The Daiku Maryu (in Watercolor)

It dawned on me I never posted this effort and entry into The Sci-Fi Fanatic painting series.

I posted the one I did recently of The Phoenix from Battle Of The Planets, but omitted posting about this one completed before it.

This is the Daiku Maryu from Gaiking.

I'm a big fan of mech and spaceships and this one is like a hybrid of the two. Anyone who knows the series Gaiking knows that Gaiking is assembled from the head of the great ship called the Daiku Maryu.

The watercolors really popped on this one and I was generally thrilled with the overall final product.

I'm always finding flaws and things that I would like to have improved upon, but nothing is perfect.

In fact, the back drop was a complete disaster, but the end result was much better than it appeared it was going to be. I really need to nail those backdrops first and have a better plan on these things. I'm always so fixated on the ships or mech and tend to overlook the need for a strong background.

Anyway, this is the end result for Gaiking's Daiku Maryu, the great space dragon.

Falling Skies S1 E6: Sanctuary (Part 1)

"They'll never be safe. Safe is over! We could die any day."

"Still a free country, right?" (I'm beginning to wonder - The Sci-Fi Fanatic)

"Hey, don't you forget who the enemy is. ...if we fall apart now and we start turning on each other, then it doesn't matter when the attack comes because we've already lost."

With episode 6 things taken a considerably darker turn when it comes to humanity's fate. Conflict from humanity within is just as dangerous as the aliens. If the aliens weren't bad enough the darkest of human hearts enter the fray. Falling Skies, Season One, Episode 6, Sanctuary (Part 1) begins to illustrate the aliens aren't the only things with which to fret, distrust and fear. Taking a page out of the best of TV science fiction from The Walking Dead to Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies delivers an entry that squarely declares the survivors have a lot more to be concerned about than just the space invaders. Man versus man amidst an alien invasion is the order of the day. Are we ever really surprised at this point?

These are desperate times indeed, but it's just like humanity to miss the point concerning survival, rather selfishly subscribing to the Darwinian theory of survival (of the fittest) through self-serving ends.

Falling Skies continues to take great pains to create a credible post-apocalyptic world thanks to the alien invasion. There is even a beautifully executed visual moment that pays homage to Steven Spielberg's own War Of The Worlds (2005) when an alien crushes a school globe.

Writer Joel Anderson Thompson and director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan capture the alien literally popping our planet. It underscores the alien takeover and that these are not the friendly E.T.s of Spielberg legend, but it also creates that direct allusion to Spielberg's own remake of War Of The Worlds (1953). You'll recall the promotional artwork for the Spielberg epic.

Terry Clayton, played by Henry Czerny (assigned the delicious villain role opposite Harrison Ford in Clear And Present Danger) delivers the face of human betrayal here. The grotesque betrayal of mankind is a recurring theme in science fiction whether it be Glen A. Larson's Battlestar Galactica, Irwin Allen's Lost In Space and Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead to name just a few. We are constantly at war with ourselves as much as those nasty alien, external forces. It's the internal struggle that truly threatens to tear us apart. That theme couldn't be more true today as of this writing given our current political and cultural climate (driven by both domestic and foreign forces at work). The desperation of man for power is ultimately destructive. If Sanctuary suggests anything it's that there is none.

The episode explores further aspects of the alien physiology including thought transference. It ruminates on the destruction of the nuclear family and tradition through a hive-like mind connection or imprinting on humans by outside forces. It further illustrates the struggles experienced today. In the series that alien/human connection softens a negative perception toward the aliens in those harnessed whether it be authentic or mere brainwashing as part of the alien lifeform's nature. This links to the kind of nesting connectivity witnessed in Silent Kill (Episode 5). It explores programming something we've experienced culturally today through a year long global pandemic.

Falling Skies offers plenty of dramatic moments and works at a slow burn to develop its characters. There are truly human, emotional moments in the tale that underscore the weight of human survival. The Tom Mason character continues to utilize military history (WWII, blitzkriegs) as a touchstone truly grounding the science fiction war in play.

Experiencing Falling Skies in all of its apocalyptic alien glory is a bit like viewing a deconstructed civil war into an alien frontier. With the American flag waving, the old wooden houses, the rural and suburban landscapes and the fact everyone is attempting to reacclimate to the new world since the alien arrival, it echoes aspects of our own civil war. The series does a splendid job of repurposing that historical vibe in a new landscape complemented by all of the sprinkled history references throughout.

Falling Skies continues to deliver gripping human drama with just the right balance of alien excitement and character attention. After all who cares if the skies are falling with aliens if we don't give a damn about our brother and sisters.

Writer: Joel Anderson Thompson.

Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Taken, Invasion, Battlestar Galactica).

Falling Skies S1 E5: Silent Kill

"Studying them is our best chance at figuring out how to stop them."

The fifth entry in the series makes good use of suspense in what might be best remembered as the rescue of Ben episode.

Falling Skies, Season One, Episode 5, Silent Kill is another solid entry in the series ongoing alien invasion versus humanity story and it's once again a pleasure to watch it slowly and sometimes silently unfold.

It's worth noting that much of the suspense written for the entry was generated by scriptwriter Joe Weisberg. This would be the first of just three entries by Weisberg who would exit after a story for Season Two. Weisberg would become the king of television suspense when he departed Falling Skies to create, write and produce six exceptional seasons of The Americans (2013-2018), a truly underrated gem of television exploring the tensions of the cold war through two Russian spies and their family during the Reagan years and the 1980s when technology surely had its limitations.

Falling Skies, is replete with technological prowess, and was all the better for Weisberg's input too. The series is built upon actual, tangible monsters as much as it may rely upon some still solid CGI.
The resulting effort, Silent Kill, is a quality installment in the impressive science fiction drama.

For all of my complaining over the years about the CGI and special effects work in things like the Marvel franchise, Falling Skies offers some relatively spectacular production work on a TV budget. All of it is ultimately well-grounded by the human dynamics of the series something Weisberg would demonstrate to great effect on The Americans.

Director: Fred Toye. Writer: Joe Weisberg.