heritage and wiping out a criminal cartel, then The Beast Within is about saving two souls from damnation and preventing a centuries-old killer from harming more innocent people.

It seems simple enough, and yet the story is just as deep and poignant as its predecessor. Set a year after the events of Sins of the Fathers, Gabriel has taken up residence in his family's ancestral home of Schloss Ritter and assumed the mantle of Schattenjäger (that is, Shadow Hunter). Now all he needs is a case, and so who should appear at the castle door but a gathering of solemn townsfolk, seeking the Schattenjäger's assistance...

Thoughts on The Avengers: Infinity War

Yes, I've joined the ranks of those who have witnessed Infinity War, and not a moment too soon – the very next day the unspoken courtesy that prevented people from immediately posting spoilers on Tumblr was deemed over, and my dash was filled with (surprisingly high-quality) GIFs of movie scenes.

As I've said plenty of times before, I'm only a casual fan of the franchise, so I enjoyed this as I've enjoyed all the Marvel films: as relatively mindless fun in which likeable characters do cool things in bright set-pieces for a couple of hours.  That said, I obviously cared enough about Infinity War to go see it at the theatre as soon as I could, and though I had a general idea of how the ending would go down, most things came as a surprise to me.

This is not so much a review as a series of thoughts; an attempt to get all my ideas and impressions into one place as opposed to a coherent "think-piece" on the film.

Obviously SPOILERS below the cut...

Woman of the Month: Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson

This is only the second time I've featured a real-life person as Woman of the Month, but in keeping with this blog's interest in science-fiction (among all the other subgenres of speculative fiction) I'd say that a mathematics genius working at NASA during the most crucial and exciting years of the American/Russian Space Race certainly deserves the spotlight.

Which is fitting, since Katherine Johnson's role in Hidden Figures (as well as her guest-starring part in NBC's Timeless) is all about finally giving credit where credit is due. Like many on hearing the premise of Hidden Figures, my first reaction was: "how on earth did I not know about this?"

Along with dozens of other black women in the 1960s, Katherine was a "human computer" who calculated trajectories, launch windows and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, as well as rendezevous paths for the Apollo lunar lander and command module flights to the Moon. I'm not even sure what some of that means, but it clearly demonstrates a staggering level of intelligence.

I had mixed thoughts on some of the creative decisions in Hidden Figures, but if one thing was vividly captured, it was the utterly stupid banality of the prejudice Katherine and her companions had to face. One of the most brilliant minds of her age, working with people who were aiming to put a human being on the moon – and they were worried about who drinks from what coffee cup?

That she maintained such dignity and composure in the face of such galling pettiness inspires just as much respect as her mathematic achievements, and that she and her fellow "computers" have finally been recognized for their intellect, perseverance and work ethic makes you hope that sometimes justice is done. The best part is that at the grand age of ninety-nine, Katherine lived to see it!