Trek Remastered -- "The Doomsday Machine" re-run

This weekend is an encore presentation (that is, a rerun) of "The Doomsday Machine", originally shown as a remastered episode this February.

I won't repeat my introduction to it (with photos), but if you haven't seen it yet try to catch it this time. It is by far the best of the remastered eps so far. It has the benefit of being one of the Original Series episodes with the most "space" scenes, so there was a lot that CBS Digital could do with it.

I had seen the original "Doomsday..." about a half-dozen times, but the remastered version really was like seeing it for the first time. The new effects help crank up the tension quite a bit, and I was literally on the edge of my seat watching it.

Well, yes, I just repeated myself. But it's that good.

Hollywood, the Writers Guild strike, and me

I've been reading bits and pieces on comic book/TV/animation writer Mark Evanier's blog for months now about the possibility of a strike, and now that it's happened I think I understand the issues fairly well. If you're not certain what it's all about, take three minutes to watch Why We Fight, a video overview of the current situation and how we got here.

It's very encouraging to see that the Screen Actors Guild is supporting the WGA so strongly. They, and the Directors Guild of America, will be negotiating next year as their current contracts come to an end, and it's likely that they will be looking for the same agreements.

My plan of support is based on some things I've read here and there on the 'net. I will watch the new episodes of my favorite shows, but once they run out and go into rerun mode, I'm done. I'll also send letters to the local affiliates and the corporate offices to explain why. That's really the only way to show support: hit the studios in the pocketbook and let them know that you are. It's the same as when you write to support a cancelled show or if you see something you object to on TV. I have stacks of DVDs, books, and other responsibilities to keep me occupied while this gets hashed out.

A great place for more news and information about this topic from the inside is United Hollywood, and check out Fans4Writers for the fan perspective.

Trek Remastered -- "The Deadly Years"

"When Enterprise discovers a colony full of rapidly-aging scientists, whatever caused the rapid aging inflicts them as well." And then the Romulans attack!

The 30-second preview and a couple of new Romulan ship photos are here. I'm staying up late to watch this tomorrow night...I hope I don't fall asleep like Old Captain Kirk.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I've really been out of the loop lately. In another case of "where have I been?", I just found about this from a pulp-themed post on the Evil DM's blog.

Michelle Yeoh plays an ancient sorceress. Jet Li is the mummy of the Emperor in the title. Wow! And the photo of Brendan Fraser in character embodies the essence of "pulp". This could be amazing...

More info on the director's site and tons of production photos on a Michelle Yeoh fansite.

Trek Remastered -- "Metamorphosis"

"Metamorphosis" is this weekend's episode. I always look forward to seeing the show, but I'm especially interested in this particular one. It's been literally years since I've seen it, and I'm sure I'll react to its themes of love and loss differently now as an adult than I did as a kid. Take a look for yourself and see what you think. This is one of several episodes of the Original Series that have fine acting and an emotional punch that many people seem to have forgotten about.

Check out the 30-second preview here.

Star Trek movie teaser in the works

It shouldn't be any surprise that it's being worked on now, but the rumor mill is buzzing about the production of a teaser for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie. The juicy detail is that part of it will show the Enterprise under construction. It seems logical, as a metaphor for the rebirth of the franchise.

Trek Remastered -- "Catspaw" rerun for Halloween

This weekend is a rerun of the Halloween episode "Catspaw". This page has the official preview, the FX reel, and a high resolution screencap of the new CG castle background.

Trek Remastered -- "The Gamesters of Triskelion"

"Three disembodied beings wager on fights staged by prisoners abducted from around the galaxy."

This isn't one of the best episodes of the series, but it's a fun guilty pleasure. It's probably the episode most responsible for Kirk's reputation for hitting on alien space babes. Chekov and Uhura get some screen time, and there's good Spock/McCoy banter.

Check out the preview. I bet 100 quatloos that you'll enjoy it!

Environmental blog roundup

I neglected to post anything for Blog Action Day on Monday, so I'll link to this list of environmental blogs on buzz.blogger.com. Take a look.

Trek Remastered -- "Dagger of the Mind"

This weekend's episode is "Dagger of the Mind", the one where the Enterprise visits the Tantalus Penal Colony. Of course, trouble ensues.

There aren't many special effect shots in this episode to update, but the CBS Digital team corrected a big problem with the original. The matte painting used for the elevator entrance to the facility was reused from the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". CBS-D has taken this opportunity to change this by creating the outstanding digital matte seen above. It's very much in the mold of the best 50s/60s sci-fi art. Excellent work!

The 30-second preview is here.

Trek Remastered -- "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

This weekend's episode is a excellent First Season entry, the one with Dr. Roger Korby, the androids in the underground complex, and the android duplicate Kirk. It's also notable for guest-starring Ted Cassidy ("Lurch" from "The Addams Family") and Sherry Jackson.

You can watch the 30-second preview here.

Swarm of insects disrupt late innings

CLEVELAND (AP) -- This will forever be known as the Bug Game.

A swarm of insects descended on Jacobs Field in the eighth inning of the Cleveland Indians' 2-1 playoff victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night, leading to a bizarre scene featuring players waving their arms and gloves in an attempt to keep the pesky bugs away.

The teams kept playing into extra innings as millions of bugs nagged players on the field and in the dugouts.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/specials/playoffs/2007/10/05/yankees.indians.bugs.ap/index.html

How bizarre is that? The only thing more crazy would be giant insects.

See also: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/12.2/tsutsui.html

Star Trek: The Next Generation -- 20 Years

Today's date is generally acknowledged as the airdate of "Encounter at Farpoint", the first episode of The Next Generation. It's hard to believe that it has been 20 years. Besides being a continuation of the franchise, it started the boom in syndicated programming that continues on today (although not like the heyday of the '90s).

Trekmovie.com put up a link to the first TNG preview from 1987, and they will be posting more tributes over the next few days.

There's a very insightful post on that preview page linked above that says TNG is still too close in time to judge properly -- not "period" like the Original Series, but recent enough that the flaws are too apparent and it looked "dated". I'd have to agree, and further state that after the first two seasons the effects got much better and hold up to today's standards. The third season is probably the sweet spot, especially what is still the best TV cliffhanger to date, "The Best of Both Worlds, part I".

"Mr. Worf....fire!"

Trek Remastered -- "The Man Trap"

This weekend's episode is "The Man Trap", the one with the salt vampire. This has always been a favorite of mine. Little bit of trivia: although it was sixth episode filmed, it was the very first one aired. Take a look at the 30 second preview at trekmovie.com.

Another game blog

You may remember a great gaming blog I mentioned here before titled Deep in the Game. The author took down the site. Now he's back with Deeper in the Game.

Many of the posts on the new blog are about the design and playtest of a game he's working on, but there are also some posts with the same clever creativity as the old site.

3 new gaming blogs

Over the past few months three new gaming blogs popped up and became very popular. My own guess is that their respective authors were inspired by two other popular sites, Treasure Tables and Jeff's Gameblog. I haven't read a lot on any of these new blogs but what I've seen and read about elsewhere has been pretty good. They are generally about D&D but the ideas presented can be used in any RPG. Check them out:

• Stupid Ranger
• Dungeon Mastering
• Musings of the chatty DM

Latitude Zero on DVD in December!

In a previous DVD update, I mentioned that Media Blasters was working on this title for eventual release. Sci-fi Japan recently posted an update on MB's upcoming Japanese titles including LZ. They are going all out by releasing a two-disc set on December 11th.

The Japanese version is about 15 minutes shorter than the English international release, which seems unusual. It will be interesting to see what they cut. The English-speaking actors spoke their lines in English, of course, so I wonder if their voices were dubbed into Japanese or if subtitles were used.

A minor film in the Japanese monster/sci-fi genre, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds, is out from Media Blasters the following week. I'm curious about it since I've never seen it -- not even the MST3K version.

Trek Remastered -- I missed it

I tried to stay up and watch the 1am showing of "The Galileo Seven". I fell asleep. I woke up, saw about 40 seconds of it before a commercial break, then fell asleep again during the commercial. I guess I'll have to record it.

Click on that link above for video of the new FX shots.

Trek Remastered -- A new season starts

This weekend is the start of the new season for The Original Series Remastered, and the kick-off episode is a great one -- "The Galileo Seven". The shots of the new effects are just astounding and I can't wait to see it.

Now here's the problem. No, not really a problem but an annoyance. The local Fox station aired the first season and did a nice job with it. Lots of commercials (at the beginning) and two airtimes, once on Saturday evening and a rerun of last week's ep late Sunday night/Monday morning at 1am. The Saturday slot would move to 2pm during baseball season, but still they made an effort to run it in a decent time slot.

This season it appears that the local affiliate is now the CW station, and from what I can discover the only time Trek airs is the late Sunday/early Monday slot. Most of the weekend lineup consists of sci-fi and horror movies, which could be good. I admit I got spoiled with two chances to watch Trek each weekend, but come on... are three hours a day of court shows necessary?

Too many movies

It has been a long time since there were so many movies out in the theater that I wanted to see at one time: The Simpsons Movie, Stardust, 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot 'Em Up, Balls of Fury, War, and Superbad. I guess I'll be renting a bunch of DVDs in about 6 months or so when they are released...