Daniel Tessier
Bio
I'm a terrible geek living in sunny Brighton on the Sussex coast in England. I enjoy writing about TV, comics, movies, LGBTQ issues and science.
Stories (62)
Filter by community
I Wish Bernard Were Here...
Who was Quatermass? A genius? A scientist, qualified in half a dozen disciplines? An explorer, on a quest to know the unknown? A pacifist, ruing the inevitability of war? A family man, trying to protect his own? A broken man, burdened by guilt? An idealist? An iconoclast? Or was he simply the avatar of Nigel Kneale, the man who created him? He was all these things.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Futurism
REVIEW - Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Top Story - November 2021.
Well then, it's finally here. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (or Ghostbusters: Legacy in some regions). I saw it on opening night (three evenings ago) but have taken a little while to collect my thoughts. As some of you might have noticed over the years, I'm rather into Ghostbusters, the film and the whole franchise. Ghostbusters II is great, sorely underrated, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2016 reboot (these days referred to as Answer the Call) and am still a bit annoyed the fan backlash damaged its performance so much that it didn't get a sequel. A third movie of any kind seemed unlikely for years, and at least the reboot made it clear there was still an appetite for the film. Finally we get a third instalment of the original continuity and... I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Geeks
Don't Drink the Water
Kyungay fell, landing on the dry mudstone floor with a thud and a snap. He tried shifting to a more comfortable position, but was rewarded only by an intense pain in his left ankle. Cautiously, he brushed his hand along it - a sliver of bone was jutting sharply outwards, threatening to break the skin. Kyungay forced himself to his feet, gritting his teeth and grunting with the pain. The pain didn't matter, he reminded himself. Once he'd found the Fountain, he could stop worrying about pain and injury forever.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Fiction
Ginny
Ginny waited. The taste of the last child's bone marrow was almost lost, a mere echo of flavour on her thick, black tongue. The faint scent of blood, stray particles that hung in the stagnant water, stirred her senses, serving only to taunt her. Her distended belly ached and rumbled, the gnarled, yellow claws of her toes swirling the grey-green mud beneath her feet. Grey-green, like her own flesh, pallid and cold as the water in which she floated.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Fiction
What's in a Name?
Everyone knows that Martians come from Mars. That's straightforward enough. Beyond that, things get fiddly. Just what do you call someone from Jupiter, Venus or Pluto? What of the asteroid belt? Even in professional astronomy circles, people argue over the correct use of demonyms and adjectives for astronomical bodies. Much of the terminology used today originates from alchemical, astrological and classical works, and the growth of science fiction has only made it more confused. Of course, nowadays we know the likelihood of finding little green men on Mars or Mercury is slim to none, but the use of adjectival forms is necessary to describe features on the planets or their satellites. Plus, there's still fiction - everyone loves a good, old-fashioned Martian invasion.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Futurism
Movie Trek 6: Once More Unto the Breach
The nineties were a great decade for Trek. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all aired, along with three of the Next Gen movies. But before Picard and his crew took over Trek's cinematic enterprises, there was one final outing for the original series cast. The sixth Trek film is one of the very best, a personal favourite of the TOS movies and a fine swansong for that entire era of Star Trek.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Futurism
Where Doctor Who could go from here
So, it's official: Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall are leaving next year. After five years, but only three seasons, we'll have a new Doctor and a new showrunner. It's about par for the course for a Doctor, and Chibnall has stayed in charge for about as long as Russell T. Davies, albeit with far fewer episodes under his watch. It's confirmed that we'll have a single serialised story next year (originally announced as eight episodes, now apparently reduced to six), followed by three specials next year which will see the big changeover.
By Daniel Tessier4 years ago in Geeks
Movie Trek 5: We're On a Mission From God
Back on the Star Trek movie watch-a-thon (or, at least, back to having time to write it up), we reach Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, popularly considered the worst of the Trek films. To be fair, in most technical respects, it's terribly weak. William Shatner, taking his contractually-guaranteed turn as director, is not as dynamic as Leonard Nimoy or Nicholas Meyer. The effects are below the standards of any of the films that came before; the second to fourth film had Industrial Light and Magic doing the effects, but everyone at the effects house were busy working on Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Bran Ferren came in to do the effects, on a ridiculously short turnaround, and it's not like his work is bad – he and his people had previously done Little Shop of Horrors and Altered States – it does mean the fifth film looks like it was older than the previous three. The Enterprise model had been damaged from overuse and touring.
By Daniel Tessier5 years ago in Futurism
Movie Trek 4: There Be Whales Here!
Star Trek IV is the most atypical of the Trek films, and yet, easily the most popular, at least until its crown was challenged by the 2009 Abrams movie. Completing the “Spock trilogy,” it continues the ongoing storyline of the films. The film opens on Vulcan, a few months after the end of The Search for Spock, with our gallant crew still on the run from Starfleet (who can't have been looking for them particularly hard, given that they've been hiding out on what is practically the Federation's second capital world). We have some time with Spock, his family and civilisation; it's wonderful for the fans to see Jane Wyatt back as Spock's mum Amanda Grayson.The newly resurrected Spock is still learning to be himself, having the relearn not only his everyday skills but the emotional epiphany he achieved way back in The Motion Picture. The film references its two immediate predecessors heavily in its opening scene, although it does commit a major sin by parking Saavik, robbing us of the trilogy's strongest new character. (Fan lore and allegedly the early drafts have it that Saavik remains on Vulcan because she is pregnant with Spock's child, a fascinating avenue for storytelling which unfortunately is nowhere on screen.) Saavik is unceremoniously dropped from the crew, staying behind on Vulcan without any consideration of how the previous film's events may have affected her.
By Daniel Tessier5 years ago in Futurism
Movie Trek 3: Re-Genesis
We come to the third movie in our Trek watch-a-thon. The Search for Spock formed the middle part of a linked trilogy that charted the lengths that Kirk and Spock would go for each other. While it's considered the weak link in the trilogy by some - suffering from the supposed curse of the odd numbers - to my mind it's a fine adventure with real heart.
By Daniel Tessier5 years ago in Futurism
