It\u2019s another week here at BCB After Dark: the hippest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We\u2019re open again for business. We\u2019re so glad you decided to stop by. Come in out of the cold. We can check your coat for you. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.<\/p>\n
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Last week I asked you if, after the trade for Edward Cabrera and the signing of Alex Bregman, the Cubs were now the team to beat in the National League Central.<\/a> Seventy-two percent of you agreed that the Cubs are now the favorites in the Central. Another 27 percent went with the defending champs, the Brewers. The Reds managed to eke out one percent of the vote, which was more than what the Pirates and Cardinals got.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. The BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic is well underway, but you\u2019re still free to join in the fun. But you\u2019re also free to skip that. You won\u2019t hurt my feelings.<\/p>\n Tonight we\u2019re featuring the Charles Mingus Sextet in Norway in 1964 playing the Billy Strayhorn tune made famous by Duke Ellington, \u201cTake the \u2018A\u2019 Train.\u201d<\/p>\n Mingus is the bassist, of course, and Eric Dolphy plays bass clarinet. Jake Byard is on piano, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Johnny Coles on trumpet and Dannie Richmond is the drummer.<\/p>\n You voted in the BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic between Star Wars and Alien and Alien pulled off the upset.<\/a> A mild upset, to be sure, but an upset nonetheless. I did call it the \u201cStar Wars bracket\u201d afterall. I do wonder if Star Wars\u2019 reputation has suffered because of the uneven quality of all the recent intellectual property spinoffs. I\u2019ve only seen a few of them and I haven\u2019t really considered myself a \u201cStar Wars fan\u201d since I was about 14 years old. But I know that there are millions out there that still revere it. But the same is true of Alien, I guess.<\/p>\n Tonight we have the second semifinal of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d bracket between the number-one seed Blade Runner and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.<\/p>\n Blade Runner (1982). Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I wrote last time about Blade Runner.<\/a><\/p>\n Blade Runner is the one film that gets mentioned a lot as an alternative to 2001: A Space Odyssey when critics are naming the greatest science fiction film of all time. I guess Stalker and Metropolis might get a few mentions as well, but it\u2019s those two that, it seems to me, get mentioned the most often. It\u2019s not hard to see why. Both of them are science fiction films with ambition. They both are trying to transcend the genre and elevate it at the same time.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the opening scene of Blade Runner. I considered giving you the famous \u201ctears in rain\u201d speech<\/a> as a clip, but since that\u2019s a spoiler at the end of the film, I thought it best to avoid giving you that one for those of you who still haven\u2019t seen it. But those of you already familiar with it can click on the link above if you want to relive it.<\/p>\n 5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Directed by Nicholas Meyer. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I wrote last time about The Wrath of Khan.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s entirely possible that I\u2019ve seen The Wrath of Khan more than any other film. I don\u2019t really keep track so I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ve seen it a lot. If I just want a film for pure entertainment value, there\u2019s not much better than The Wrath of Khan. There\u2019s a saying that these kinds of films are only as good as their villain, and it doesn\u2019t get much better than Montalban playing Khan here. But the film also takes advantage of our familiarity with the crew of the Enterprise and lets them play into their strengths as well. There\u2019s also a video online where director Meyer explained how he made Shatner do take after take in order to tire him out and get a more subdued and world-weary Kirk. That somewhat explains the good job Shatner did here as well.<\/p>\n The scene where Khan reveals himself on Ceti Alpha Five.<\/p>\n You have until Wednesday to vote. Coming up next, Brazil (1985) takes on Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991).<\/p>\n Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and the movies.<\/p>\n In the time between the Cubs failing to sign NPB-import Tatsuya Imai and the Cubs trading for Edward Cabrera, there was a lot of talk about the Cubs pivoting to free agent Zac Gallen to bolster their starting rotation. There was also a lot of talk about the Cubs interest in Zac Gallen earlier as Bob Nightengale erroneously reported, as Bob is wont to do, that the Cubs had come to terms with Gallen. Nightengale may have been wrong about the signing, but other writers did confirm that the Cubs were interested in the former Diamondbacks right-hander.<\/p>\n It did seem like the Cubs interest in Gallen was over after the recent moves. For one, trading for Cabrera lessens the need for a starting pitcher on the Cubs. Two, the signing of Alex Bregman puts the Cubs right up against the luxury tax threshold and it is widely assumed that even if the Cubs were willing to go a little above that, they wouldn\u2019t go enough over it sign a major free agent.<\/p>\n But the market for Gallen, 30, has not developed like he and his agent Scott Boras would have liked. There are a few reasons for that. The first is that Gallen, an ace in 2022 and 2023 and not much worse in 2024, had a poor season in 2025. We\u2019ll get into that a bit later. The other reason is that Gallen turned down a qualifying offer from the Diamondbacks and teams are reluctant to give up a draft pick on top paying a lot of money for someone who isn\u2019t elite. If you just base it on his 2025 season, Gallen isn\u2019t an elite pitcher anymore. So it seems that Boras is pivoting to his normal tactic in such situations\u2014have the player sign a short-term deal that would get him back on the market for a big payday while h\u2019e still young.<\/p>\n