Science Fiction Double Feature

That’s double feature times plenty, in fact. It’s that time of year, which means tomorrow morning I head blueward for the 30th annual Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, once better known as the 24-Hour Science Fiction Film Marathon (but they had to change the name because people kept asking “Wait, I don’t get it … where do you guys run to?”).

My first was SF/7, give or take, back at the old Orson Welles theatre, when Kathy and I did the 12-hour Night Flight novice run back in 1982 (in only 12 parsecs, surely). I remember precisely nothing about it, except that she and I were still speaking at the time. I’ve been to most of them since then, which means — I’m working from the law of averages here, you understand — that I must be old and fat, and have either a pocket protector or a slide rule and know how to use it.

These gatherings are great bizarre fun. I’ve seen nine of this year’s 13 main features before, but some — Superman, for example, and by gum I hope Planet of the Apes is the 1968 original and not that dreadful remake — are welcome blasts from the past. I haven’t seen THX 1138 since I was an eager 10-year-old kid, and I can’t wait to see it again.

Speaking of which, move quick and you can see the new trailer for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon: it may only be for today, who knows. See you on the other side of the weekend. And watch out for that Dark Side stuff. I know it looks like fun but the more you muck around with it the worse the movies get. And someone has to clean up the mess in the end.