Masters of Their Universe

Masters of the Universe (Travis Knight, 2026) delivered the kind of goofy, unhinged fun I haven't experienced in quite the same way since Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980). 

Based on the Mattel action figure toys released in 1982, Masters of the Universe tells the story of Adam Glenn (Nicholas Galitzine), who is determined to find the mythical Sword of Power and in doing so save his home dimension, Eternia, from the skullduggery of Skeletor (Jared Leto). 

But fifteen years after arriving on Earth as a child--hidden there to escape Skeletor--Adam hasn't had any luck. Instead, he's grown up, making the best of things by taking an office job in Oklahoma City. He works in Human Resources, and his affable, charming personality makes him a beloved, if eccentric, figure among his colleagues. Adam can't seem to lie, and he speaks earnestly about his quest to anyone who will listen. They think he's either role-playing or insane. But soon enough Eternia comes calling, and Adam's quest moves into high gear. Can mild-mannered HR drone Adam retrieve the Sword of Power and become the kind of hero who defeat Skeletor, his right-hand woman Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), and their horde of monstrous minions? 

Of course he can, and does. What's important, as ever, lies in how the tale is told. And this time around, the tale is told with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The screenplay is full of clever gags, the action is well-structured, well-executed, and essential to moving the story forward, the actors are clearly having tremendous fun, and the whole thing is so genuine and wholesome that I fell in love with the film about five minutes in and never fell out. 

Some highlights:

• The brilliant origin story of many of the ridiculous character names
• The characterizations of the chief villains, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn, captured in clever dialogue, performance, and special effects--I never once thought of Skeletor as a CGI creation, but always as a full-fledged, delightful villain in the over-the-top style of old serial villains from the 1940s
• Camila Mendes as competent, steel-nerved warrior bestie Teela
  
• Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms, a fallen warrior lost to alcoholism in the wake of Eternia's fall, who reluctantly answers the call to destiny once more
• Two of the most satisfying and delightful post-credits scenes I've seen in quite some time
  

As far as modern takes on old franchises go, I'd put this one right up there with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

A movie based on a toy line has no right to be this good. IT HAS THE POWERRRRRR

One Year Later . . .

A friend of mine came back to work today after the recent loss of her mother, and we chatted for a bit before I realized that today is July 8...one year to the day after Mom passed away in the early hours of that morning 365 days ago. In the moment, I found it almost impossible to believe that it had been an entire year, because subjectively it feels like it all happened about three months ago. 

Here's a nice photo of Sean and Mom back in Leduc in 1986. Whatever happens next, whatever happened last year--I still feel lucky to have had moments like this. 

 

St. Elseworld

Someone set him up the bomb.

 "Family Feud" is the 15th episode of the fourth season of St. Elsewhere. It's also the episode that finally convinced me the writers are having fun with their audience and the television format, and that the famous twist at the series' end really doesn't come out of left field. 

The episode begins with Doctor Robert Caldwell (Mark Harmon) returning from vacation. He's met at St. Eligius by Doctor Elliot Axelrod (Stephen Furst), who briefs him about the goings-on at the hospital in Caldwell's absence:

• The gift shop was blown up--the second explosion on the show in two days, and Doctor Philip Chandler (Denzel Washington) was injured in both explosions
• Doctor Jack "Boomer" Morrison slipped on vomit and badly injured his knee
• The John Doe with amnesia regained his memory

And those are just some of the highlights. In the episode before this one, there's a cute exchange referencing Doctor Chandler's misfortune:

"Pretty rare for someone to be injured by two separate explosions in two days!"
"It's pretty rare for someone to be present at two separate explosions in two days." 

Later, the crutch-dependent Doctor Morrison meets his ex-girlfriend, Clancy Williams (Helen Hunt) at the hospital; she's been helping take care of Boomer's son while he recuperates from his injury. In a private moment, Doctor Morrison admits to Clancy, 

"I can't stop thinking about you...dreaming about being together..." 

Clancy rebuffs him. But later, Doctor Wayne Fiscus (Howie Mandel) uses the exact same language in an effort to get back together with his ex-fiance, Mona Polito (Leah Ayres). And then, a couple of scene later, Clancy says the same thing to Wayne! 

While all this is going on, Doctor Caldwell learns that he has AIDS, thanks to a blood test taken as a precursor to scar removal surgery. A few episodes prior, the handsome Doctor Caldwell was slashed in the face by a disturbed young woman he'd picked up on that selfsame vacation. It's not directly stated, but given Caldwell's comments..."Maybe I deserve this..." in reference to his habitual sleeping around, I feel like we, the audience, are meant to imagine that the knife used in the slashing was perhaps contaminated with infected blood, perhaps from the woman who assaulted him. Or maybe not, but it feels like a bit of dramatic irony the writers enjoy--the handsome plastic surgeon not only scarred by a scalpel, but doomed by it. 

Meanwhile, several members of an influential family, the Endicotts, clearly modelled after the Rockefellers or the Kennedys are at the hospital visiting their matriarch, the kindly grandmother undergoing open heart surgery to extend their life. The family is burdened with their fame and fortune and the responsibilities that come with it, three generations at odds with each other. 

Doctor Axelrod, not at all a part of these proceedings, is tending to a strange, angry patient who reacts violently to Axelrod's tests. At one point, the patient growls "You ever wonder why it's always you?" He delivers the line with eerie precision, looking straight into Axelrod's eyes, as if knowing that Axelrod is well-known for saying "Why me?" when he gets saddled with the worst cases. 

A few minutes later, Wayne's ex-fiancee Mona runs into Doctor Morrison in the hallway and confesses that she's long had a crush on him . . . and she says . . . 

"I can't stop thinking about you . . . dreaming about being together." 

At this point I thought I must have been hallucinating, but I went reviewed each scene, and yes, the phrase really is used four times by four different characters--each infatuated by the other's ex-partner. It's farcical, the kind of thing that could only happen in an invented world. 

It all comes to a head during the temporal intersection of three events: Doctor Craig is performing the heart operation on the Endicott patriarch, the Endicott father and son/grandson are praying together for their mother/grandmother's health while discussing their political destinies, and off-duty doctors are celebrating Doctor Morrison's birthday.

The operation ends not with tragedy, but a near-miss; the matriarch almost dies, but she pulls through. Wayne and Boomer mutually agree to pursue their exes with no hard feelings. But the women suddenly find that they're once again attracted to the men they broke up with. 

And in the chapel, the deranged man that was being treated by the luckless Doctor Axelrod walks in and assassinates the matriarch's son, the man who had been destined as the next major presidential candidate. A harrowing action sequence follows, and of course poor traumatized Axelrod and recently-bombed Chandler are the doctors who try and fail to save him. 

"Family Feud" is the best example yet of the show's creators winking at the audience that this is more than a straight hospital drama; it's an exploration of the soap opera genre, seeing to what heights of absurdity they can reach while still retaining the facade of a reasonably grounded work of art. 

Naturally, this is my favourite episode so far. It makes me feel like the world of St. Elsewhere is a close neighbour to the world of Twin Peaks. 

Cheers to St. Elsewhere

During St. Elsewhere's season three finale, Doctors Donald Westphall, Mark Craig, and Daniel Auschlander head to Cheers for beer. 

Television crossovers are an old phenomenon, still seen today, but they're reasonably rare and thus still feel special, suggesting fictional worlds larger than the restrictions of any one drama or comedy. When I first read that the Cheers/St. Elsewhere crossover existed, I wondered how the creators of the episode would balance the very different tones of the two shows. 

As it turns out, and as I suppose should have been obvious, the crossover was a St. Elsewhere episode, not a Cheers episode, so drama won out. The three doctors have a pretty serious discussion at the bar, and the laughs aren't terribly uproarious. Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) is as sharp-mouthed as ever as she waits on the doctors' table, calling St. Eligius a dump and crossing swords with the equally sharp-tongued Doctor Craig. Norm (George Wendt) recognizes Doctor Auschlander when he walks into the bar, and there's a brief exchange about taxes; Norm, it turns out, is the good doctor's accountant. And finally. Cliff (John Ratzenberger) drifts by the table to share some of his overblown erudition. 

It all works, because the crossover feels organic. The scene is given just as much weight as it would have had there been no crossover at all; that is, if they'd gone to some other bar filled with nameless extras. If it was intended as a way to boost ratings for St. Elsewhere, the crossover was certainly handled more artistically than one might have expected. 

Some Feelings on Fiscus

 

Howie Mandel as Doctor Wayne Fiscus

I've never been a fan of Howie Mandel.

That's a me problem, not a Mandel problem. His particular comic persona just isn't to my taste, accomplished as he may be. 

But I must say that I really enjoy Mandel as Doctor Wayne Fiscus, St. Eligius' emergency room resident. Fiscus likes to goof around a bit, but he's affectionate, cares about patients and staff alike, and does the right thing even when it's hard. Also, he's a casual dresser, and complains righteously when he's forced to wear a suit and tie while on duty. I loathe suits and ties, so naturally I'm sympathetic to the character's plight. 

I look forward to seeing where Mandel takes this character. In the almost-three seasons I've watched so far, he's already grown significantly. I hope that continues to the end of the series. 

Robinson's Crusade

 

In the far future, a conductor is chosen as the next master to inherit stewardship of the Holywelkin Orchestra--basically the ultimate one-man band, the musical instrument of the era. But he gets hooked on drugs, throwing his future into question, only to have an epiphany, go blind, and get his mojo back, kicking the habit just a couple of pages after he picks it up. Time passes, and the blind master plays concerts to the many human colonies from Pluto to Mercury while a mysterious cabal of people try to kill him. A human sect has mathematically proven that free will doesn't exist, that determinism is the truth of our existence, but the novel ends with a kind of refutation of that premise thanks, I think, to music? Heck if I know. My interest faded about halfway through the novel, mainly because, as usual, Robinson is great at developing big concepts, but his characters are so robotic it's really hard to care what happens to them.  

Would I have enjoyed this novel more if I understood the first thing about music? Maybe. 

Still Better Off with Image Editors

Years ago, I tried to clean up this damaged photo. My efforts were unsuccessful, but I think I'd do better if I tried again today. But I thought using Gemini to fix it might yield interesting results. 

 

The photo is a lot sharper now, but holy hallucinations, Batman. The Atari 400 has been replaced by an Atari 2600, and the Atari 400 games have been replaced by Atari 2600 games. And a stack of audio cassettes has replaced the CX40 joystick atop the Atari 410 program recorder. 

Further prompting fixed some of the issues. But not all. 

That's enough fiddling for now. The Atari 400 is there, but its yellow buttons are from the Atari 800 model. I also find it amusing Gemini put an audio cassette into the 8-Track player. 

The Hate Pumpkin

Back in the mid-80s, Sean posed for a photograph while holding a jack-o-lantern up in front of his face to make himself look like he had a pumpkin for a head. I just asked Google Gemini to turn that image into a movie poster. It took just seconds. 

I'm not against using generative AI to play around and have fun, but I hate the impact it's already having on working artists. At the very least, everyone who's had their art scraped should be compensated. But how can we make that happen? At this rate, a universal basic income funded by the 1% will be the only thing that prevents the vast majority of people from sliding into destitution. 

 

The Longer You Look, the Stranger It Gets . . .

Sometimes I wonder if people will look back and see the early 2020s as the golden age of weird computer-generated art, before it achieves inevitable sterile perfection. 
 

The Price of Fame

 

A little over 40 years ago, I co-hosted If Your Parents Split. It's a half-hour show about children impacted by the divorce of their parents that cuts between dramatic segments and audience interaction. 

Yesterday Jeff noticed my Memory Wall includes a button that says "I'm Nearly Famous." One of the actors on If Your Parents Split gave me that button after we finished shooting the show. Thankfully, I'm not famous, but I value the button nonetheless, and Jeff's comment prompted me to see if the show has any online presence at all. 

Indeed, in a way the show lives on--or at least there's potential for it to do so. Early this morning, I discovered that If Your Parents Split can be licensed for broadcast. Here's the CBC's sample price guide: 

If I'm reading this correctly, if you wanted the rights to screen If Your Parents Split anywhere in the world in perpetuity, you could do so for $105 dollars per second. 60 seconds in a minute times 30 minutes equals 1,800 seconds...1,800 seconds times $105 per second equals a mere CAN $189,000. Of course, the price goes down if you license in a single country or for a shorter time. 

Here's TV Earl wondering if he's going to get residuals. 

During my investigation, I also learned my co-host, Reni Potrebenko, earned a Gemini nomination in 1987 for sound in a documentary for Shooting Stars, about the Edmonton Grads women's basketball team--belated congratulations, Reni! That's Reni to my right. She was cool, and I'm glad she found at least a little more success in the film and television world than I did. 

Mom's Smile

Here's another photo from David--a great shot of Mom, while I look like a dork, particularly with my eyes closed. This would have been sometime in the 80s. 
 

Kathy and Me

While we were preparing Mom's celebration of life, my cousin David was kind enough to send me a bunch of photographs, which I used in the event's slideshow. I didn't use this one, since Mom isn't in it, but I'm still quite happy to have this photo of my cousin Kathy and me in Devon, Alberta, from around 1988. Shockingly, this may be the last time I saw Kathy in person. 

Stealth Sky Fighter

I figure Diana probably has a secret police force, and I'm sure they fly around in something dark and sinister. I didn't put landing gear on this one; instead, I'll mount it on a clear flying stand. 
 

Another Visitor Sky Fighter

I'm getting better at painting the Visitor symbols. 
 

Martian Week: Sol 5

 

Martian Week: Sol 4

 

Martian Week: Sol 3

Here's a Martian statesman. We come in peace! Even so . . . 
 

Martian Week: Sol 2

The Martians described in Bradbury's stories had golden eyes. Mine are a bit more yellow, but I think they stand out nicely. 
 

Martian Week: Sol 1

Exogenesis, the latest collection of pulp figures from, well, Pulp Figures, takes its inspiration from the so-called golden age of pulp science fiction. One subset of Exogenesis, The Martians, features five figures clearly based on the Martians seen in The Martian Chronicles, the 1980 NBC miniseries, in turn based on, of course, The Martian Chronicles, the great fix-up novel by Ray Bradbury. 

In the miniseries, the Martians all whore white robes. I've given my Martians a more colourful wardrobe and tried my hand at a bit of abstract art for each base. 

This Martian wears a fearsome mask that really freaked me out as a kid. Turns out first contact isn't an easy thing . . . even when both sides have good intentions. 



 

Chu-Bops

Sometime between 1980 and 1983, probably on a road trip with the family between Alberta and Manitoba, I picked up these two Chu-Bops. Each Chu-Bop was a 3x3-inch album sleeve reproduction containing a pink bubblegum record. I was never much of a gum guy, but at just 35 cents each, these were a cool little novelty. I really love that Blue Oyster Cult art!