Kevin Singer's Blog, page 8

Doctor Who and plot regrets

Writing is hard. You have to not only come up with compelling, believable characters, you also have to create dramatic tension. You have to give the character a reason to do what he does — motivation. And that’s not always easy. Especially when you’re rebooting a beloved, decades-old sci-fi franchise like Doctor Who. But that’s […]

Movies They Need to Stop Making Sequels To

Originally posted on Funk's House of Geekery:
Why does Hollywood keep making sequels? Because we keep going to see them. The audience requires less convincing to see it, the development time is less…all in all they’re a better investment. Studios do know that there’s a rule of diminishing returns, especially if they take a…

Will we ever colonize distant worlds?

On first glance, that question seems absurd. Humans are an adventurous species, so the thinking is of course we’ll spread out among the stars, especially as word comes of more and more planets that may be close to Earth-like. But Alaistair Reynolds, sci-fi author of great books such as Revelation Space, throws a little cold […]

In Praise of the Original ‘Mad Max,’ a Unique Masterpiece of Low-Budget Filmmaking

Originally posted on Flavorwire:
The good-cop-gone-bad trope is such an overused one by now that it’s rare to see a film in which such a transformation is in any way shocking or emotionally involving. With the new Mad Max: Fury Road hitting cinemas this week, though, it’s a good time to revisit one film in…

In praise of Neil Gamian

If you haven’t read any works by fantasy writer Neil Gamian, you should. The British-born writer is best known for works such as the comic series The Sandman and books including American Gods. I’ve reviewed American Gods and for anyone into fantasy or mythology, American Gods is a must read. It is sprawling and thrilling, […]

Tracking the zombie outbreak

Who doesn’t love a good zombie story? I know, not everyone does but I like to pretend they do. From George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead to the AMC channel’s The Walking Dead, zombies have been a staple of the horror genre for half a century, with no sign of them being killed off […]

Genre TV: a golden age or too much of a good thing?

It is a sad fact that there are too many great books in the world, of all genres, that I will never have time to read. I’m sure that I’m missing out on some life-changing classics, but there’s nothing I can do about that. When it comes to TV, though, there used to be a […]

It Follows: hype and (no) story

I’m a sucker for a good horror movie. Give me some chills and thrills, but not too much gore, and I’m into it. but good horror movies are hard to find. Too often the thrills are just obvious and trite. Every scary story has seemingly been told. That’s why when I caught word of the […]

Read this book: Rendezvous With Rama

The beauty of fiction is that when it’s done right, it is timeless. Think of books ranging from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled noir novels. Both writers are coming from very different worlds, yet their works contain a human element that transcends their eras. Science fiction writers including Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, Octavia Butler, […]

Designer humans: the future is almost here

Some sci-fi tropes seem too far-fetched for reality, until science catches up. Take the film Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law, set in a world where genetically approved people were given a higher status. When the movie came out, the idea of designer babies was bizarre. How could such a thing be […]