Star Trek III

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The Star Trek film franchise has a long and storied history. But few installments in this venerable series are as controversial and misunderstood as Star Trek III. In the previous review, we covered how Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer and writer/producer Harve Bennett coaxed Leonard Nimoy into reprising the…
December 12, 202221 Comments
Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Following the critical disappointment of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the franchise's fate was up in the air. Legend has it that after attending the premiere, William Shatner said, "That's it. We gave it our best shot, but there'll be no more Star Trek movies." But that was back when…
December 5, 202231 Comments
Star Trek the Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

There's no question about what the best Star Trek movie is. But debate rages over which is the worst. Surprisingly for a long-running Hollywood franchise, a frontrunner for the least enjoyable Star Trek movie also happens to be the series' first. With that rather inflammatory intro out of the way,…
November 30, 202221 Comments
TragedyOfTheAges

Tragedies of the Ages

An important part of being a social commentator is engaging with good-faith arguments that challenge your positions on the topics you cover. That goes double for writers, since it's storytellers who are the new priesthood of our narrative-driven society. That is also why literary critics play a vital if often…
August 8, 202221 Comments
kraken

The Kraken

Kairos is proud to present the debut sci fi-horror story by friend of the blog Martel. Investigator’s Note: Every electronic device in Mr. Gennaro’s apartment was thoroughly smashed with a hammer prior to his death. The Department remained unaware of his final writings until a viral tweet containing only a…
March 29, 202210 Comments
Mulder Aliens

I’m Not Saying It’s Aliens

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm no hard-nosed skeptic. That said, Charles Fort himself warned against being so open-minded that one's brains spilled out. The sudden candidness about UFOs on the part of the military, Congress, and the media raises ample reason for caution, if only because…
May 27, 202120 Comments
Trekonomics

Trekonomics

Robert P. Murphy points out that, not only does the post-scarcity economy portrayed in Star Trek not make sense, it's not really even post-scarcity. In reply to Brad DeLong, an economist on the Trekonomics panel at the New York City Comic Con, Murphy writes: In reality, DeLong is wrong to think…
October 8, 202012 Comments
Oh the Mundanity!

Oh the Mundanity!

Author JD Cowan sifts through the wreckage of the Mundane Sci Fi Movement so we don't have to. Take, for instance, one of the offspring of his ideas. As of 2019, the Mundane Science Fiction movement is 15 years old. Never heard of it? Then you understand how much of…
December 13, 201910 Comments
Astounding Campbell Memory-Holing

Astounding Campbell Memory-Holing

In light of the World Con voters circling the wagons to snub my readers in 2016, this announcement from the editor of Analog is as amusing as it is predictable. H/t P. Alexander Named for Campbell, whose writing and role as editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later renamed Analog Science Fiction…
August 28, 201926 Comments
Hard Theology

Hard Theology

Science fiction grand master John C. Wright poses a long overdue question in his recent post on hard science fiction. Heinlein never penned a sequel where the bastard children of Mike the Martian, six-fingered giants educated in Martian psionic arts by the ghost of their dead patriarch, overthrow and trample…
April 5, 201926 Comments