Even if the topic of Porst’s book, with regard to today’s video watching agenda that includes streaming media, Netflix, or any Internet-based platform consulted to watch movies, documentaries or series, may look a bit outdated at first sight, Broadcasting Hollywood actually is a highly interesting study, as it chronicles how we as audiences originally “learned” […]
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Category: B. R. PopCulture
Star Trek, History and Us: Reflections of the Present and Past Throughout the Franchise by A.J. Black (2021)
To talk about present-day science fiction realms and the impact fictional stories had on popular culture or the way people imagined a better future without touching on Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek is hardly possible. When the first episodes of the show were broadcast in 1966, they were immediately recognized as basically an action and entertainment […]
Marvel Comics Library. Spider-Man. Vol. 1. 1962–1964 by David Mandel and Ralph Macchio (eds.) (2021)
Just when you think the last TASCHEN comics themed book was a heavyweight, and one could not expect a volume any bigger and more exciting, be ready for a surprise. Comic book legends Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in the Silver Age of comics created a large pool of superheroes for Marvel, among them a […]
Doctor Who and Science. Essays on Ideas, Identities and Ideologies … by M. K. Harmes and L. A. Orthia (eds.) (2021)
No other TV series can boast with presenting the most exciting, thrilling and colorful adventures for decades and also featuring the most unusual protagonist, namely the Doctor(s), aka the Time Lord in the English TV program Doctor Who. It was first launched in 1963 by BBC One and, with some interruptions, is still running today. […]
All or Nothing: The Authorised Story of Steve Marriott: by Simon Spence (2021)
The careers of many heroes of the British Invasion and musicians of the 1960s have been adequately documented in books, films and memoirs. Some performers, nevertheless, have still not yet received the attention and the praise they deserve. If there was a reliable ranking of the best British soul/blues singers of all times, it could […]
Toys in the Age of Wonder: Science Fiction, Society and the Symbolism of Play by Mark Rich (2020)
As it happened so often before, fiction by authors of early wonder and adventure tales, such as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, William Rice Burroughs, and others, provided man (and particularly children and youngsters) with hopes and fantasies about machines that featured technology not yet been invented to dream a while. As […]
Deconstructing Dr. Strangelove: The Secret History of Nuclear War Films by Sean M. Maloney (2020)
The Cold War, with all of its threats and visions of mass destruction and apocalyptic scenarios appears far away these days. However, when the menace of nuclear weapons that possibly would be fired if wrong decisions were made by a few incompetent men in the military back in the 1960s, stories, novels and mostly movies […]
The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination by Philip Ball (2021)
The days when (ancient) myths – be they Greek, Nordic or from whatever region – were rather important to man as they served as guidelines and offered counsel are long gone; or so it seems. Because popular culture has created books, tales and stories that are inhabited by artificial men, werewolves, vampires, ghost hunters or […]
Exploring The Orville: Essays on … by David Kyle Johnson and Michael R. Berry (eds.) (2021)
In 2017, the first episode of the science-fiction series The Orville premiered on Fox. So far, two seasons of the space adventure show that never denied its relatedness to 1990’s Star Trek, exist. The TV series immediately was described by critics as something between a parody, homage, fan fiction, Star Trek rip-off, and bad copy, […]