Sunday, December 20, 2009

Forget Steam Punk - Try Steam Trek

I just finished watching First Men in the Moon (1964), based on the HG Wells novel of the same name (which I didn't know while I was watching it). It's alternative history twice, and in the first instance it was unintentional: the first landing on the Moon is a joint US-USSR-UK mission, and the astronauts find on the lunar surface a tattered British flag and a note dedicating the Moon to Queen Victoria - begin flashback sequence. The movie feels very much like seeing Kirk in a stiff collar fighting badly costumed aliens. But taken on its own as a piece of (now) double-period science fiction cinema, it's a good time.

No comments: