Dan O'Bannon

I can't believe I missed the news of the death of Dan O'Bannon! It's sad to see it hidden away in the corner of the news, given how influential he was. I suppose the first time I ran into his sphere of influence was Dark Star: if you've never seen the film then I definitely recommend it. Not many films can say they managed to combine an orange beachball-alien and a surfing astronaut so well! Of course Alien was more successful and probably more influential, but I think I'll always associate him more with Dark Star. It's a sad day, but I'm sure that wherever he is now he'll be teaching them about phenomenology.