Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Rod Serling introduces The Mirror  I really wish many of these 4th season episodes had been chosen for the Christmas marathon instead of swallowing up so much time on New Year's Eve and Day. But I noticed on Reddit, there are Zoners who defend the season because some of the stories hit hard (neurodivergent Robert Duvall in The Miniature expected to somehow "become part of the team" or "fit in", instead opting for a life as a doll living with the woman of his dreams; broken Dennis Hopper, in He's Alive , having grown up with an abusive father and mentally ill mother who couldn't protect him, ultimately turning on the Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who lent him a place to stay and heart that cared until he became a pawn of hate; child-like Pat Hingle, in The Incredible World of Horace Ford , wanting to return to his childhood but ultimately realizing he had blacked out the bullying he experienced, equipped to "grow up" thanks to a very patient...

Three astronauts in peril in Death Ship  I see why SYFY often adds so little of the fourth season. The one hour episodes are just so long and drawn out. In His Image, about a robot coming to realize he is just that by eventually encountering his human creator, Jesse-Belle about a country beauty with no money setting her heart on an engaged boy named Billy-Ben through witchcraft, Mute about a telepath unable to talk after being "adopted" by a grieving couple who lost their daughter as she grapples with her ability to think and communicate through thought, The Thirty-Fathom Grave about a former sub officer seeing the ghosts of those he once served with while on a ship hearing hammering sounds from the sub below, and Death Ship about astronauts seemingly caught in a cyclical limbo loop around a planet all could certainly work in 30 minutes but during a marathon, it can be brutal, swallowing up great marathon time better served for shorter episodes.

 I'm looking to cut back on Letterboxd movie watching, hoping to devote some time to television, especially science fiction classics in the new year, some hopeful re-evaluations for Star Trek shows (prior to Enterprise, none of the nu shit), Lost in Space, Have Gun Will Travel, Twilight Zone, X-Files, etc. I especially plan to review the first 3 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first and third season of Lost in Space (in memory of June Lockhart), Babylon 5, Voyager, some Deep Space Nine, the fifth season of Twilight Zone, the 6th-9th seasons of X-Files (and blocks of earlier seasons), etc. I want to mix it up a little. I watched a load of movies for Letterboxd the last few years and want to give more to the blog. The blog has been blowing up in views which I am thankful for, especially popular are my Twilight Zone posts.

**/**** *Edit: I forgot to mention a very adorable scene where Troi gives birth and Riker is off to the side watching with wonder in his eyes, telling her congrats. He was thrown off by her pregnancy while in the meeting to discuss it. And Worf being in the sickbay with security is a fun bit of trivia considering these two would both be in romantic relationships with her in the series*  Oh, yes, the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That love it/hate it relationship continued until Season 3 really seemed to find the show's footing. The Child frustrates me. There is even cruelty in the writing where a life entity happens to be in space when the Enterprise is about to leave with dangerous cargo carrying a deadly plague held in a containment module designed by newly minted Chief Engineer, LaForge. This entity decides to go through a speedy birthing process using Counselor Troi as its human carrier, growing quite fast. Dr. Pulaski (Muldaur in her lone season, replacing G...

Oh, my, do I see why this got under folks’ skin. Luca won’t just give the audience exactness, the total truth because most of us will never see what happens behind that door where these two characters were, unless real evidence can truly specify real details, what is left is behaviors and pokes at us with a stick to see how our own beliefs and way of seeing things will decide with certainty if Maggie acted out of desperation to get Hank fired so her plagiarism (or did she?) would remain secret or if Hank used plagiarism as a weapon to escape sexual assault allegations. Is Maggie even using Alma’s past as a weapon against Hank so she can remain protected from some perceived discovery of “being a mediocre student given clearance to be in a major professor’s orbit due to rich parents”. Or is Hank exactly as Maggie said: he continued on her after she said no, assaulting her in the process, very much deserved of his fate, despite how hard he worked to get to where he was (no trust fund or e...

Night of the Meek intro  As always I will be dropping one or two posts about the New Year's Eve and Day marathon from SYFY on the blog, but I hope to watch a few episodes on Christmas Day before heading off to a family get-together. The blog has always been quite popular with the TZ marathon posts. I'm excited to see if there is any juice left to squeeze that I haven't already from years of doing this for my favorite ever show. This is sort of a bookmark, so I might add more to this post in the future. These episodes below are the ones I hope to watch from Christmas Day morning during SYFY's first marathon. I will try to watch some Friday after Christmas (I'm off work that day) as well, but I don't want to wear myself too much because of New Year's coming up. I will be using the DVR (I have Youtube TV) so I hope to follow in order. "Night of the Meek" will be shown at 7 but I won't be home so I plan to watch it and "Changing of the Guard...