Tag: Space Movies & Shows

‘The Acolyte’ had a bumpy journey through marketing and release on the small screen, to say the least.  With a number of sites and permanently disgruntled fans that decided ages ago the series would be terrible, (likely false) cancellation rumors started to pile up even before its season 1 premiere. Now, roughly one month after a strong season finale that capped a notable second half of the season, Deadline and Variety are reporting that Disney and Lucasfilm have decided not to move forward with season 2. No matter how you…

In the vast sphere of multinational global conglomerates operating with honesty, trust and transparency, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of the “Alien” franchise would rank at the absolute slimy bottom. This fictional megalomaniacal enterprise had its greedy tentacles into everything from robotics, biotechnology, cybernetics, AI, and interstellar mining, to terraforming, off-world colonization, medical research and developing weapons using extraterrestrial DNA gathered around the galaxy.   But what are the ambitious beginnings of this notorious San Francisco-based company, how have its personnel, facilities, spaceships and machines been integrated into the “Alien” universe and…

Space For Everyone – A Chat with STEM Advocate Czarina Salido – YouTube Watch On On Episode 124 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Czarina Salido about the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. Salido, a physics graduate of mixed Mexican and Native American heritage, founded Taking Up Space in 2014. This nonprofit aims to address the underrepresentation of women, particularly Native American girls, in STEM fields. Based near Tucson, the organization provides mentoring, instruction, and Space Camp scholarships to disadvantaged girls on a…

Shared universes go back way further than Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and co sitting down for some post-Chitauri shawarma. Superheroes have been moonlighting in each other’s comic books for decades, while Cheers regulars frequently paid Frasier a visit in Seattle. It wasn’t until Marvel Studios launched the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), however, that the concept started to gain serious mainstream traction.  By incorporating the contrasting adventures of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Black Widow into one gigantic, overarching narrative, Marvel successfully blended cinematic spectacle with the “must-watch-every-episode” ethos of…

The Mighty Perseids – Meteors are Coming! – YouTube Watch On On Episode 123 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and guest host Isaac Arthur talk with astronomer Steve Fentress about the Perseids meteor shower. Each year, there are a handful of impressive meteor showers, and one of the largest and best this year will be the Perseids. The quarter moon will set just before midnight, when the shower activity peaks, and if you’re in a dark spot expect to see maybe 50-60 shooting stars per hour.  Steve Fentress,…

When “Futurama” first beamed onto planet Earth in 1999, it was no surprise that a TV series co-created by “The Simpsons” mastermind Matt Groening was packed with smart references to pop culture and current affairs. But beyond the conveyor belt of gags about “Star Trek” and the state of planet Earth, the show’s team of writers — many of whom are science graduates — have also managed to squeeze in plenty of ingenious references to physics, mathematics and other branches of the sciences. Below we’ve picked out √100 (okay, 10)…

At the recent “Star Trek” Las Vegas convention, actor Scott Grimes, who plays Lt. Gordon Malloy on “The Orville,” revealed to a small — and stunned — crowd that season 4 of the show is set to begin pre-production at some point early in 2025.  Absolutely no one was expecting this, so no video of the big announcement seems to exist on social media. But it has been confirmed on The Planetary Union Network: ‘The Orville‘ Official Fan Podcast. Moreover, that same group wrote on Reddit, “Seth [MacFarlane, the show’s…

No City on Mars? – A Debate on Human Expansion and the Popular New Book, ‘A City on Mars’ – YouTube Watch On On Episode 122 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dale Skran, COO and SVP of the National Space Society, and video producer Isaac Arthur about the realistic prospects for space settlement. It’s been said that Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, and that’s certainly the assertion of the popular 2023 book, “A City on Mars” by Kelly…

An Exploding Star Near You! – A Nova is Coming with Carlos Badenes – YouTube Watch On On Episode 121 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss a star about to go nova with astrophysicist Dr. Carlos Badenes. A nova is a star that periodically sheds mass in a huge flare-up of light and energy. This nova will be visible in the night sky for about 6-7 days! T Corona Borealis (TCrB) is a binary system comprising two stars in the constellation Corona Borealis that bursts…