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Alastair JR Ball

Alastair JR Ball is a London based science fiction and politics writer. When not writing he can usually be found in a pub, art gallery or the cinema. He gets stuff ready in advance

  • Year In Review

2024: A year in film

  • 31st December 2024
Dune: Part Two

For the last few years, I have been predicting that change has been on the horizon for Hollywood, due to the marshalling of a range of factors – AI, streaming wars, lean economic times, social…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Politics Articles

Death Star terror, Sith secret police and the Banality of Evil: How the writing of Hannah Arendt explains the evil of the Galactic Empire

  • 10th September 2024
Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars The Return of the Jedi

The Galactic Empire in Star Wars is an oppressive state that tramples on the freedom of its citizens to preserve its power. However, there are many types of oppressive states, from those that existed in…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Year In Review

2023: A year in film

  • 31st December 2023
Oppenheimer Cillian Murphy

I was very pleased that one of the biggest cultural events of 2023 was the world’s most unlikely cinematic showdown. Christopher Nolan’s dark biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project and creator…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Year In Review

2022: A year in film

  • 31st December 2022
Everything Everywhere All At Once

In 2022, the cinema was back in a big way, and I was very pleased to be able to watch 36 films released this year; either at the cinema or on streaming services. The world…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Non-English Sci-Fi

In The Silent Sea a dying Earth is more terrifying than horrors on the moon

  • 11th May 2022
The Silent Sea

Netflix’s hit Korean sci-fi drama The Silent Sea has a claustrophobic intensity that makes it addictive watching. The drama takes place in the confined space of a moon base, where murderous inhuman creatures stalk the…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Year In Review

2021: A year in film

  • 31st December 2021
Dune 2020 film

Reading back my summary of film in 2020, I was reminded of the desperate state cinema was in a year ago. In 2020, cinemas were dogged by closures and low audience numbers, due to many…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Politics Articles

The politics of Dune come from our past and not our future

  • 26th October 2021
Dune

Frank Herbert’s novel Dune is inherently political. The book is so clearly laced with politics that a meme has appeared in Dune fandom mocking those who deny that it is a work of political fiction….

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Non-English Sci-Fi
  • Politics Articles

Osmosis shows technology cannot fix our flawed humanity

  • 17th August 2021
Osmosis TV show

Would you put a chip in your brain to find true love? This either romantic or dystopian question is the premise of Netflix’s French sci-fi thriller Osmosis. The show is set in the eponymous tech…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Politics Articles
  • Spy Films

25 years of my love for Mission: Impossible

  • 5th July 2021
Mission: Impossible 25 years

On an episode of the Moderate Fantasy Violence podcast, I described Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films as “the little franchise that could,” alluding to the streak in the British character that always roots for the…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles
  • Music

Ten more new songs to get through lockdown

  • 31st May 2021
Sleaford Mods and Billy Nomates in Mork n Mindy

Now that lockdown is ending and we’re taking our first tentative steps outside again, I have decided to write a tribute to Tom Coley’s list of the new music he discovered during lockdown. My list…

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Alastair JR Ball
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MFV #217 – How adult should a cartoon blue hedgehog be?

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27th March 2025

MFV #237 – Enjoyment Vs Content

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MFV #224 – Hungry Hectare

26th September 2024

MFV #217 – How adult should a cartoon blue hedgehog be?

20th June 2024

MFV #217 – How adult should a cartoon blue hedgehog be?

20th June 2024

MFV #224 – Hungry Hectare

26th September 2024

MFV #237 – Enjoyment Vs Content

27th March 2025

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