Matthew Kresal
Bio
Matthew Kresal was born and raised in North Alabama though he never developed a Southern accent. His essays have been featured in numerous books and his first novel Our Man on the Hill was published by Sea Lion Press in 2021.
Stories (99)
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Spies, Moles, And 'The Game'
It seems as though the Cold War spy thriller is making something of a come back in recent years. The last few years have seen a spate of new adaptations of the classic Cold War era works of author John le Carre ranging from the Oscar nominated film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to a slew of BBC audio drama adaptations of the various novels. Authors such as Charles Cumming in his novel The Trinity Six have also explored the legacy of the Cold War as well. Yet there's also been new tales told as well, pastiches of a thought dead genre. One particularly interesting one was the BBC's six part thriller The Game, created by Toby Whithouse, which took viewers into MI5 in early 1970s Britain.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Geeks
Doctor Who: Heralds Of Destruction Review
Ever since Doctor Who came back to our screens in 2005, it seems as though past doctors have been sidelined somewhat in prose. Indeed the novel range featuring them disappeared, there have only been sporadic novels since then, and their appearances in multi-Doctor comic arcs. It's only been in the last couple of years that Titan Comics has sought to readdress the balance somewhat with a string of miniseries featuring past Doctors. The latest features the Third Doctor (played on-screen by Jon Pertwee between 1970 and 1974) and sees a return to Who by writer Paul Cornell. Cornell's past Who works include both the novel and later TV adaptation of Human Nature as well as the 2005 episode Father's Day and the groundbreaking 1991 Who novel Timewyrm: Revelation. He was also, back in the day, not a fan of this era at all. Which makes it all the more interesting that what he wrote is essentially something of a blast from the past for this Doctor and Cornell's apparent farewell to Who as a writer.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Futurism
Moving 'Beyond Earth'. Top Story - July 2017.
For decades at least, the dream of a human colony moving our species beyond this planet has been a dream shared by both science fiction and science fact. It's an idea that has yet again come into vogue. Yet the question remains: how would we even set about the task and where do we go? While the popular answer seems to be the Moon or Mars, writer Charles Wohlforth and planetary Amanda Hendrix's Beyond Earth: Our Path To A New Home In The Planets seeks to answer both and propose an altogether different destination: Saturn's moon Titan.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Futurism
Review: 'The Trinity Six'
For those with an interest in espionage, the Cambridge Five remain well known. Five graduates of Trinity College Cambridge, the group infiltrated high levels positions inside the British government between the 1930s and 1950s and spied for the Soviet Union. They handed over names of agents, exposed entire operations, revealed details of the Enigma code-breaking effort, and helped to tip the Soviets off on efforts to build the atomic bomb. It took decades to expose all five but imagine, for a moment, that there was a sixth Cambridge spy. One who has managed to remain hidden but is now on the verge of being exposed. That is the premise of Charles Cumming's 2011 novel which sees the past coming back to haunt the present.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Geeks
'White Man's Burden': Reality Just Changed Sides
One of the things that film can do is give the viewer a new perspective. It can be an empathetic medium, allowing us to see the world through a different pair of eyes. Or even turn the world on its head in the modern equivalent of fables. 1995's White Man's Burden from director Desmond Nakano is just such a modern fable. It's a film that takes the racial and economic status quo of America and turns it on its head with fascinating results.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Geeks
Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Female Doctors
The sixteenth of July 2017 will go down in Doctor Who lore as the day that Peter Capaldi's replacement in the lead role was announced. To the surprise of many, incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall selected not another actor to play the role but an actress. The actress in question being British thespian Jodie Whittaker, a veteran of Chibnall's hit ITV series Broadchurch and had established her genre conditionals appearing in the alien invasion film Attack The Block.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Futurism
The Lobbyist As Anti-Hero
There's a line in an early episode of Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing where White House chief of staff Leo McGarry (played by the late John Spencer) tells the staff that "There are two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make 'em: laws and sausages." Yet the process by which a bill becomes law has proven to be rich ground for writers and filmmakers from Advise & Consent to Aaron Sorkin efforts like The American President and the aforementioned West Wing. More recently, filmmaker John Madden has turned to the lobbying efforts that help make bills law for his film Miss Sloane, starring Jessica Chastain in the title role.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in The Swamp
Viewing 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Film
Anyone with even a modicum of interest in the spy genre will be aware of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series from the 1960s. It's one of those shows that, even if like me you've seen next to nothing of, you'll be aware of it. It was also a series that seemed set for a big screen incarnation in recent years with everyone from George Clooney to Steven Soderbergh and Tom Cruise reported to be involved. It was only in 2015 that it finally made the leap, directed by Guy Ritchie. The results though were decidedly average.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Geeks
Jurgens, Von Braun, & 'I Aim At The Stars'
For those of a certain age or with an interest in the history of space exploration, the name of Wernher Von Braun will be a familiar one. Von Braun was one of the fathers of NASA's rocket program, the man who helped not only to build the massive Saturn V rocket that took the Apollo missions to the moon but also helped to sell the idea of space exploration to the American public. He was also the man behind Germany's V-2 rocket program during the Second World War, an act which (along with his potential involvement in and definite awareness of the use of slave labor to build said rockets) might also make him something of a war criminal. When Von Braun was at the height of his fame in the late 1950s-early 1960s, the idea of making a film about his life was deemed to be a good idea. The result was I Aim At The Stars, released in 1960 and which stands as an interesting historical piece if nothing else.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Futurism
Cops, Mystics, and Steampunk
One is often told not to judge a book by its cover. Yet when it comes to The Precinct, however, that was precisely what caught my attention. Perhaps that it isn't surprising given it is a graphic novel and that it was the combination of its artwork of a late nineteenth-century policeman with a mechanical arm with a woman wearing a vaguely Victorian yet mystic outfit along with the book being given the subtitle “A Steampunk Adventure.” Intrigued and one library checking out later, the results were definitely fun, to say the least.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Geeks
Doctor Who: The Doctor Falls Review
Warning: Potential spoilers for the episode below. In the review I wrote a week ago for World Enough And Time, I praised that episode but wondered at the end of the day if showrunner Steven Moffat would actually be able to deliver on its promise in the actual finale. There have been times in the past where finales failed to lived up to expectations after a strong build-up (Wedding Of River Song in Matt Smith's era and especially last season's Hell Bent which followed the instant classic Heaven Sent). What would Moffat do with his final finale episode given he had two versions of the Master, a companion who had been turned into a Cybermen, and a Doctor preparing to exit the series? Would he deliver or would The Doctor Falls turn into “Moffat Fails (Again)”?
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Futurism
Carl Sagan's 'Billions & Billions'
More than two decades after his untimely passing, Carl Sagan's life and work continue to resonate. The famous documentary series Cosmos, which helped to make him the best-known scientist of his time, was revised and updated just a couple of years ago, introducing him to a new generation that might not even have been born when he passed away. Yet in reading Billions & Billions, a posthumously published collection of his essays from 1997 which I encountered earlier this year, I found myself struck by just how much this particular set of his work remains surprisingly relevant today.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Futurism
