Daily Archives: February 5, 2013

RIP Robin Sachs of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

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ethan buffy the vampire slayer

Here’s sad news.

Robin Sachs, the wonderfully clever Brit who played the recurring role of chaos worshipper Ethan Rayne on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died at age 61.

Sachs was also unrecognizable under heavy makeup as the alien baddie in “Galaxy Quest.”

Sachs was memorable in a half-dozen episodes of “Buffy” as Ethan, old friend and antagonist of Giles.

Sachs debuted as Ethan in the early episode “Halloween” as the costume shop owner, then returned in the great “Band Candy” episode and others.

He had a scene that some of us still quote. After Giles checks a crypt for suspicious characters, then leaves, Ethan pops out of the darkness with a typical movie/TV cliche, “Oh yes, old friend. Search all you want …” or something like that.

But in typical Joss Whedon fashion, Giles hears Ethan’s voice and bursts back in, prompting Ethan to yell, “Oh bugger!”

Sachs brought a sinister yet comic aura to every appearance. We’ll miss him.

 

Geektastic: The Force is with us

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return-of-the-jedi-vader-and-luke

I’ve lost track of the rumors and likely developments coming, fast and furious, at geeks and genre fans this week.

Rumors that Marvel is planning to base a lot of its Phase Three movies – following the “Avengers” sequel, a group of films to include “Ant-Man” and possibly “Dr. Strange” – on a multi-movie adaptation of the “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” comics.

Reports that Chris Pratt, the goofy guy from TV’s “Parks and Recreation” and one of the Seals from “Zero Dark Thirty,” would play Peter, the human lead of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” one of Marvel’s Phase Two tentpoles.

The announcement by Disney’s Robert Iger that, in addition to making the three “Star Wars” sequels, the studio would make stand-alone stories in the “Star Wars” universe. A Yoda movies? A Boba Fett movie? Does it sound like Disney is following the game plan established by its Marvel subsidiary?

And heck, all that’s in addition to the line-up of movies already coming out this year, from “Iron Man 3” to “Star Trek Into Darkness” to “Thor: The Dark World.”

My son doesn’t remember a time when each year wasn’t a non-stop parade of science fiction, fantasy and comic book characters on the big screen. When you couldn’t pick up a magazine and see Iron Man looking back at you from the cover.

But I remember.

So it’s a pretty damn cool time to be us, huh?