Alex Rogan

My electric stove

... he's gonna be providing our main character, Alex Rogan, with some advice, but he doesn't fall into any of the common movie tropes for African American actors.

He's not, uh, magical, nor is he just 100% sage.

Kinda nice that we're meeting Mags here, played by Catherine Mary Stewart, even before we meet Alex, who's played by Lance Guest.

A picture like this could get me a job.

She gets to take us through the park, show us the communication system that we have of-

Though it shouldn't be overlooked that video arcades, when they did have their time in the sun, it was all too brief.

Uh, one of the [laughs] reasons why they were often shut down wasn't necessarily for lack of business, but because they were seen as being dens of inequity, as they were portrayed in Graydon Clark's seminal film Joysticks from 1983.

Ah, yes, the, the time dilation tunnel here, which we'll see more of later.

But this is basically, uh, going backwards from the trip that our lead character, Alex Rogan, takes to get to Rylos.

But we're, as if we're in the ship going down to meet him on Earth.

A cosmic backward zoom.

I came out of film school thinking I was gonna be the Vincente Minnelli of the '80s and '90s.

And I think you can see a little bit of the, the broadness and the theatricality of the characters, almost like a musical without the music.

Alex Rogan is doing you too.

Alex Gardi.

I had like a little two-pack of Last Starfighter.

Alex Rogan and Grig, the lizard-looking guy.

Was it Grig or whatever?

I think so, yeah.