Dungeon Tile Mapper

WotC is producing sets of 2-D dungeon tiles for D&D. These are really nice full-color images on thick glossy cardboard. A fan created a drag-and-drop dungeon tile mapper that WotC is now hosting on the official site. More details here at The Miniatures Page.

Trek Remastered -- "Mirror, Mirror" and "Space Seed"

I'm running behind on posts again... two weekends ago saw the premiere of "Mirror, Mirror" and a rerun of "...Tribbles", and last weekend was "Space Seed" and a rerun of "Mirror...". The effects were fantastic, especially the new shots in "Space Seed" of the Botany Bay and the Enterprise. The new model of the Enterprise that CBS Digital is using (first seen in "...Tribbles") looks great, and the low-angle view of the Enterprise gave an impressive illusion of the size of the ship. Very well done!

• "Space Seed" screenshots and FX reel
• "Mirror, Mirror" screenshots and FX reel
• "Space Seed" review
• "Mirror, Mirror" review

This weekend's new ep is "The Menagerie, Part 1". This is the one with Captain Christopher Pike and clips from the original pilot, "The Cage".

Is R'lyeh rising from the Pacific?

Mariners report new island in South Pacific

"WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A new volcanic island has risen from the South Pacific near Tonga, according to reports from two vessels that passed the area."

The rest at CNN.

More Trek YouTube Videos

To go along with my earlier post, I thought I would pass along these links to other interesting videos:

Deep Space 9 - Trials and Tribble-ations VFX reel (compare the new remastered "Tribbles" to the fx done for this time-travel DS9 ep.)

Battle Montage - several minutes of the best starship battles from later episodes of TNG, DS9, and Voyager.

Star Trek Tribute - I think this guy stole the footage from the one linked above.

Trek Remastered -- "The Trouble with Tribbles"

Saturday night's episode was a rerun of last week's "Catspaw", and the new version of "The Trouble with Tribbles" was on early Monday morning. "Tribbles" has a large amount of exterior shots, which all have been redone. I really like the changes and updates. The remastered print looks great, at least on a regular TV.

From those fine folks at Trekmovie.com, here's a review, several comparison screenshots, and a link to a 2 min. 25 sec. YouTube video of all the new FX. The video's creator promises to post a visual FX reel for each new episode going forward, so if he does I wil post links here. It's a wonderful way to preview and review all the changes.

We are at the start of a great run of episodes: "Tribbles" this past weekend, then next week is the outstanding fan-favorite "Mirror, Mirror", followed "Space Seed" ("Khaaaaaannnn!"), "The Menagerie, Parts 1 and 2", "The Corbomite Maneuver"... Good times.

"By this axe, I rule!!"

Yesterday was the official street date of the latest Robert E. Howard trade paperback volume from Del Rey and Wandering Star, Kull: Exile of Atlantis. It collects all of the Kull stories, poems and fragments without any editorial changes or story completions, and illustrated by Justin Sweet. If you're looking for brooding Pre-Cataclysmic sword-and-sorcery action, pick up a copy!

Trek Remastered -- "Catspaw"

"Catspaw", the Halloween Trek episode, was the Remastered ep this past weekend. The local Fox station had it in the Saturday night timeslot which had been a rerun of the previous weekend's show. I tried to stay up and watch the late Sunday night showing but I fell asleep, so I don't know what ep they had at that time.

The major revision in this episode was the new matte of the castle. You can see a screenshot here or read a review here.

Next week is another highly-anticipated episode: "The Trouble With Tribbles". There's a great preview on the official Star Trek site showing a before-and-after view of Deep Space Station K-7. They say that the ep will not re-use any of the CGI FX shots created for the DS9 ep "Trials and Tribble-ations."