Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Something I wrote. stephenwoolston.substack.com/p/solaris-an...stephenwoolston.substack.comSolaris and Star Trek—The Motion Picture may be more alike than you thinkHow time spent with Stanislaw Lem’s classic science fiction novel made me realize I’d seen these themes before — but they came later. 001
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026My latest audiobook. I love the films by Tarkovsky and Soderbergh but the author supposedly felt neither film really grasped what he conveyed in his book. Now is my chance to explore that claim for myself. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A fabulous television music release from Intrada records. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Today's Star Trek goes Shakespeare in space: The Conscience of the King. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I’m no graphic designer, but yellow seems an odd choice of dominant color for the cover of the new reissue of William Peter Blatty’s novel of THE EXORCIST. Is it just me? 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Today's Star Trek. Making innovative use of the then unseen Captain Pike pilot, The Cage, we have The Menagerie Part 1. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Today's Star Trek. One of the greatest. The first episode filmed for the regular series but the tenth one out. The Corbomite Maneuver. 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The last round of holiday photos. This time from Taranto. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 19/09/2026One more set from our holiday. Back to Bari now! 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 19/09/2026My early morning film in 4K. While most of England still sleeps... 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Speaking of discs, my dear friend Charlie, @filmsonwax.bsky.social sent me this in response to my current interest in the films, music, and book of Solaris. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Believe it or not, I am buying less discs at the moment, but a lot of preorders seem to be showing up at once! 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026On this date in 1979, composer John Barry started recording his score for the Disney space disaster movie, The Black Hole. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The accordian player was playing Nino Rota, by the way. Love theme from The Godfather. More photos from our holiday in the Puglia region of Italy. Now let us take you to Alberobello. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Today's spinny disc arrival. Film music from Russia, with love. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026On this date in 1974, John Barry started recording his fabulous score for The Day of the Locust. Some of his best work evoked glamorised America while bringing out the hollowness and loss behind the veil. He did it in Midnight Cowboy, Frances, Chaplin, The Cotton Club, and Monte Walsh too. 110
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026This morning’s Star Trek. The Enemy Within, another classic which introduced the Vulcan neck pinch. Written by Richard Matheson with a terrific score by Sol Kaplan. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Some high class spinny disc stuff arrived today. Well, maybe not “high” exactly, but the kind of pulp I can enjoy. My mum told me a story of how she got scared out of her wits watching Trollenberg when I was a baby and dad tapped on the window at a scary point. As for Angela Mao, what’s not to love? 100
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The next batch of photos from our holiday. This is back around Bari itself. There was a lot of police on this evening because Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni was addressing supporters in Bari this evening. We didn’t go to that. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 13/09/2026More from our holiday in the Puglia region of Italy. We've taken you round Bari. This time, let us take to you to Monopoli. What a lovely day that was. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 13/09/2026More than a classic gothic horror. More than a tome on isolation and prejudice. More than the philosophical question of who is the real monster. It says something important about humanity’s addiction to its own destruction in greed for achievement. The classics never become irrelevant. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 13/09/2026A stunning film. If any film was 2001 meets The Shining, it’s this, although The Shining didn’t exist then. Russian films use visual and temporal language in much more interesting ways than American films on average. I’m watching it again to decide if I want the Tarkovsky soundtrack box set. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Number 3 in my one per day retrospective of Star Trek in its 60th anniversary. Another of my favourites. The second pilot redressed as a regular series episode. Where No Man Has Gone Before. 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 12/09/2026More photos from our holiday in the Puglia region of Italy. These are the waterside of Bari in a summer's evening of long shadows. We'll take you round Monopoli, Lecce, Alberobello, Matera for you 007 fans, and Taranto in later batches. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 12/09/2026We just got back from our holiday in the Puglia region in Italy. We stayed in Bari and visited Monopoli, Lecce, Alberabello, Matera (of No Time To Die fame), and Taranto. There's too many pictures for one post, so I'll post in batches. Starting with Bari itself. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 12/09/2026It is time for the daily Star Trek. One of my absolute favourites — Charlie X. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Now we're home and Star Trek is 60, that will, of course, be my next one episode per day retrospective. I was going to watch the episodes in production order, but to recreate how I first saw the series, I've decided to watch in broadcast order. Starting, of course, with The Man Trap. 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026This reminds me it's 45 years to the day since I first watched The Omen and heard the Jerry Goldsmith score that impressed me so much it made me a full tilt soundtracker. I was already a fan of the 007 music since the ITV premiere of Goldfinger in 1976, and Star Wars. This sent me discovering wider. 040
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Added to my collection. Another writer of deliciously clever macabre. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 29/08/2026007 is long associated with Aston Martin. This is the 1976. Would you have preferred this in The Spy Who Loved Me? I love the Astons, but I love the Lotus Esprit too — and the Aston might have been less credible as a car submarine. (Not that a car submarine was EVER credible!!) 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 29/08/202660 years ago today, Fred Steiner recorded his music for one of my favourite Star Trek episodes: Charlie X. As a kid, long before the internet and even home video, I recorded the audio to cassette from a BBC1 broadcast. That audio was imprinted in my mind long before I got to see the visuals again. 220
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I love finding books with dedications. I don't have this one, STAR TREK ANNUAL 1969, but it makes me sad. I have no idea who Stephen is. Not me. If he was 8, he'd be 66 now. Parents probably gone. Maybe he's gone too. Maybe he clung to this his whole life. Who knows. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Sobering thought: I’ve owned this CD longer than Bruce Lee actually lived for. Purchased in 1993, 33 years ago. I remember my excitement at seeing it in the racks of the Norwich Virgin store that Saturday as vividly as if it was yesterday. 010
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026I was reading about Rhonda Parker, who played Rhonda, assistant to Mother in the Tara King years of The Avengers. Articles suggested she ended up homeless. I don’t know if that’s true or one of those rumours that gets out of hand, but if it is true, that’s terrible. Well, homelessness always is. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026This is surely one of the greatest composer showcase albums ever assembled. Two hours of gorgeous music by the composer of some of cinema’s most articulate music. If you are a soundtracker and own nothing by this great, composer — a fault all by itself — surely you must acquire at least this one. 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Four of my all-time favourite albums — pictured from the box set out 5 years ago. They are beautiful recordings to immerse oneself in imagination, emotion, and the deliciously macabre. These beloved albums are what turned me on to Bernard Herrmann’s music and made me a lifelong devoted fan. 020
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 27/07/2026A spinny disc arrival. John Williams is a legend. Okay, nothing since The Force Awakens has been up to the era of Jaws, The Cowboys, Superman, The Fury, and The Empire Strikes Back, but in his 90s, that’s understandable. Anything by him is going to have that musical personality we love so much. 030
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Spinny disks of the disturbing kind. I love the sturdy slip cases on these. 000
Stephen Woolston @woollers.bsky.social · 23/07/2026My copies of the new 4K UHD disks of Threads and The War Game were supposed to be delivered today, but as often happens with FedEx, they failed to keep their delivery time promise. Never mind. I’m going to warm up for them by watching The Day After. Read on: substack.com/@stephenwool...substack.comThe Day After pulls its punches but is still devastatingA commentary on the famous nuclear war film. 000
